Just finished uploading the pictures from the day to my computer, and you really get the sense of how long and stretched (in a good way) a day can be. From that first picture of the pre-dawn boarding of the Air Asia flight in Kuala Lumpur to the final one of night street scenes in Siem Reap, you can be in a lot of places in the span of fourteen hours.
What a lovely country, Cambodia– and I’m really excited to be here. There’s the sense that you’re in another place with the feel of the streets, the people and the landscape (and most impressively, the wats of this area)–it is very heavily filled with tourists (like me), but the city and the area is largely built around it. It’s all about the US dollar here, and it’s a bit strange to see prices mostly posted that way. (The Cambodian riel has an equivalency of about $4000 to $1 USD). So, from buying my tourist visa to getting a motorbike ride to town from the airport, to negotiating fares around temples to dinner, it’s been about pulling out the dollars.
And these wats (or temples) of Angkor– spectacular and hugely gratifying. I was amazed all day about being able to walk through, among, on and in between these often crumbling stones and statuary figures and carvings situated so carefully in the surrounding jungles. Built between the 9th and 13th centuries, according to my travel guide, “the Cambodian devaraja strove to better the temples of their ancestors in size, scale and symmetry, culminating in the world’s largest religious building, Angkor Wat. The hundreds of temples surviving today are by the sacred skeleton of the vast political, religious and social centre of an empire that stretched from Myanmar (Burma) to Vietnam, a city that boasted a population of one million at a time when London was a little town of 50,000 inhabitants.”
In any case, that’s a little bit of background, as I started my day with visiting Ta Prohm, Ta Som and Preah Khan, ending with a distant view of Angkor Wat (which I’m planning on seeing near dawn tomorrow) from Phnom Bakheng. Lots of stories through the day (riding on the back of the motorbike, sellers at the temples and unexpected guides), but enough description– here are some pictures from the day!
Flight to Cambodia
Ta Prohm
Ta Prohm- Coexistence
The cutest & most persistent seller you'll ever meet
Pre Rup
Full day in Siem Reap, Cambodia
Just finished uploading the pictures from the day to my computer, and you really get the sense of how long and stretched (in a good way) a day can be. From that first picture of the pre-dawn boarding of the Air Asia flight in Kuala Lumpur to the final one of night street scenes in Siem Reap, you can be in a lot of places in the span of fourteen hours.
What a lovely country, Cambodia– and I’m really excited to be here. There’s the sense that you’re in another place with the feel of the streets, the people and the landscape (and most impressively, the wats of this area)–it is very heavily filled with tourists (like me), but the city and the area is largely built around it. It’s all about the US dollar here, and it’s a bit strange to see prices mostly posted that way. (The Cambodian riel has an equivalency of about $4000 to $1 USD). So, from buying my tourist visa to getting a motorbike ride to town from the airport, to negotiating fares around temples to dinner, it’s been about pulling out the dollars.
And these wats (or temples) of Angkor– spectacular and hugely gratifying. I was amazed all day about being able to walk through, among, on and in between these often crumbling stones and statuary figures and carvings situated so carefully in the surrounding jungles. Built between the 9th and 13th centuries, according to my travel guide, “the Cambodian devaraja strove to better the temples of their ancestors in size, scale and symmetry, culminating in the world’s largest religious building, Angkor Wat. The hundreds of temples surviving today are by the sacred skeleton of the vast political, religious and social centre of an empire that stretched from Myanmar (Burma) to Vietnam, a city that boasted a population of one million at a time when London was a little town of 50,000 inhabitants.”
In any case, that’s a little bit of background, as I started my day with visiting Ta Prohm, Ta Som and Preah Khan, ending with a distant view of Angkor Wat (which I’m planning on seeing near dawn tomorrow) from Phnom Bakheng. Lots of stories through the day (riding on the back of the motorbike, sellers at the temples and unexpected guides), but enough description– here are some pictures from the day!
Flight to Cambodia
Ta Prohm
Ta Prohm- Coexistence
The cutest & most persistent seller you'll ever meet
Pre Rup