The first thing that you need to do as soon as you arrive in Siem Reap is to get the Temple Pass. These passes are sold in one-day, three-day and seven-day blocks. We got the 3-day pass for US$40. Our driver/guide told us that the girl at the ticket counter thought I was Cambodian and said that I could have saved US$40 because locals get in for free. Only that I get to pay US$300 penalty when caught and that’s a risk that I didn’t want to take.
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You have to keep this pass with you at all times. Guards will always look for it and if you lose it, you have to go back to the Temple Pass center because they don’t sell tickets on site. |
I also suggest that you pre-book a guide and transportation because if you don’t you will certainly need an immense amount of reading to make sense of what you’re seeing.
The first thing that you have to understand about “Angkor Wat” is that it’s just one temple and that there are like 200 other temples around Siem Reap. These temples were built from different periods, built over a period of 500 years or so. And if I’m not mistaken, Siem Reap had been the capital during the time when the Khmers were on top of their cultural and empire-building sense and in the 15th century they transferred the capital from Angkor Thom to Phnom Penh because their agricultural system was inadequate for the population during that time when they were being constantly raided by the Siamese (or Thais!).
Anyways, on our first day in Siem Reap, we were able to see 3 temples. First of which is Banteay Srey, which easily became one of my favorites.
Banteay Srey or Citadel of the Women, the loose translation must probably refer to the beautiful and delicate carvings. The temple is relatively small and somewhat pinkish because of the its pink sandstone construction. Thank goodness for that French archaeologist who discovered this in 1914. The temple area closes at 5pm and it lies 38 kms from Siem Reap, so it requires extra travel time. Drivers usually charge a bit more to their normal daily charge for the trip.
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| Admiring the temples under the unforgiving Cambodian sun |
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| Said that only a woman's hand could carve something as beautiful as this |
Next, we did a short hike up to Kbal Spean. It’s an easy 45-minute uphill walk to a “river of 1,000 lingas”. Lingas or lingam represents the emblem of generative power in nature or the phallus. Yes, Kbal Spean, they say, is filled with a thousand d%cks. Hahaha! Try to go early because entrance to this area closes at 3pm…and you wouldn’t want to get stuck in the dark with a thousand you-know-whats lurking in the water. Hahahaha.
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| Good thing I wore my trail shoes...A had his chucks on, go figure. Hehe |
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| Carvings by the river...that's a bit dry when we were there |
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| See the ligas up close? Teehee! |
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| Our guide said that the water that flows over the "thousand ligas" aka "thousand d%cks" become purified... |
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| So A used that water to wash his face. Can I just say...Y-U-C-K? ahahahah! |
And even before it got dark, we got to cover Beng Melea. I think that this is probably the farthest temple that we saw. It lies 63 kms east of town, it’s an easy drive because of the good road condition but it’s pretty far. There’s a separate entrance fee of US$5 to see this temple which covers over one square kilometer. The jungle temple is overrun by vegetation and there are very few visitors, in fact, I think we were the only tourists there during the time. I love Beng Melea because of the “lost temple” feel. And I thank my ever dependable trail shoes for giving me enough grip to explore this huge, somewhat dark and slippery jungle temple.
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| The regular admission pass is not required because you pay this separately |
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| Walking towards the dark unknown |
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| Feeling brave...ignoring the thought of rats and snakes roaming the temple. Heheh |
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| One huge ruin! |
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| It's a quasi-door...used as a building design only...don't ask me why. |
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| A shot of the ruined temple from the inside |
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| Yes, it used to be littered with landmine. I C-R-I-N-G-E! |
