Eastern Mebon Siem Reap

Thanks again to some good advice, (thanks again to Shannon and Andrew) we got a nice early start to our second day and were on our way to the temples by 8am.

We drove through Angor Thom and started our day on the "Grand Tour" up at Preah Khan. Hit many other temples too, but will fill in details as time permits.

Important lesson …

Awoke feeling somewhat more human - like I had woken up from a bad dream - had breakfast, took more decongestants and headed out on the so-called "Big Tour" temple circuit. It is called that because there is quite a bit more distance to cover than the "Small Tour" I did on the first day. Realistically this could be done by bicycle, but not when you …

We left Phnom Penh at 13.00 on a 'limousine bus', although there was nothing limousine about it, none of our chairs reclined (but everyone else's seemed to) and there wasn't much leg room. To top it off completely, there was some crazy Cambodian music videos being played through a tv, they looked more like karaoke videos! We arrived eventually at …

2nd day - Angkor Wat, Bayon, Baphuon Temple, Terrace of the Elephants, Ta Prohm
3rd day - Eastern Mebon, Banteay Srei, Neak Pean, Preah Khan
4th day - Bakong, Lolei, Preah Ko

**need to find others on day 3

Breakfast order came a bit slow this morning, so I had to rush it to get out the door by 8am.

The plan was to get out of town to visit the famous Banteay Srei (Citadel of Women), and Kbal Spean (River of a Thousand Lingas), then come back to the main Angkor Park area to check off some of the more out of the way eastern temples.

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Part 3 of 3

Due to the exhaustion from the previous day we decided that we will take a late start. The routine was simple pack up the bags for the day and head out with Mr Veriak. The usual happened in every temple. People come and try to sell you scarves, souvenirs, water and everything possible. By the afternoon after a few more hundred …

Today dawned bright and early and I was reinvigorated to start my last day of templing. Today was a circuitous day that went out to see Banteay Srei about 21 km northeast of the city and then looped back to tackle the norther arc of the Grand Circuit, heading back to Angkor Wat area and the main road back to town.

On the way out to Banteay …

We set out in a taxi to find the Hua Lumphang trains station to inquire about the train to the Cambodian border for tomorrow. We found out that the weekend trains were crazy as they are free for Thai people to go to the casinos and into Cambodia. We decided to change our plans and take the train that afternoon. We left on the 1:05 train for …

We thought we would use our last day at Angkor to see the finer parts of Angkor Wat and also to visit some of the smaller outlying temples. Apart from anything, when we visited Angkor Wat 2 days ago I didn't have anything to cover my shoulders with and we wanted to climb the highest part in the middle (for some reason in this part only you need to …

After a long hot boat ride lasting seven hours or so we arrived in Siem Reap. Well, 12km outside the town at the boat station at any rate. The last hour or two of the journey took us across the Tonle Sap lake which is the biggest inland lake in South-East Asia where we could barely make out any land in any direction. Ready to meet us was a tuk-tuk …

... actually quite small but is in great condition and worth the trip. Back to the main group of temples about 16km away we go to 'Eastern Mebon' (a temple in the middle of a completely dry lake) 'Preah Khan' which is similar to 'Ta Prom' with all the ...

... smaller temples, around one of the ancient, now dry reservoirs. My first stop was the small complex of Prasat Kravan, followed by Banteay Kdei, Eastern Mebon, and then Ta Som. By the time I got off the moto at Ta Som, at around 11:30am, I was beginning ...

... twenty-six kilometer Grand Circuit is an extension on the little circuit but taking in Preah Khan, Preah Neak Pean to the Eastern Mebon and the various monuments like Ta Som, Preah Rup, before returnin to Angkor Wat and is highly recommended for anyone ...

... itinerary included the following: Day 1: The large circuit of temples: Angkor Thom, Bayon, Preah Khan, Preah Neak Pean, Ta Som, Eastern Mebon, Pre Rup and finishing with Sunset at Angkor Wat. Day 2: Sunrise at Angkor Wat followed by the small circuit ...

... smuk solopgang ved Angkor Wat og derefter yderligere udforskning af det store tempel. Derefter Prah Khan, Prah Neak Neah og Eastern Mebon. Vi tog tilbage til vores guest house ved middagstid, fik os en lille morfar, gik derefter paa net café ...

... my desire to replicate a 1997 mid-day nap on a stone slab at Ta Prohm was unachievable there but at the temple of the Eastern Mebon, Dan and I each found an ancient slab to drift off on while a stone elephant watched over us and the jungle birds ...

... great temple complex was rediscovered in 1860 by French botanist Henri Mouhot. Today, we visit Prasat Kravan, Srah Srang, Banteay Kdei, Eastern Mebon, and Pre Rup temples. Later this afternoon, we explore Ta Prohm, Takeo and Preah Khan temples and we ...

... restored and complete with green grass. It was a lovely spot. Further temples were the elephant and dragon lion encrusted Eastern Mebon, Ta Som and the ancient swimming pools of Preah Neak Pean. Our temple viewing was almost at an end, but we ...

... of the temple). We completed the circle and returned to the taxi. Back down the same road, we drove until we got to East (or Eastern) Mebon. We went through a quite jungly area to this temple, but the roads were better. The temple was built in 952 by ...

... of Laos and departed the country on the last day of our visa and headed for the dry-seasonbheat and tourist town of Siem Reap, Cambodia. We had heard the horrors of what rapid tourist development had done to Siem Reap due to the +2 million tourists that ...