My Siem Reap destination begins from the road journey from Bangkok to Chanthaburi province in Thailand, crossing the overland immigration of Ban Pakard to Prum border checkpoint in Cambodia. The border of Ban Pakard/Prum was a lesser used border crossings between Thailand and Cambodia. The most busy overland crossing between the 2 countries was no other than the Aranyaprathet/Poipet border immigration, which was well known and famous for all the wrong reasons, including visa scams, all kinds of cheating and dishonest stories. But things seemed to have changed significantly over the past several years with all the horror stories now become highly isolated. Of course they will still be some of those bad people out there trying their luck with all sorts of tricks, but as in anywhere, there are bound to have such problems that occur when we were less alert or lost direction.While the Aranyaprathet/Poipet border crossings was the most popular overland crossings between Thailand and Cambodia in particular for those who travelled from Bangkok to Siem Reap or vice versa, Ban Pakard/Prum border immigration was another alternative which allows first to have a detour to Battambang, visiting some of the surrounding sights and get involve in some interesting activities before reaching other Cambodia destinations such as Siem Reap or Sihanoukville.
Ban Pakard Immigration
Prum Immigration
The Ban Pakard/Prum overland border crossing is not without its issues such as those that travellers experience over in Aranyaprathet/Poipet border. Though it was a rather quiet international checkpoint especially during weekdays, there appeared to be touts comprising of taxi drivers who wanted more from the usual asking fare. During weekends, this border immigration will be slightly busier than usual because of more people crossing over from Ban Pakard to Prum for its casino. The obstacles I encountered during the recent travel at this Thai & Cambodia border gate was not as distressing as I first thought. The bus journey from Bangkok's Ekamai Bus Terminal took 4 hours to reach Chanthaburi. From the Chanthaburi, there were tuk-tuk service available to the minivan station just slightly out of town to the border immigration at Ban Pakard,which also known as Pong Nam Ron. The problem started when exiting Ban Pakard border after stamped out from Thailand, where touts will begin their harassment with their bargaining skills offering services with a starting fare, which usually will be exceptionally higher than what average travellers paid. For people who were new to the border, like myself, you will also be subjected to being conned of getting a ride to the other side of the border at Prum, Cambodia when all you need to do was just walk not too far away to reach the Cambodian immigration. And even after getting cleared from the Cambodia immigration, touts, usually the same person or same group will come upon you, keeping up with the intensity of their trade bargaining offers. Surely, not all information about overland or remote border crossings were available from the internet, even if there were, some may not be accurate. But doing some research before you reach there will help to give you some idea on things like travel fares and nasty problems that should be expected. Even though there were certain level of cheating that was encountered during this Ban Pakard/Prum border crossings, I think overall, it was not that bad.
Battambang Old Town
In one day, there were quite a number of activities that could accommodate for some interesting excursions within Battambang and its greater sights. Battambang offers the one of its kind in the world in the Bamboo Train ride experience as well as some of the smaller version of its legendary Khmer ruins and stunning countryside view from the well known Phnom Sampeau mountain. Within the town itself, Battambang's old style colonial buildings within a cluster district of the old town section also worth some time to visit. From Battambang, it took less than 4 hours to reach Siem Reap and my Battambang-Siem Reap journey was with the Mekong Express bus.
Battambang Bamboo Train
Prasat Banan
The Killing Cave
Phnom Sampeau
Reaching Siem Reap, as I have not booked any accommodation in advance as in any of my backpacking trips, the challenge was upon me again to look for one. Since I do not have any Siem Reap map on hand and have no internet connections (I did not get myself a Cambodia telco sim for data usage), I hired a tuk-tuk to get around the town in search of some bargain place to stay. The very first place that the tuk-tuk driver, named Sambo (I remembered his name because when I was chatting with him, he said, you remember Rambo, you will remember Sambo) was Garden Villa Guesthouse. In all my travel, I love to stay in backpackers street which offers the usual guesthouse or hotels which are affordable in price, clean and comfortable with facilities such as convenience stores, restaurants, street foods and pubs. Garden Villa guesthouse actually fits into all the criteria I look for and finally, without much hesitation, I decided to stay there. Though there was only private room without air-condition & without attached shower room available, this was some of the setback encountered when go backpacking adventures. As the weather in Siem Reap was hot and sticky, it can be challenging sleeping in a room that only comes with a fan, not a ceiling fan but a circulator fan. Ceiling fan will able to generate enough wind effect to reach out to each corner of a room while circulator fan has limited effect. But anyhow, I survived the first night though it was a tough experience. Count myself lucky, for the second night stay, there was private room with air-condition available. The Garden Villa Guesthouse was one of the more popular accommodation facility in Siem Reap which attracted many young backpackers mainly for its swimming pool facility, pool bar as well as pool table. Those who enjoy parties and loud musics, this is the place to be when travelling Siem Reap. Location wise, it was conveniently located within the many Cambodian food restaurants, Siem Reap night market with convenience store as well as travel agents around the corners. It was also within walking distance to the Pub Street.
Mekong Express Bus from Battambang to Siem Reap
Siem Reap Town
Everyone comes to Siem Reap for one very obvious reason - to visit the Angkor Wat & its surrounding Khmer ruins, which is awarded the UNESCO World Heritage Site. For at least once in a lifetime, such wonders of the world should not be missed because it enrich our travel experience, provide some history knowledge about how such wonders came into existence and open up the opportunity to travel around the places of which such wonders were located. It also helps to develop the less developed country where we visited because tourism will able to boost income of the country and open up more business & job opportunities for native people.
The non-aircond & air-cond room at Garden Villa Guest House
Siem Reap Night Market
Most travellers who visit Angkor Wat will end up staying around Siem Reap town. Siem Reap town was full of activities due to the fact that many accommodation facilities were established here to meet the demands of Angkor Wat visitors. One of the most significant sights in Siem Reap town was the old colonial style architecture shop houses that filled up the Pub Street area. These old buildings had been preserved and most of them were well taken care of. Just like in Battambang, because Siem Reap is a tourist magnet, most of these structures were turned into trades accommodating the needs of travellers including restaurants, pubs, cafes, guesthouse, hotels, souvenir shops, convenience stores and other businesses that aim at tourists spending. Travellers can be seen converged into the Pub Street when the sun began setting down to chill out with fellow holidaymakers, travel buddies, friends, enjoying local food at the many choices of restaurants and have drinks and beers sold inexpensively among those beer joints in the vicinity. The night market was located not far away from Pub Street and within walking distance, just opposite the other street. Though it was not a big market, there were choices of souvenirs, decorative items, clothing and other accessories and items that can be selected and purchase from the night market. Here in Siem Reap, I have the opportunity to try out Khmer national dish kuy teav, a soup noodle dish and amok, a type of curry in fish or chicken presented in a banana leave shaped bowl. The soup of kuy teav was exceptionally inviting while its noodle texture was spongy and chewy making the whole experience highly addictive making you wanting more of kuy teav. Fish Amok was equally good with its rich curry that comes with its milky texture and strong coconut milk flavour. Pong Mouan Snol, a type of Cambodian minced pork omelet was also another tasty Khmer dish which has close association with that of ban xeo in Vietnam.
Fish Amok, Kuy Teav and Pong Mouan Snol
Siem Reap town is also the centre to get engaged to the tuk-tuk drivers to get the best bargain on transportation services to Angkor Wat and the surroundings Khmer ruins and ancient temples. Hotels & guesthouses as always, have their tour desk which offers variety of tours within Siem Reap, greater Siem Reap and of course Angkor Wat. Other than that, Siem Reap town has quite a number of tour agents within the backpackers area and other adjacent facility near hotels and guesthouses. It depends on what you would like to experience Siem Reap and Angkor Wat. So the choices are aplenty and up to your decision. Tuk-tuk transportation provides a more private way of dealing with your tour requirements because you have the tuk-tuk all by yourself and not sharing with others. Other than that, you also get to enjoy the outdoor environment travelling on the tuk-tuk open carriage. As for tours offered by tour agents, hotels and guesthouses, the transportation comes in the form of minivans and you would typically share the ride with few others who booked under the same tour company. But the advantage of this over the tuk-tuk is that you have a guide with you, explain to you about the history of the ruins and ensure you are not lost while visiting the ruins. As much as I wanted to travel with a tuk-tuk, I ended up booking a 1 day tour to the Angkor Wat and opted for the sunset option.
ANGKOR WAT TICKETING OFFICE
The tour will start by first going to the ticketing office for everyone visiting Angkor Wat & its greater ruins to purchase entrance ticket. Inside the ticketing office building,there were few counters available which comes with signboard indicating the number of days ticket sold in each of the counters. For 1 day pass, it cost USD 37, for 3 days its USD 62 and 7 days, its USD 72. Everyone will need to queue up and wait for their turn. Once the price paid, an instant facial photo will be taken which is to be featured on the ticket. I opted for the 1 day pass. When everyone was done, the journey will then continue to Angkor Wat.
ANGKOR WAT
Our first stop was no other than the wonders of the world, the Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat was the largest among all the Khmer style ruins within Siem Reap. This was also the most significant Khmer ruins structures with the size of the entire ruins & its boundary, its complex architectures comprising the steep staircases, the heights of the main ruins, the multiple towers with unique decorative design & distinctive drawings on parts of its wall structures, The tour started from the rear entrance of Angkor Wat. From here, there was a structures with multiple doors which also has 2 tiered roof and the entire structure which was in rectangular shape was built higher from the ground with staircase that was built to access to the building. From here, walking further inside, the structures of Angkor Wat is now visible. The most significant sights were the 3 unique towers on the roof of the main ruins visible from here. The structures comes in yet another rectangular share comprising multiple windows or doors with walls on the background. Moving further from here, we finally arrived at the main Angkor Wat ruins, of which the buildings have multiple steep and narrow staircases that were built to access the top of the structure. It was amazing on how these steps were built with grave difficulty to reach the peak and why they were built in such way. Today, only one of the staircase was accessible with a more safe structure built above the old one for visitors to access the peak of the main ruins. This peak of the Angkor Wat provides a strategic view of the surroundings of Angkor Wat. Over here,there were concourse areas surrounded by structures with 2 tiered roofs and has multiple windows openings. At each corners of these roofs comes the towers with distinctive decorative architectures,which were the most significant of all structures of Angkor Wat. The most iconic thing about Angkor Wat is where visitors will converged to the main entrance area of the ruins where a section of artificial lake was created to provide the double vision of the entire Angkor Wat ruins which makes photography effect beautiful and remarkable.
The rear entrance of Angkor Wat
The rear wall of Angkor Wat with the distinctive roof towers visible from here
The main Angkor Wat ruins
Some of the carvings on the wall of Angkor Wat
The full view of Angkor Wat from the artificial lake at the front entrance
Stepping up to the peak of the Angkor Wat main ruins
A view from the peak of Angkor Wat main ruins and the surroundings of the upper level of the main ruins
TA PHROM
Ta Prom is one of the significant ancient Khmer ruins most featured and highlighted almost by everyone visited it, by travel magazines, by travel videos & programmes & by photographers as the deep jungle ruins, due to the vast mammoth trees that grew above the ruins structures. Ta Phrom offers one of the most stunning experience where you feel like being inside a jungle and suddenly you stumbled upon ancient ruins among the massive gigantic centuries old trees. There was a section where rocks that formed part of the ruins within Ta Phrom could be seen scattered on the ground, possibly as a result of the ruins tumbled over due to over aging. While other structures of the ruins remained, without proper preservation and rehabilitation, it is feared that more ruins will soon collapsed. The gigantic trees covering top of the roofs and walls of the ruins were the most phenomenal view at Ta Phrom but again, due to the aging trees risk of broken down, these may also result in pulling down the entire ruins that the trees grew upon. But for now, Ta Phrom remained the incredible ruins so close to nature that it can be dubbed the jungle ruins.
THE BAYON
Bayon is known as the Smiling Face ruins because of the fact that, the ruins were built with towers that were embedded with smiling face on each of the tower. The entire structure of The Bayon ruins can be described as average in size. The very one thing that visitors who come over to Bayon is to get themselves photographed with those multiple towers that were carved with smiling face. These stone faces can be seen at each of the corners of the ruins, some above ground while some on the lower ground. Bayon is yet another distinctive ruins of its own with the unique carved face structures that it can be so well remembered and recognised with the iconic smiling face features. Even those fridge magnet souvenirs sold in Siem Reap now feature this unique faces. While Ta Phrom can be described as the jungle ruins, Bayon will be remembered and known as the Smiley ruins. Another nearby attraction near Bayon is Angkor Thom South Gate that has a bridge that was lined with multiple faces (mostly being reconstructed) leading to the Angkor Thom Gate which connects to Bayon & Angkor Wat.
ANGKOR THOM SOUTH GATE
Phnom Bakheng
Phnom Bakheng is the spot where visitors would converged to experience the sunset view. Having that said, this required some form of exercise where to reach Phnom Bakheng's peak, you need to hike up the hilly trails. The hiking experience reminds me of Kuang Si Falls in Luang Prabang when I trekked up the hills at the falls in search for the spring water cave. During the time of our visit to Phnom Bakheng, the sky was overcast and it was drizzling too. The sun was no where to be seen as the sky was shrouded with thick clouds. Nevertheless, the view was breathtaking.
This featured blog entry was written by kidd27 from the blog Chiang Mai.
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