Day 100 – Siem Reap
Today we started another tour for our final day at the Angkor Wat Complex. We decided to do a “Secret Tour” that was advertised at the Hotel. It was in fact so secret (despite a massive poster in the lobby) that even they didn’t know what was involved. We also had to have a special tuk tuk driver come in, as the hotel’s normal driver didn’t feel comfortable to take us.
Excited to be the pioneers of this tour, we left at 7am with our new driver. We drove through the city, and then into the country side. Throughout the trip, the driver stopped and asked the locals for directions. It was cool how everyone was more than happy to help out! Communism at work ;P
The first site we went to was Chau Srey Vibol. This temple is close to a primary school so we had kids running around outside. We were surprised that there was a guy checking tickets here, as we were the only people around. After walking along the ancient walls and tree line we climbed a small hill to get to the temple. There is also a new temple next to the ruins from the 11th century. It was impressive to see, and not a single other person was there.
Our next destination was the mountain top temple, Phnom Bok. To get to this one there is a steep climb up some stairs, which in the Cambodian heat just felt like they went on forever, but probably only took 10-15 minutes. Up here were some massive structures that looked cool. There were some smaller buildings with trees growing out of them. If you come up here, make sure you keep going and find the large linga.
The third destination was Banteay Samre, which is a cool temple. Unlike the last two, it was not up a hill and therefore there were other tourists here. One of the impressive things for me is how well connected all the stones were to make the walls. When walking in the shadow of the walls, you instantly felt cooler (temperature wise), which I like to think was a design feature.
After Banteay Samre, we were taken to a Khmer restaurant for lunch. We were the only tourists here, as we had asked the driver to take us somewhere cheap, but we noticed the English menu was super pricey. We think our driver had an argument to try reduce the price for us, but that’s purely based on us hearing him say “discount,” which was clearly shut down by the restaurant staff.
We then went to Prasat Tor. Our driver got lost a few times on the way here. Prasat Tor was the first place we had no one check our tickets. We saw three small structures with some carvings.
Our final temple was Ta Nei, which looked really cool. The inside looked like my Lego box when I was a kid with blocks just thrown everywhere.
We were then dropped off at the Victory Gate (East Gate) in Angkor Thom. From here we walked for around 1.5 hours (we were told this would take 3 hours) to the South Gate. The walk was nice, peaceful and covered by trees. It was a great way to end the tour, mainly because the gates all have the friendly faces of Bayon, that I love. Also the 2nd gate on the Eastern Wall (Gate of the Dead) was so quiet and the perfect opportunity to enjoy the gates without other tourists.
Victory Gate (East) Gate of the Dead Views from the South Gate
After the tour ended, we decided to go out for a Date Night, inspired by reading the Barefoot Investors latest book. We ended up going to a restaurant called Meric Khchei Khmer Cuisine, which had really amazing food, that was pricey but worth it for a date night.
