After a very enjoyable and eventful Vietnam trip (Read here) our next destination was Siem Reap. Siem Reap is a small city in North Cambodia, primarily a tourist destination known as the gateway to Angkor Wat, the 12th century Hindu Buddhist temple complex that is a world heritage site.
We reached Siem Reap airport late in the evening, and checked into Angkor Paradise Hotel. The hotel was in a busy area of the town with the main highway right in front. Many local restaurants were located around the hotel, but we preferred to eat at the hotel itself, that had lined up a special continental menu for us. The highlights of which were the Grilled Fish in Butter Sauce, and Caesar Salad with Prawn.
Next morning after breakfast, we started in our bus for Angkor Wat which was just about 6 km away. Angkor Wat complex is a huge 400 square km archeological site housing Hindu and Buddhist temples. Since we would be in in Siem Reap for two days as part of our itinerary, hence it was not possible to completely explore the complex. Our tour organizer and my friend Indranil of Travel with Neel told us that we would be covering most of the significant places in the complex, so we were looking forward a lot. Our first destination was the main Angkor Wat temple.
Angkor Wat that broadly translates as “Temple City” is the biggest temple in the complex. We entered through the back gate (East entrance), this led to long galleries with many sculptures on the walls. An ancient temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu, the temple had been converted into a Buddhist shrine by the next king. There is an eight armed statue of Vishnu in one part of the temple, whereas Lord Buddha was present in full glory in another part of the temple. We climbed one of the main towers of the temple and it was a tough climb. Many people congregate early morning to Angkor Wat to watch the sunrise and the shadow of the temple in the lake in front. We too made a visit the next morning, but unluckily due to clouds, the Sun God did not oblige us.
It was fascinating to learn about the spread of Hinduism is South-East Asia, and how alternate kings with different religions (Hindu and Buddhist) kept on changing the deities in the temples. It is heartening to see that Archaeological Survey of India is collaborating with the Cambodian government to restore some of the sites.
Our lunch was at a typical Cambodian restaurant Samroh Srahsrang Restaurant in Siem Reap. We enjoyed a set menu including Cambodia’s national dish Fish Amok, served inside a tender coconut shell, much the same way as we Bengali serve “Dab Chingri”. The coconut based gravy went well with the local rice. Cambodian cuisine has similarities with their neighbouring Thai cuisine, with Tom Yum Soup and Som Tai being popular dishes here. We tried a Fried Cashew Nut Chicken that tasted great too.
Talking about the beers of Cambodia, the most popular brand is “Angkor”. There is also a popular brand called “Hanuman”. God forbid if someone tried to launch a beer with the same name in India!
In the early evening we visited the South Gate of Angkor Thom, the capital of Khmer dynasty in the late 12th century. By the time reached Angkor Thom, it started raining and we had to cut short our trip for the day, and decided to come back there the next morning.
After the rain subsided, we visited a Riverside Night Market, where you get clothes at ridiculous price. The Cambodian currency is Riel, and one Indian Rupee equals to about 46 Riels. Cotton shirts were available in the market at as low as Rs 150.
Siem Reap itself is a cute town with its own nightlife. It has couple of huge restaurants that have really large buffet and cultural programs showcasing local dance forms are presented during the dinner. Our dinner was at one such place named Morakot Angkor Restaurant. The restaurant has long dinner tables packed to full, each table accommodating close to hundred people. The buffet spread was huge with a great number of Asian delicacies. One local dance represented the culture of the local peasants, while another depicted a form of local martial arts. It was an enjoyable evening.
The next day, as mentioned above, our attempt to see sunrise at Angkor Wat was not a success. Our next destination was Angkor Thom. The city of ruins has multiple temples. The main temple at Angkor Thom is Bayon, one of the first Buddhist temples at that site. There are huge smiling face sculptures on the temples, it is said it is the face of King Jayavarman (alternately some say it is Bodhisatwa), who built the temple. The temple also has a Shivling built in stone apart from statues of Lord Buddha.
The next place we visited was Bantey Srei, a Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. Ta Prohm was another temple we went to, where there was a plaque saying that the Archaeological Survey of India is helping in its restoration as part of “Indo-Cambodia Cooperation Project”. Ta Prohm means “Ancestor Brahma” , this was a temple dedicated to the King’s mother. Huge trees have taken roots in the ruins of the temple, making it an interesting location.
We visited another local restaurant Khmer Duerm Restaurant for food. The Stir Fried Sweet & Sour Fish and the Som Tam here were delicious.
We flew out of the Siem Reap Airport the next day. Given that we only had couple of days we could cover a few notable sites of Ankor. My feeling was that to cover Angkor in full you need at least five days. The airport at Siem Reap has a huge golden statue of four faced Brahma. Before our departure, we posed for a pic ibn front of the statue. Our next destination was Phuket. More on that later.