Siem Reap, Cambodia

It was spring break time and fortunately Aaron could take a couple days off of
his horrendous schedule so we could make Cambodia our next adventure.

There is no easy flight from Penang. We had to fly to KL on a Wednesday night and then spend the night in the transit hotel in order to catch the early Thursday flight to Siem Reap. The hotel was actually not that bad though and it was in the same terminal as our flight so it was pretty smooth.

We landed in the morning and had enough time to get our bags to the hotel and then meet our guide for a day of temple touring at 9:30am. He picked us up in his air conditioned van with a driver. I don't think I got any photos of either of them but they were very polite and professional.

 The picture above is one of the gate entrances to Angkor city. Anciently, there were 5 gates.
These statues line the entrance to the gate above. On the right side of the road are the gods and the left side of the road are demons representing balance.

The first temple we visited was built as a Buddhist temple. Over the centuries, sometimes it
was used as a Hindu temple depending on who was the king.

Optical illusion, my head is really not that close.

Jaxon and Aaron pretending to be Indiana Jones and climbing the ruins.

Next, we visited another temple where the carvings were well preserved. 

They call this the Lady temple.

The 3rd temple we visited is well known from the movie "Tomb Raider". What makes this temple unique is that during restoration they did not remove the trees. It was interesting to see how nature takes over if left alone long enough.

Our guide took us to a nice little restaurant within the old city. 

Krissy ordered the vegetarian spring rolls and the pineapple fried rice. Yum!

We tried Chicken Amok which is a very popular and traditional dish in Cambodia.

 Angkor Wat, the largest ancient ruin temple in the entire world.
The monks, hanging out at Angkor Wat.

Climbing the stairs to the sacred area of the temple.





Descending from the top

Some of the ancient carvings







Hand dug moat around Angkor Wat. It used to have crocodiles in it.

That night we rode a tuk tuk into Siem Reap.

Watching a local vendor make ice cream rolls

On Friday morning we rode ATV's through the Cambodian countryside 

and villages around Siem Reap.

We took a lunch break and swam after our ATV adventure.

In the afternoon, we went zip lining through the jungle.

The girls were able to go tandem on one of the lines.

If you look closely you can see two bats under the cables.

Jaxon and Aaron playing dead

That evening it was dinner time again in the city followed 

by some ice cream from Blue Pumpkin.

Some sights of the city

On Saturday the girls made plans to visit their friend, Sabrina, whose family lives in Siem Reap. Sabrina is also a Dalat student.

Jaxon loved riding the ATV's so much that they went again. This time, however, they 

visited ruins and were gone twice as long.

Taking some chill time at a lake

On our last evening in Cambodia we went to Mexican food and then got foot massages. 

Then of coarse we had to finish the night off with some ice cream!

As we packed up to leave the hotel, I took a few photos. 

We stayed at the Angkor Palace Resort. 

It proved to be a very nice hotel and I would recommend it to anyone visiting.