Blogs

Road journey from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap (transfer with driver only):

• Set off from your hotel this morning for the drive to Siem Reap, a journey of around 5.5 hours.
• Check-in to hotel for 3-night stay. Remainder of the days is free at own leisure.

Full day tour of Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom & Ta Prohm: Probably the best time to visit Angkor Wat, the largest and most famous of the Angkor temples, is early in the morning, when the light is good and it is relatively quiet. Angkor Wat is visually, architecturally and artistically breathtaking.

It is a massive three-tiered pyramid. crowned by five beehive-like towers rising 65 metres from ground level. At the apex of Khmer political and military dominance in the region, Suryavarman II constructed Angkor Wat in the form of a massive ‘temple- mountain’ dedicated to the Hindu god, Vishnu. Angkor Wat is surrounded by a moat and an exterior wall and the walls of the temple are covered inside and out with bas-reliefs and carvings.

Nearly 2000 distinctively rendered apsara carvings adorn the walls throughout the temple and represent some of the finest examples of apsara carvings in Angkorian era art. Angkor Thom (Big Angkor) is a walled and moated royal city and was the last capital of the Angkorian Empire. After Jayavarman VII recaptured the badly damaged Angkorian capital from the Cham invaders in 1181, he began a massive building campaign across the empire, constructing Angkor Thom as his new capital city. He began with existing structures such as Baphuon and Phimeanakas and built a grand enclosed city around them, adding the outer wall and some of Angkor’s greatest temples including his state-temple, Bayon, set at the centre of the city.

There are five entrances (gates) to the city, one for each cardinal point, and the victory gate leading to the Royal Palace area. Each gate, as well as much of Jayavarman VII’s architecture is crowned with four giant faces. The giant stone faces of Bayon have become one of the most recognizable images connected to classic Khmer art and architecture. There are 37 standing towers, most sporting four carved faces oriented toward the cardinal points. End the day at Ta Prohm, a hugely atmospheric due to the fact that has been left in the same state that many of the temples were first ‘discovered’ by French explorer Henri Mouhot in 1860. The tentacle-like tree roots here appear to be slowly strangling the surviving stones, a reminder that while empires rise and fall, the riotous power of nature marches on oblivious to the dramas of human history.

Morning tour of Kbal Spean & Banteay Srei: This morning journey north to the KbalSpean. The original ‘River of a Thousand Lingas’, Kbal Spean is an intricately carved riverbed deep in the foothills of the Cambodian jungle. The river flows down to the Tonlé Sap lake, and in ancient times its holy waters breathed life into the rice fields of the empire via the most complex irrigation system the world had ever seen. The Khmers venerated its limestone bed with a riot of carvings, including the delicate deities Vishnu and Shiva with their consorts. Lingams are phallic representations sacred to Hindus as fertility symbols and hundreds, perhaps thousands, are carved into the bedrock here. The carvings were only rediscovered in 1969 when French researcher Jean Boulbet was shown the river by a local hermit. A trip to Kbal Spean is one of the easiest ways to experience a short jungle trek in the Angkor area, as it is a steady but scenic climb to reach the river carvings. The path winds its way through knotted vines and big boulder formations and occasionally offers big views over the surrounding jungle. And there is a small waterfall below the carved riverbed, perfect for cooling off after the hot climb. Continue to Banteay Srei, Angkor’s ultimate art gallery. This petite pink temple is the jewel in the crown of Angkor-era sculpture. The elaborate carvings here are the finest found in Cambodia and the name translates as‘Fortress of the Women’, thanks to the intricate detail here, considered too fine for the hands of a man. Originally believed to date from the latter part of the Angkor period, inscriptions at the site suggest it was built by a Brahman in 967. However, some architectural historians have suggested that the inscriptions may date from an earlier structure on this site and the temple is in fact later, marking a high-water mark in Khmer sculpture.

Afternoon boat tour to Tonle Sap & Kompong Pluk (by private local boat): We travel to Kompong Pluk and board a small wooden boat for our visit. Cruising down a narrow waterway, we enter this medieval floating village, where the houses stand atop stilts as much as seven metres above the water. Everything lives on the water, pigs, dogs, crocodiles and people, all jockeying for space in this incredible floating town.

We explore the local wat here, as well as some of the traditional Khmer houses on stilts. There is also the opportunity to stop a local floating café or restaurant amid the flooded forest.

Road journey from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh (driver only): We leave Siem Reap and travel southeast on National Highway 6 in direction of Phnom Penh. After check-in, you spend afternoon free and easy at own leisure (no services provided)