A lovely town in it’s own right, mainly visited as a gateway to the Angkor Wat temple complex. Excellent nightlife, lots of bars and restaurants to revive you after a long day climbing temples in the heat.

 

Angkor Temple Complex

We were expecting this to be one of the highlights of our time away, it’s fair to say that it lived up to all our expectations and more. It is hard to imagine what it would have been like all those years ago when it was a working city, thousands of inhabitants wandering around attending their daily business. Those inhabitants have since been replaced with orange clad monks, tour guides, tuk-tuks and thousands of tourists. Busty Apsaras and intricate carvings adorn every surface, statues, many defaced are at every turn.

 

Whereas the image of Angkor Wat is instantly recognisable it was Angkor Thom that left us most in awe – the giant carved faces look down upon you from all angles. The size and the detail and how they got them in place during the 12th Century is mind boggling!

 

Ta Prohm will be recognisable to film buffs as that is where Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was filmed – never seen it ourselves but the sight of the temple ruins supporting giant banyan trees is quite spectacular.

 

With a three day pass we explored the whole complex, but having started off with the ‘highlights’ it became a bit heavy going towards the end, the heat, dust and the hundreds of steps had ground us down! Next time we may just stick to the one-day pass.