Siem Reap

Just outside of the town of Siem Reap lies the great temples of Angkor. What's crazy is that there are hundreds of temples besides the well known Angkor Wat and many of them are just as impressive in their own right. We sadly only spent a day at the temples, but we saw all the highlights.

Angkor Wat is the largest religious structure in the world. It was created around 1100 AD as a funerary temple for Suryavarman II - honouring Vishnu. Due to its size and complexity there is a whole lot to see.

Fun Facts:
It is surrounded by 600 ft wide moat that stretches 1.5km by 1.3km. The outer wall measures 1025m by 800m. The blocks used to make the temple were floated down the Siem Reap River 50Km away.

Outside of the inner temple of Angkor Wat at sunrise





On top of one of Angkor Wats towers


Bayon - consists of 54 towers and 216 big faces resembling King Jayavarman VII.

Bas-relief depicting a Circus - part of the 1.2 km of bas-reliefs covering Bayon - containing over 11,000 figures.

Worker being attacked by hoards of bees outside of Ta Prohm

Part of Ta Prohm - a temple that has been swallowed by the jungle. Tomb Raider had a scene that was filmed here.

Part of Preah Khan - it bears a strange resemblance to ancient Greek architecture

The Blue Pumpkin Cocktail bar - has an extremely powerful air conditioning system and that coupled with the fact it serves up ice cream makes me give it an easy 5 stars.

Hanging out in a bar in Siem Reap - patrons can write and draw on the walls - the difficulty is finding an empty space to leave your mark.

Hopefully there are no sudden stops