If you are interested, you can read about my Cycleventure in Angkor to uncover my personal route on the Grand-Circuit. This post will focus on the remaining highlights of my experience in Angkor – the temples along the Small-Circuit and 2 other fascinating outliers.
After my Cycleventure (as I wasn’t a very fit young lady haha), I couldn’t walk properly the next day. I vaguely remember rejecting my hostel mates when they asked me if I’d like to cycle to Angkor again. My second full-day sunrise tour of Angkor comprises of me sitting on the plushy cushion of the Tuk Tuk with 2 other sleepy roommates, Micheal from Germany and Pip from the U.K. Paying USD$6/pax for this day-tour at 4.30am after 3 hours of sleep and a quick breakfast was totally worth it as my butt hurts so bad. Being on the Tuk Tuk covers more ground with a shorter time-span. I spent more time on each location in comfort this time round.
First stop, we headed for the famous Angkor Wat to catch the sunrise at 5.30am after my roommates purchased their tickets.
1. Angkor Wat
Angkor Wat, the 7th Wonder of the world, a symbol in the UNESCO world heritage, a miniature replica of the universe in stone and represents an earthly model of the cosmic world. This Wat is everybody’s favourite temple, featured in every travel book, website and magazine. Impressive grandeur, stunning symmetrical architecture, perfectly aligned for the OCD in me down to the intricate details within its walls, no-wander everyone loves it. (everyone who can appreciate ancient cultures and heritage)
2. Prasat Bayon
After some Wat shenanigans and stalking the breathtaking sunrise, we headed for the magnificent Bayon Temple; located within the last capital of the Khmer Empire, the city of Angkor Thom. An ancient city within a modern city, how cool is that?! Prasat Bayon’s most distinctive feature is the multitude of serene and smiling stone faces on the many towers which jut out from the upper terrace and cluster around its central peak. How can ancient stone-carved smiling Buddhas ever be boring for a person who love the details? (that’s me)
3. Ta Keo
Next, we proceeded to Ta Keo (Prasat Keo), a temple-mountain possibly one of the tallest monuments in Angkor, also the first massive unfinished temple to be built on entirely sandstone by Khmers. This is also the temple where I “kind of” conquered my fear of heights – by climbing up the boulders half my height on fours and scooting down on my butt later on.
4. Ta Prohm
You may recognise Prasat Ta Prohm as one of the temples in “Tomb Raiders” featuring Angelina Jolie. This sacred royal ancient temple (of nature) was only discovered 8 centuries later after construction and of course made famous to the world by the blockbuster movie. However, the serenity of nature and special formation of the trunks is what truly got me fascinated. I mean, I do hope that someday somebody hug me as tight as some of these tree trunk does. It’s like a love story between the temple and the tree!
5. Banteay Kdei
By this time of the day, we were all getting a little bit restless as we approached our last temple of the day at Prasat Banteay Kdei – a Citadel of Chambers. The name says it all. Unfortunately, most parts of the temple was undergoing restoration works that day.
6. Srah Srang
Right across Banteay Kdei lies The Royal Bath – Lake Srah Srang. This beautiful lake was the last stop of the day, and honestly it still took my breadth away. I just love the waters.
I ended that day having dinner at pub street with my hostel mates and drifted to deep slumber that I was dearly deprived of. After an eternity of beauty sleep and paying off a 13 hours sleep debt, I set off on another venture on a Tuk Tuk to the unconventional outliers in Angkor with my new roommate from Toronto, Peter. Itinerary for this day was sparse, so I spent some real quality time at these outliers.
7. Prasat Kravan
Uninspiring from the outside, the interior brick carvings concealed within its towers are the hidden treasure of Prasat Kravan. These unusual arrangement of five towers in a row on one terrace are built of brick; the lintels and columns are of sandstone. Dedicated to Laksmi, wife of Siva, this small 10th century temple symbolize her powers in her 4 “hands” and is “flanked” by kneeling admirers. The niche with multiple lobes is decorated with tassels and floral swags. So feminism has already started manifesting since ancient times. haha! What struck me most was that those floral swags seem to be producing floral scents to this date. Or maybe I was just happily basking myself in the garden glory for the whole afternoon that day.
8. Phnom Bakheng
A 30 minutes hike up, by passing the ancient Baksei Chamkrong and totally out of the way from the main Angkor attractions (400m further south of Angkor Thom to be exact) atop a hill lies Phnom Bakheng – my absolute favourite and unconventional venue for some sunset gawking. What better way to admire the sunset than along the slopes by the hill right? Yes, I introduced Peter this place and he was elated he hopped along with me that day.
Why is it my favourite?
- You get an unobstructed view of the sun as it goes down.
- You get to see the Angkor Wat complex from a distance at high elevation.
- You are able to see all 360 degrees of the landscape just by walking around from one corner to another.
- At any one point of time, only 300 humans (they do count literally) are allowed up the temple. No overcrowding.
Travel Tip: Reach the bottom of the hill by 4.30pm. Start queuing (yes, you still need to queue) by 5pm. The queue will take approximately 1 hour. Aim to reach the top by 6pm. Explore the temple and enjoy the marvelous view on the slopes. Sun sets around 6.30pm.
The entire experience of watching this glorious sunset was phenomenal.
I hope that you enjoy the light that comes with the sunset.
♥Happy Birthday E.– 29th May 2017
Hilary Travels 