Siem Reap, a return trip after 7 years

Return date: 27th December 2014

Carvings in Bayon

I was here in the city in May 2007 with hubby celebrating not only our second honeymoon but to celebrate my final resignation from MMC Engineering after the 2 resignation letters were retracted by my former bosses. After 17 years of marriage and 10 years of working in MMC, we both thought that it was a good time to celebrate the 2 most important event in 1 of the wonders of the world. 7 and a half years later, i.e. in December 2014, I revisit Siem Reap with Anne as part of our earth travel. Though I initially wanted to bypass Siem Reap, it would be inconsiderate for me to do so as Anne has not been there before. It was her first time which is very important for her to see at least the Angkor Watt.

Linga carvings on the Kulen riverbed

As earlier mentioned in the itinerary, we have rather a short time to spend in Siem Reap, i.e. a full day of touring. After an agreement with Anne a night before, we have booked the transportation from the hotel for our 1 day sightseeing. We have covered the following places in a short time:-

• Mount Kulen National Park where there’s 3 important sites that we have covered; i.e. Sleeping Budha, Lingas carving on the riverbed and the famous Mount Kulen waterfall;
• Ta Phrom;
• Bayon;
• Angkor Watt; and
• Cultural dance and dinner show in the city

Reclining Buddha in Phnom Kulen

We started off right after our breakfast. The driver made a quick stop at Angkor’s temple ticket counter so that we could buy 1 day ticket to enter all the 3 mandatory and/or a must visit temples; Bayon, Angkor Thom and Angko Watt. His plan was to drop us right after we have done our sightseeing at Mount Kulen National Park, to save travelling time. I realized that the ticket has increased so much in 7 years, maybe because it has been printed with our face on it as an evidence of visiting.

Yelloow hat spotted in Ta Phrom

Our first stop was at Mount Kulen, which is about 2 hours journey from the city. We passed by quite a lot of an interesting place along the way. There are 3 main area that we have to visit in Mount Kulen according to the driver, 1^st stop would be to see the reclining Buddha, followed by a stop at the river to see linga carvings on it’s riverbed and finally at Kulen Waterfall.

We took a journey back to city with a first stop at Ta Phrom. Bayon followed thereafter and the last stop was at Angkor Watt. By the time we reached Angkor Watt, we both were too exhausted from walking so much that day. It was recorded by Anne’s Iphone application “Ihealth” as 9km walks.

We asked the driver to send us back to hotel, made necessary booking for cultural dance dinner show, freshen-up, offered all prayers (2 in 1 as jama’ qasar) and off we go to enjoy our lovely dinner. Both dinner and foods are awesome. We had our fun time meeting a group of Malaysian. We went back to the hotel that night feeling accomplished. 

Last photo for the day, sun is about to set at the moat that surround the Angkor Watt