We flew from Shanghai to Hanoi (Vietnam) where we had a quick 24h stopover, before flying on to Siem Reap (Cambodia). I haven’t been back here since 2010.
We are staying a lovely little hotel – which is such good value for money – with a great pool, lovely big rooms and helpful service, called The Green Morodoc.
It’s slightly away from the main touristy area of “pub street” with more locally aimed restaurants and shops, rather than for tourists, which we prefer but the kids probably hate. Read: no tat shops. Absolute dream! Also, local prices = $2 for dinner on average.
Everywhere we’ve stayed we have 4 x twin bedrooms, so we can mix and match with ease.
For our first night in Cambodia, we went for a traditional Khmer bbq, where you order all the meat/ fish you like and cook it on a little bbq in your table. Plus a hot pot of broth, which you add whatever veg/ eggs/ noodles/ asian mushrooms (YUM) / herbs/ aromatics etc you want and create your own dinner.
Because we are staying in a more local area, it had only Khmer clientele and was only $8 per person for unlimited meat/ fish / shellfish etc. The tourist areas charge you per meat plate and you can rack up a huge bill.
There was also unlimited ice cream and a surprise play room for kids – so quids in! Crickett befriended one of the waitresses and we basically didn’t see her til we got the bill!
Today we went to visit Angkor Wat and some of the other temples in the complex.
I asked the hotel to arrange a couple of tuk tuk drivers and they took us around for the day.
They asked if we wanted a guide and I said no, because in reality, the kids won’t listen and just want to go at their own pace. And I’ll be left talking to the guide all day, because I’ll feel guilty and obligated, and I won’t actually spend any time with the family. So, learning from past experiences, no. No guide. We wiki some info and just explore the rest for what it is.
Up and out by 8am (do not fancy the sunrise visits. Ever). The circuit we were doing is usually about 6-7 temples. We managed 3. Child pace and full no pressure exploration. 8hours for 3 temples 😂 I made sure we did the best ones, from my own memory of being here a couple of times – in terms of child interest. So, Angkor Wat. Ta Keo and Ta Pbrom. The entire site covers approx 150 square mile area, so we only saw a fraction of it.
It was hot, but we had plenty of water and there’s quite a bit of shade in the temples themselves and the entire surrounding area is forest.
The main temple in the complex is Angkor wat itself, which is massive (over 400 acres) and we were there for nearly 3 hours. It literally translates to city temple in the Khmer language and it was the base for the current ruler.
Built between 1113-1150 by King Suryavarman II, the temple is perfectly symmetrical, and covers an area of 2km squared. It was built as a Hindu temple by 300,000 workers and thousands of elephants, lugging the stone from Kulen mountain some 60km away.
The temple was an effigy to Hindu cosmology, though it was later converted to a Buddhist temple, when King Jayavarman VII came to power in the late 12th century and introduced Buddhism to the Khmer people.
Then we went for some lunch… after I spent quite a lot on a souvenir of mounted dead bugs in a frame from a tat shop… Even has a scorpion to commemorate Rai’s eating of one.
I also bought some bbq frog and made everyone try it without telling them what it was (what an arsehole!). It was actually delicious, flavour wise, maybe because it was so heavily seasoned with lemongrass.
But it was like they’d pulverised them with a mallet, so it was just full of tiny bits of broken bones and gristle, which none of us could be arsed with. That’s Crickett trying it above.
Next we headed through the west gate (if I remember correctly) in to Bayon temple area. Even though it is a significant temple, I knew they only had a little bit of “Fs left to give”, so wanted to make sure we did ones I knew they’d find engaging, regardless of the actual history of them.
So, next stop was Ta Keo. It has always been my favourite, because it has really high, steep steps to climb, and they let you go all the way to the top.
I found the picture I took of it from when I was there in 2006.
I do this to him all the time.
was she happy 👎🏼
After Ta Keo we visited Ta Prohm; where they filmed Tomb Raider all those years ago with Angelia Jolie (and during, she adopted Maddox from a local Cambodian orphanage).
This temple is cool because it isn’t fully restored, there are fabulous trees – which are hundreds of years old – growing through the structure, which they have just left. It feels different from the others and the trees drown both people and the temple itself. The roots are humongous.
What I always find particularly fascinating is the stegosaurus carving on the wall. How? How is it there? How did they know?
Our driver kindly came in with us to locate it for me, as I’d never have found it on my own.
He also showed us the sound chambers, small rooms where if you beat your chest you can hear the full reverberation all around you. The kids thought that was pretty cool.
All in all, a great day was had. Longer than expected; especially considering we only managed 3 templates, but there’s just no point pushing them past their own pace of enjoyment or cramming more in than is necessary to get the overall experience.
We’ll give temples a miss tomorrow, and have another temple day with a few more highlights in 2 days time. I’d advise not doing temple days back to back, unless you really love them, because it’s easy to get templed out and they all start looking the same.
We went back to the hotel for a well deserved swim and dinner locally, at $2 a pop. I had a rather nice beef and noodle thing.
Crickett ate 2 plates of mango. I’m just not arguing with her on this holiday. I did manage to cram a little bit of rice in to her earlier though, so that was a small win.
We’ll have a lie in tomorrow and do something in the afternoon. Not decided what yet though.
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