Angkor Wat inevitably comes up on many lists of must-sees in Southeast Asia, so I knew it was going to be one of the top destinations I prioritised from Singapore. Five months after moving to Singapore, I convinced a friend from Sydney to go with me.
Siem Reap itself is fairly contained, a busy stop on the backpackers circuit with lots of cafes and restaurants to explore. The ruins of the ancient temples are in an archaeological park right by the city, and is the main tourist draw, of course. You’ll need to get a multi-day pass to explore it. There are many ways to explore the park, with van / car tours being the most popular. We decided to do a biking tour which was more fun, rugged, and hot & sticky!
Here are some photos from the trip.
About to start our day inside the Angkor Wat archaeological park and I get a call from my boss…I recall it was related to the status of a contract, invoice, or revenue rec 🙂 Gotta get at least one jumping shot in.The classic Angkor Wat silhouette. I’m not one to miss a must-do in a destination, so even though A didn’t want to wake up in the middle of the night and go into the national park to wait for the sunrise over the temples, I was happy to go solo. Worth it. Same temples, in daylight.There are heaps of tours that take you temple hopping in Siem Reap, but we chose one that was a bike ride through the temples. Slightly off the van-beaten track, good fun, and guaranteed to make you sweat buckets in the tropical heat.
The temples are incredible, so many and so well preserved, but I must admit there is a degree of getting “templed-out” very quickly. Another temple, another photo.This steamed curry fish dish is a specialty and I really enjoyed it. I’d describe it as Thai green curry flavours but with fish, and steamed.Everyone’s waiting for the sunset. This is how it goes: pick a temple, climb as high as you can, join the hoards, wait for the sunset. Unfortunately the night we did this, it was a TERRIBLE sunset. So disappointing. On the positive side, as we were descending down the temple, this couple (girl with the green fisherman pants and her partner in the white beater) stopped me. She recognised me from our ultimate days in Sydney. What a crazy small world. Meeting on top of a temple in Angkor Wat! We made plans to do dinner together that night in town, how fun!Fierce.Where the Tomb Raider movies are shot.
