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Cambodia Part 2 - Angkor

Friday

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Angkor Wat, a sym­bol that is so iconic that rep­re­sents Cam­bo­dia is noth­ing short of amazing.

Being able to see, touch and stand inside Angkor Wat gave me a feel­ing that is hard to describe in one word.

Angkor Wat at sunrise.

It feels like his­tory being brought back to life in front of my eyes. Every piece of stone, every bas-relief, every wall and every statue seem to have their own untold sto­ries wait­ing for me to discover.

I can’t help but to be amazed by the scale of this tem­ple and the intri­cate art­works done by the ancient Khmer people.

How­ever, like many oth­ers, I didn’t know that Angkor Wat is not the only tem­ple in Siem Reap before this. In fact, there are over thou­sand of tem­ples, big and small all over Angkor.

Map of Angkor.

While Angkor Wat is the most famous tem­ple, Angkor Thom is the biggest tem­ple complex.

Angkor Wat

We arrived at Angkor Wat 5:30 in the morn­ing so that we could catch the view of sunrise.

Angkor Wat under the night sky.

Too bad the sun was hid­ing behind the clouds and the sun­light only pierce through the clouds when we were about to leave.

Angkor Wat over ris­ing sun.

All of us after sun­rise at Angkor Wat at 6:30 AM.

Path lead­ing to the entrance of Angkor Wat.

Impres­sive bas-reliefs on the exte­rior wall of Angkor Wat.

After vis­it­ing Angkor Wat, we went to sev­eral other tem­ples. I won’t go into details and I’ll let the pic­tures do the talking.

Preah Khan Temple

Path lead­ing to Preah Khan Tem­ple at Angkor.

Entrance gate of Preah Khan Tem­ple, Angkor.

Inside Preah Khan Temple.

Prasat Ban­teay Srei Temple

Prasat Ban­teay Srei Tem­ple, Angkor.

Detail stone carv­ings at Prasat Ban­teay Srei Tem­ple, Angkor.

Me and a carved door­way at Prasat Ban­teay Srei Tem­ple, Angkor.

Prasat Pre Roup Temple

Prasat Pre Roup Tem­ple, Angkor.

The tallest tower at Prasat Pre Roup Tem­ple, Angkor.

Gate of Angkor Thom and the peak tower at Prasat Pre Roup Temple.

Ta Prohm Temple

The famous Ta Prohm Tem­ple where trees grow on top of the temple.

Bayon Tem­ple

Bayon Tem­ple famous for its stone faces.

At the top of Bayon Tem­ple, Angkor.

Happy Spe­cial Pizza

After a long day hop­ping from tem­ple to tem­ple, we had this Happy Spe­cial Pizza for dinner.

It seems like hav­ing pizza becomes one of the tourist attrac­tions in Siem Reap.

Happy Piz­zas at Siem Reap town.

Why hav­ing pizza? Because peo­ple want to be happy. Why happy? Because it’s spe­cial. What so spe­cial? Well, because they put some spe­cial herbs *ahem* ganja *ahem* into the pizza.

Ha… now you know why. But the truth is, none of us were happy or high (not even close) although we asked them to put in more “herbs”.

The Myth

After a long day vis­it­ing tem­ples in Angkor, I must say that the archi­tec­ture was eye-opening, the carv­ings were noth­ing short of remark­able and the amount of efforts put into build­ing each of the tem­ples were just jaw-dropping.

That leaves only one ques­tion, how did they man­aged to build these impres­sive tem­ples thou­sand of years ago? And how did they even man­aged to bring those gigan­tic stones up to the hills?

Well, I think I have solved the myth. They did it with the help of an extrater­res­trial crea­ture came from the outer space.

The crea­ture pro­vided them with tech­nolo­gies so advanced even noth­ing in the 21st cen­tury can com­pare with.

So until today, they still wor­ship the statue of the creature.

They call it Stitch.

Cam­bo­dia Series

Friday

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Cambodia Part 1 - Siem Reap

Tuesday

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My 8-day Cam­bo­dia trip was both fun and inspiring.

When I decided to go to Cam­bo­dia with Sophea and gang, I totally do not know what to expect from that coun­try. The only thing I knew from Cam­bo­dia was Angkor Wat and Seng Sophea. I even thought that the cap­i­tal city Phnom Penh has only dirt roads full of motor­cy­cles and cows.

All 7 of us camwhore with my ultra wide angle lens.

I was proven so wrong when I finally saw the cities for myself.

Many things are very sim­i­lar to Malaysia. But there are also many things totally out of my expec­ta­tion. And those are the things that not only expanded my hori­zon, but also make me appre­ci­ate what I have even more.

We went to three places — Siem Reap, Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville.

Arriv­ing at Siem Reap from Malaysia.

We reached Siem Reap first, the land once stood the ancient Angko­rian Civilisation.

Landed at Siem Reap Inter­na­tional Airport.

Siem Reap Inter­na­tional Airport.

Happy peo­ple enjoy­ing cool breeze.

Siem Reap Town

We landed very early in the morn­ing, went to the town and checked-in our guest­house at Golden Mango Inn.

Siem Reap town and Golden Mango Inn.

“Cambodia’s hos­pi­tal­ity is way bet­ter than Malaysia’s hos­pi­tal­ity,” said Sophea.

I couldn’t agree with her more.

Take Golden Mango Inn for exam­ple, they wel­comed us with big smiles, cold towel and wel­come drinks. Rooms were big and clean with com­pre­hen­sive facil­i­ties. The peo­ple were so friendly they really made us feel at home. Another exam­ple, where can you find an express bus ser­vice in Malaysia that gives you cold towel, min­eral water, cakes and detail expla­na­tions of the scenes along the 6-hour jour­ney? None! All they know is how to speed, sleep and crash on the highway!

Ok enough rant­ing. Let’s move on.

We had our first taste of local food dur­ing lunch. It was gooooood! I mean really good. Cam­bo­dian food are mostly sweet, not much of spicy food.

Cam­bo­dian tra­di­tional food.

Look­ing at the pic­tures really make me crave for more Cam­bo­dian food.

Cam­bo­dian Cul­tural Village

After lunch, we vis­ited the Cam­bo­dian Cul­tural Vil­lage. A place con­sists of cul­tural exhi­bi­tions, themed gar­dens and cul­tural performances.

Entrance of Cam­bo­dian Cul­tural Village.

Exhi­bi­tion hall at Cam­bo­dian Cul­tural VIllage.

Camwhore with a per­former at the Cam­bo­dian Cul­tural Village.

Minia­ture model of the National Museum of Cambodia.

Phnom Bakheng

Around evening, we went to get our one-day pass to Angkor which cost us 20 USD per per­son. How­ever, they allow vis­i­tors to go into the Angkor area for free after 5 PM before they close the entire place at 6 PM.

Tak­ing advan­tage of this free hour, we went to Phnom Bakheng, a tem­ple sit­u­ated on a hill not far away from Angkor Wat.

Phnom Bakheng, Angkor Archae­o­log­i­cal Park.

Because Phnom Bakheng is on a higher ground, it’s a nice place to view the sun­set. Too bad it was too cloudy we couldn’t see anything.

Steep stairs going up to the temple.

Camwhore at the top of Phnom Bakheng.

Pub Street

Night falls, time for din­ner. We went to the famous Pub Street to look for food.

Search­ing for food at Pub Street, Siem Reap.

We decided to dine at the Tem­ple Club Restaurant.

Tem­ple Club Restau­rant and cheap beer.

The beer was really cheap. A glass of Anchor draft was only 50 cents USD and a glass of cock­tail was only 5 USD 2.5 USD!

The food was not bad at all, espe­cially the pork ribs!

Cam­bo­dian tra­dional food and pork ribs.

Angkor Night Market

After din­ner, we took a walk to the nearby Angkor Night Market.

Angkor Night Market.

It was a shop­ping heaven. Every­thing there was so cheap you could get a t-shirt for only 2 USD and a 60 min­utes foot mas­sage for only 4 USD 3 USD!

Shop­ping and foot massage.

What a fruit­ful, long and tir­ing day. Although it was only the first day but I started to like Cam­bo­dia already.

Com­ing up next, tem­ples vis­it­ing and Angkor Wat sunrise.

Cam­bo­dia Series

Tuesday

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I'm back from Cambodia

Friday

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I’m back from my 8-day trip to Cambodia!

How was the trip? Awe­some! I’ve taken 1,300 pic­tures and videos worth 20GB through­out the trip.

It will take me some time to process the pic­tures and edit the videos. So in the mean time, I’ll post 4 pic­tures taken with my iPhone 4 and edited with Insta­gram as the teaser.

Clock­wise from top left: LCCT, Angkor Wat, Lake Tonle Sap and Serendip­ity Beach in Sihanoukville.

You’ve prob­a­bly seen these pic­tures if you are fol­low­ing me on twit­ter or Insta­gram.

Expect more pic­tures next week and the video next next week.

That’s all for now and I’m off to edit the pictures!

Cam­bo­dia Series

Friday

This post is about Photography

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