Neak Pean Hotel Siem Reap

... or 11th century, discovered in 1969. We had a nice 1.5 km hike (uphill) to see the carvings, then let the kids play in the river for an hour to cool off, before heading back.

3) Banteay Samre – built around the same time as Angkor Wat. Central temple surrounded by 4 wings with an inner (dried up) moat. Kids liked climbing around the edges of the ...

... across the stones. At another, the roof caved in, and there was a broken Buddha at the top of the pile. We climbed around and found a pile of incense, and each of us grabbed a stick. One other temple had steep and worn steps that Elise climbed and couldn’t get down. In the end, Dad carried her down. As you can see, every temple had a new adventure in store, and there were some things all had ...

... and is adorned by many images of pugnacious pachyderms, hunting and fighting. Across an expanse of grass to the east, maybe a few hundred metres away, lie ten equally spaced towers; apparently the king used to sit on his throne atop the terrace, and watch acrobats swinging between these towers, as well as elephants fighting numerous animals. Good (ancient) times. A hundred metres behind the terrace to the west is Phimeanakas, a simple palace chapel, and all that remains of the former ...

... as their own! Several boats processed past the royal box close to the bank where we were perched, chanting, drumming and cheering in high spirits. From there we retired to a terrace bar, from where we had an excellent view of the last of the races on the river, and the festivities in the crowds filling the streets below. As it grew dark large illuminated barges drifted up and down, and later we ooohed and aaaahed at a fireworks ...

... quaint and on the river, closer to the shopping areas and restaurants. The one we stayed in was very nice with a kind staff, free wi-fi and beautifully decorated rooms. It is apparently the newer location and a little further from the noise and crowds. We spent the second day w/ Mr. Chok, after breakfast at the Butterfly sanctuary, visiting the temples of Angkor Wat. I ...

... in Bangkok. After getting settled at the hotel, we drove through down town Siem Reap (translation of the name: Siem = Siam or Thailand ; Reap = defeat of). I suspect that Thais are not too fond of this town! To me the downtown area reminded me a lot of India…organized chaos, streets lined with Tuk Tuks (Asia’s answer to India’s auto rickshaws) and motor scooters, lots of portable food stalls grilling meat, corn, etc, lots of dogs roaming ...

Had to get up at 04:00 to gamble on a good sunrise over Angkor Wat but the wholeday was well worth it, really hot day and really exhausting but impressive none the less. Once you 've seen one temple you've seen them all but you've still got to go to them all !

... you before you could get into town so you had to get a tuk tuk from their 'friend' the rest of the way. Anyway, we were suitably worried.

To avoid all this we decided to do it the same way the local Thai people do it, so rather than a 1000B taxi we took the 43B 3rd class train instead. Turned out it was clean cool and really quite comfortable with people walking up and down the carrages selling drinks and what ...

... Buddhist shrines.
The monuments that have survived to this day are almost exclusively religious ones: rows of prasats (towers), shrines shaped in pyramids imitating Mount Meru, the abode of gods. Palaces and other worldly buildings have disappeared as they were constructed in perishable materials, wood, for example.
Angkor, was inhabited from the 9th to the 14th century A.D. Unlike Mayan sites, they have neved been completely abandonned and thus have not ...