Cambodia - Whistle Stop Temple Tour

With only a day in Angor, Cambodia, emma and friends decided to take in three famous temples. However, would one day be enough time to appreciate all they would find there?

The bus journey to Angkor was five hours long, and for most of it my friends slept; while I, careful not to touch a pair of Cambodian female feet that were nestled at the back of my arm rest, listened to my ipod as the rain dripped down the bus window.

Wat Prohm

The next day we all woke up late. Midori told us that the best time to see Angkor was at sunrise, but considering I had only arrived the day before (from Japan) to join the others, no one really wanted to push me, plus I’m also pretty scary if I don’t get enough sleep. Around 1pm, after sufficient sleep, we hired a tuk-tuk driver for the day, and started our temple tour with a visit to Wat Prohm.

We were not disappointed. The trees looked magical on top the temple walls. I still don’t understand how the roots can grow on top of the temple walls, and how those ancient walls had not collapsed under the weight of these giant trees. I was amazed that we were allowed to wander as we pleased, over rocks and rubble and through doorways.

Bayon

Hundreds of faces, covering all the walls and towers, with expressions so serene and peaceful. It feels like they are watching us as we  passed by. The carvings on the walls are so well preserved, it is a true wonder today, just as it was in its heyday.

Angkor Wat

Luckily we arrived on a day and at a time when they were few visitors, so it was easy to find a quiet spot to sit and imagine what it must have been like when the temple was first built. on reflection, it would have been helpful to have had a guide, so we could have learned the temples history, but as we only had a few hours, we still enjoyed our whistle stop tour.

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Excited at what else lay in store for us, on our temple tour, we took another tuk-tuk to Bayon. Bayon, looks like it shouldn’t be there, it's a temple made from a higgledy piggledy mass of stone.

Normally I’m a very cheery person, but without a decent meal in my stomach I turn into a monster, and my friends now try to do everything in their power to prevent that from happening. So at the 15 minute rest stop, the boys went to go get food, afraid that I might be hungry.

Once we arrived at the bus station in Siem Reap, it seemed like all the towns tuk-tuk drivers had turned out trying to get customers - it was very intimidating. Thankfully one of my friends was un-phased so we trailed behind her. We arrived at our hotel, after a perilous 15 minute journey, which involved driving through and around some of the biggest pot holes I’ve ever seen.

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We spent most of the evening haggling over the room price (thankfully my friends were very good at that too), satisfied, we then searched for a restaurant. We found one, which had three floors. Here, we spent the time eating and watching a game of 'keepie uppies' (involves keeping a sprung shuttlecock off the ground) being played down on the street.  The number of players continuously changed, starting with two and ending with nearly 20, everyone from tourists, drivers and a local security guard. My male friends were keen to join in, so the rest of us (me and Midori) went to buy ice cream and beer, then took photos of the players.

Visiting these three temples in a day is a lot, and we know there is still so much more of them to see and savour. However, the little we did experience, made us appreciate these wonders of the world, and if you are ever in Cambodia, I recommend that you do the same.

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