The trip to Angkor Wat and Ha Long Bay - Part 1

Angkor Wat and Ha Long Bay, the two UNESCO heritage sites, have been on my list to visit for quite some time, for their historical/cultural significance and natural beauty respectively. But our 2024 year end trip to these two locations was literally a last minute decision. 

We started to book flights, make reservations to different tours about 10 days before the trip. Some preferred tours, such as 3 day 2 night cruise to Ha Long Bay, were sold out.  We added additional, cultural related activities to the itinerary. The waiting for the approval of visa applications to these two countries was suspenseful, which came the day before our departure. 

In the end everything worked out, and we had a good trip.

Day 1 - fly VietJet Air to Siem Reap, Cambodia - the gateway to Angkor Wat 

We arrived in the early afternoon, stayed at Mony Reach Angkor Hotel in city center, i.e. the old town of the city. The hotel provides good breakfasts - Asian food, western food, and plenty of fresh fruit.

royal garden court yard with sculptures of historical figures

Walked around city center after check in - narrow streets with few tourists, royal independence garden, Wat Bo - the oldest Temple at Siem Reap. 

Wat Bo

Day 2  - visited AngKor Wat and other temples with a guided tour

* need to be close to the guide to hear about history of each site visited, and to enjoy the visit. 

** A mixture of Buddhist and Hindu temples reflecting the alternating dominant religions in Cambodia history. When Buddhist was dominant, the Hindu features in the temples were kept, when Hindu was dominant, the main Buddhist features were demolished! to add Hindu features, according to the tour guide.

*** We also heard the horrible story of  Cambodian genocide, Khmer Rouge killing millions of intellectuals during 1975 -1979 period. 

Angkor Thom - last and most enduring capital city of the Khmer Empire ... we entered from south gate - which has happy face/angry face sculptures lined up along the bridge to the gate. When we exited from East gate, the sculptures along the bridge have no head. Almost all sculptures' heads in the wats were stollen by smugglers or invaders. The ones we saw were added back after renovation. 

South gate to Angkor Thom

There are many temples in Angkor Thom - most significantly Bayon Buddhist Temple. The Bayon's most distinctive feature is the multitude of serene and smiling stone faces of Brahma. There are carvings on the lower walls to tell stories.

happy faces on 4 sides of the tower

Baphuon - a Hindu Temple with steep stairs to a terrace at top. climbed to the terrace to have a panorama view of surroundings

a terrace on top of the temple

Terrace of Elephants...walking though

Phimeanakas - ancient pyramid Hindu temple ...walking by, closed to tourists

Preah Ponlea Sdach Komlong (Terrace Of The Leper King)... walking by

Ta Prohm Buddhist Temple ... a beautiful temple invaded by jungle trees. One portion of the temple was used for the movie Indiana Jones - Tomb Invader

Trees grow on the temple, their toots penetrate the foundations

Lunch at Srah Srang ...Fish Amok cooked in a coconut sheel is a authentic traditional Cambodia national dish which I liked.

Fish Amok - Cambodia National Dish - cooked in a coconut shell

Angkor Wat (Hindu-Buddhist Temple) ... the crown jewel of the wats at Cambodia ... huge, 5 towers, many carvings on the walls

Watching Sunset at Phnom Bakheng -- Hindu Temple on top of a hill

*There are two versions of guided tours to Angkor Wat - Sunrise version - need to get up really early (4am) to join the tour group in order to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat, and Sunset version, start late (9am) and ends at 9pm. Sunrise tour should be better if weather cooperates. We picked Sunset version because it was hard for us to get up that early. 

Day 3 Phnom Kulen National Park - guided tour

After one full day in the wats, looking at the ruins, listening to histories of the wats of bygone years, it was refreshing to see and interact with nature in its present form. On the way to the Park, we stopped to taste Cambodia delicacy - Palm cake, which is made from sugar palm tree fruit. Sugar palm tree is Cambodia's national tree. It is a specie of palm trees, and is different from coconut trees, which is another specie of palm trees.

Mountains - no real trail for hiking

Sleeping buddha on top of a big rock - which is under cover now. We climbed stairs to the Buddha, prayed and made small donations.

Thousand lingas river - stone carvings of Linga and Yoni* on river bed.

Beautiful water falls with a large pool where we had a picnic lunch - we waded in the water for a while after lunch.

* Linga and Yoni represent male and female reproductive organs. "The linga and yoni are sacred symbols in Hinduism that represent the divine union of masculine and feminine energies, creation, and the source of all life."

green mountain with haze

sleeping buddha 

Linga and Yoni - in the temple by the Buddha at Phnom Kulen 

stone carving

1000 Linga (small bump) and Yoni (square dimple)

picnic by the water falls - roasted chicken, bananas, logans

tasted the Cambodia's delicacy - Palm cake - made from sugar palm tree fruit 

water falls on thousand lingas river

... to be continued