We landed at the Siem Reap and was greeted by the pleasant and clean resort concept medium size airport. It was 9 am in the morning. We were picked our by our hotel driver and headed down to Somadevi Angkor Resort and Spa which is located 15mins away. It was a straight long road which i presumed was the main road of this city. Was extremely clean to our surprise. And all the cars and motorbikes were moving at around 50-60km/hr…amazing…no speeding at all!!
We checked into the hotel and headed out for a walk. Our hotel was located 10mins walking distance from the main entertainment areas. The old market and new market is also very close by. The markets sells all kind of souvenir items, silks, carvings, silverworks, jeweler, clothing, arts and handicraft. Old market is the most visited one. On the way to the old market, you will notice Fish spas all around, so we decided to give it try. It was my first time, and i must say it was amusing and ticklish indeed. I really could not stay still with the feeling of the little fishes biting of the skin on my legs and feet!! After getting our legs and feet baby smooth..we headed to buy some souvenir items.
Then about 3 hours later, we hired a tuk tuk and went to check out the Tonle Sap Lake. This took nearly 45 min on some bumpy roads. Tonle Sap lake is Cambodia’s Great Lake, a main feature on the map of Cambodia. We were told that during the wet season the lake really gets filled that it submerges some of the houses nearby the lake. Half of the fish consumed in Cambodia is from this lake too. Apparently the floating houses which you will see on this lake is occupied by the Vietnamese. We took the opportunity to visit a local Vietnamese floating school as well. After that made a short stop a the crocodile farm which was quite disappointing, the crocs didn't seem alive:-(.
On the second day, we met with our driver, for our Temple tours. Made sure to be in comfortable cotton attire and sneakers, not forgetting-HATS!! It can pretty hot during this long journey.
Our first stop, Angkor Thom. Impressive was the words. There is a huge tall trees which has its roots set on top of this temple.Angkor Thom is a 3km walled royal city and was the last capital of the Angkor empire.It was constructed by King Jayavarman VII in the late 12th century. This is also where the Tomb Raider was filmed. However you are not allowed to enter that particular temple.
Next we headed to Bayon. You will see 37 standing towers with four carved faces. There is a lot of climbing involved here and if you make it up, you will see amazing view of the stone faces. This is certainly the best of Bayon. Interesting extensive carvings on the walls of this temple.
Final stop, Angkor Wat..visually, architecturally simple breathtaking. Really a massive temple build on 3 levels. Suryavarman II constructed Angkor Wat dedicated to Hindu God, Vishnu. It remained his state temple. The interior walls of this temple has lots of Apsara carvings on it. And almost all of them different versions of Apsara. You can find here carvings on Hindu Mythology, Ramayana. If you keep climbing to the top most levels, gives you an aerial view of the Angkor Wat’s ruins. You can then imagine how majestic it would like been, during that era. truly mesmerising.
After an exhausting but amazing day, we headed back to our hotel with sore and tired feets….what else….head to the Spa of course. Before that we stopped at a Kerala indian restaurant at the Pubstreet for dinner. The back to the hotel for some foot reflexology.
Day 3 was spent in the spa again for a much needed body massage….heavenly. Then more shopping.
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