Next up after Phnom Penh was a city called Siem Reap. We took a bus about 7 hours up north. This city would not have a whole lot to offer if it weren’t for the tourists coming to see the many many old stone temples and the lake with the floating villages. These are the reasons we came.
So the story is that a French guy “rediscovered” all these piles of old stones in the jungle about 150 years ago. They have been overgrown by the trees and shrubs and jungle for about a thousand years and are now being renovated bit by bit for the visitors to walk around and enjoy. They were built by the very mighty Khmer people of that time. What an impressive sight! I keep saying this, but I have actually never seen anything quite this cool! So much history and thought and planning and detail and organization and time! We bought a 3-day ticket because we had 4 days in Siem Reap and weren’t sure how many we would need. The other option was only a 1-day ticket and that is silly because there are sooo many temples to see. So we rented a scooter so we had freedom to venture through the jungle as we pleased. We ended up only using two days because it was exhausting walking around in the Cambodian heat all day long.
On the first day, we went first to Angkor Wat. This is definitely the most famous and well-visited of them all. Most of the tour groups coming over from Thailand for a day go only to this one. It has received the most attention and the most renovations. It is also on the Cambodian flag and on their money. And rightfully so! It is unlike anything else in the world! Between the two of us, we took too many pictures to post on here, so there are some below, as well of a video (swipe through) of the general buzz of this place on a very early morning. There were so many people there trying to get this perfect sunrise shot of Angkor Wat reflecting on this pond in the front. We also were one of those people. We woke up at like 4 to be out there by 5 and with canned coffee and some cookies, we sat on a rock and waited for the sun to come up.
The next one we went to was also quite busy. It is called Ta Prohm. This one was super weird because here, the trees really overtook the stones and became almost more impressive than the structure itself. They can’t even try to remove the trees, because now they are just as important to the buildings remaining as they do to the deterioration.
And yet another temple we went to that was very cool was called Pre Rup. We made it to this one in the very early morning so we still had a nice orange red glow to our pictures.
We saw so many of these super old stone temples but it would be ridiculous to share that all here and show pictures, because at some point, they are just more pictures of old stones. So, that is ALL for the temples we spent two days visiting!
Floating Villages of Kampong Phlouk
Another day in Siem Reap, we took the scooter to the lake nearby called Tonle Sep. There are a few villages here on the lake’s edge where the houses are built way up high on stilts. And everything is made of wood! We took a boat down a narrow river leading to the lake.
After about 45 minutes, we reached the end of the waterway and beginning of the Tonle Sap lake. The lake is vast and rather empty, except for a small cluster of floating buildings. One ended up being a restaurant, crocodile farm & souvenir shop where we had a drink and I found a dog!
After our boat tour, we were brought back to where we boarded our boat and parked our scooter, but instead of heading for home, we took the street next to the waterway to see the village from the other side. Check out the video below (you can also click through to see some of our favorite pictures of this experience!) We were covered in red dust after this. But it was totally worth it! What a day!
This brings me to the end of our adventures in Siem Reap! Hope you enjoyed!
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