Cambodia: Angkor temples

Preparing for the trip I read many glowing stories about the majestic temples of Angkor. Nevertheless, they exceeded all my expectations.

For the integrity of the pictures let me repeat some organizational issues concerning the Cambodian part of the trip. I was in Cambodia from 25 to 28 February. Flyways: Moscow – Hanoi – Siem Rep (Cambodia) – Saigon – Moscow.

Visa is issuing in the Cambodian Embassy in Moscow. It requires only a passport, photos, and 600 rubles. Processing time is one day.

The room in Prum Bayon hotel is booking through asiahotels.com. The hotel is clean and relatively new. There is a swimming pool. But because of deficiencies should be noted very noisy central air conditioning. The hotel is located near the highway linking the airport to the city at some distance from the center. For after 8 pm (when you close the restaurant) for dinner or drink a glass of cocktail, you need to catch Motobike.

Before the trip I send e-mail to Russian guide Virakom. It will cost you very cheap ($ 40 per day for their services plus $20 driver of the vehicle), but it’s worth it. He spike excellent in Russian, for a long time he lived in Russia. “So he knows the drama”. And also he is a good, yea, a fine man. Many thanks to him for the excellent guided tour.

City does not make much of impression. The streets and the river flowing through the city are dirty. However, hotels and restaurants are clean. There is no attractions except small butterfly garden, covered with fine mesh on top. There are several modern Buddhist temples (for a small town it is quite impressive) and two markets. The last one is interesting  only by cheap crafts made of silver. Everything else is far behind Vietnam by the quality, assortment and price.

Eating in restaurants and supermarkets are much more expensive than in Vietnam. Dense, but without the frills lunch in a restaurant will costs you around $ 6-10. Besides, most of the storefronts are closed after sunset. In the evening you will have to go to the city centre to eat something.

With friendliness and hospitality of the Khmer, despite the unpresentable architectural appearance, the city does look like depressing. In addition, he is thriving along with the revival of the country.

National currency is Cambodian Riel. But it is more convenient to pay in dollars, they are acceptable everywhere.

To visit all the temples (except the remote, located at 30-50 km from the Siem Turnip) there is a single ticket. $ 20 for one day and $ 40 for three.

The temples of Angkor are not currently operating, so to comply with the usual Buddhist temples requirements (take off your shoes at the entrance, a ban on visits in shorts) is not necessary.

We went on Mitsubishi Pajero. Virak drove me to the temples of his sly route. The fact that the majority of groups and individual tourists visiting the temples in the so-called “big” and “small” circle.

Overall impression of the temples can be expressed in three words: surprise, admiration, delight. It is magnified by the fact that churches are among the jungle. 60-70 meter trees surrounded by the giant ancient buildings, and sometimes grow out of them. I have been to Thailand, Cuba and Vietnam. But this riot of nature in the jungle I saw for the first time.

Sadly, that even these ancient and sacred to the Khmer buildings damaged during the civil war and subsequent collapse.

Send an impression of the temples words – the idea obviously hopeless. But still try, in case you will have even less time and have to choose.