Visit to Siem Reap, City of Angkor Wat

I spent four days and three nights, from Dec 11, visiting Siem Reap, the city of Angkor Wat.

November to January is Cambodia's dry season, so it didn't rain during my stay.

(When I went to Phnom Penh in July, it was the rainy season. It rained, albeit briefly, every day.)

I didn’t sense the war despite the fact that there was a military conflict along the border with Thailand.

Of the two full days I had available, I spent the first day visiting Angkor Wat and the second day exploring the city.

The Angkor Wat World Heritage Site is quite large.

Angkor Wat alone is 1.5 kilometers by 1.3 kilometers.

There are two other large ruins nearby, but it's impossible to walk around them all. It's also too hot.

Around 8 a.m., I went to the Angkor Wat ticket office and bought a one-day pass ($37).

Without hesitation, I called a tuk-tuk on Grab and headed to Bayon Temple in Angkor Thom.

I walked around the temple, looking at numerous stone statues that resembled the faces of ancient kings.

This alone took nearly two hours, and I was a little exhausted.

I called a tuk-tuk and headed to the front of Angkor Wat.

As I was walking along the approach to the main entrance, planning to take my time looking around, a government-certified tour guide called out to me.

Though I hadn't originally planned to do so, I decided to hire a guide (it cost $14 for a full tour of Angkor Wat).

Mr. Sak, a Japanese-speaking guide who looked to be in his 40s, spoke Japanese.

(The reason I decided to hire a guide was because I thought he would have some important information for me:

Smoking is prohibited within the Angkor Wat ruins area, so where can I smoke nearby?)

Angkor Wat is a Buddhist facility (built around the Kamakura period in Japan) that replaced a Hindu temple, but the atmosphere I felt was neither Hindu nor Buddhist.

It would be more appropriate to say that it was a temple built by ancient kings to demonstrate their closeness to gods and Buddhas. There were passageways and staircases only accessible to the king, and it's easy to imagine his subjects and citizens on the ground looking up at him from the top of the central tower.

Today, you can walk along those passageways or even climb the central tower (there are wooden stairs for tourists).

The carvings lining the walls of the corridors are well preserved, and you can still make out what they say.

If you're someone who enjoys deciphering murals, you could probably spend hours looking at them.

(I'm not one of those people, so after the guide's explanation, I moved on immediately.)

After a leisurely tour around 1:00 PM, I was tired, so I bought my guide a can of juice and a Pocari Sweat for myself (the shop attendant said in Japanese, "Pocari Sweat Aruyo," meaning he has Pocari Sweat) and called it a day.

I went back to the hotel and took a nap (there was a supermarket nearby, where I was able to get some quick snacks).

As an aside, you can pay for tuk-tuks using the Grab app's automatic debit or by entering the Cambodian standard QR code (linked to DuitNow).

Even travel between ruins costs around $4 or $5, so it's best to plan your trips accordingly.

Me in front of Angkor Wat (taken by mu guide)

The City Center Is Far From Airport

Now, let's talk about the city of Siem Reap.

I made a mistake shortly after arriving at the airport.

As soon as I left the airport, I called a tuk-tuk on Grab and got in.

Checking the app, I saw that my estimated arrival time at the hotel was... two hours later!

(The flight from KL to Siem Reap takes just over two hours.

I had no idea the airport was so far away, so I ended up calling a slow tuk-tuk.

I spent the whole trip relaxing, enjoying the breeze, admiring the rice fields, farmland, and cows.

Of course, on the way back, I hailed a regular car without hesitation. It took about an hour.)

The hotel is located along National Route 6, the city's main road. It's a little far from the city center, but the location is great.

The breakfast buffet had a wide variety of dishes, and the fried rice and noodle dishes were delicious.

The nearby Angkor Market supermarket is very convenient.

(I've been there three or four times, and always heard Japanese being spoken. There were young couples, for example. Are there a lot of Japanese people traveling? Or working here?)

Prices were quoted in US dollars, but there were some things, not just alcohol but also juices, that I thought were sometimes cheaper than in KL.

I was surprised by cigarettes (Marlboro Reds were $1.80 (even though they were over $10 in the US over 10 years ago...). I ended up buying three extra ones.

The Old Market area in the city center is packed with shops, cafes, and bars.

It's too hot to walk around during the day, but I took a break in the shade of the trees or at a cafe along the riverside to browse.

At night, Pub Street, a corner of the Old Market, is bustling with activity.

I had dinner at a bar where Angelina Jolie apparently stopped by during the filming of the movie "Tomb Raider."

There were several older white men among the customers. (Perhaps it's life after retirement?)

Apart from the commercial district, the only places I visited in the city were:

Angkor National Museum (with statues of gods and Buddhas excavated from the ruins, etc. It opens around 8am, so it was a good way to kill time in the morning. $14)

A relatively new, small mall along National Highway 6 (with a Starbucks and Domino's Pizza)

A Buddhist temple with a long name near the Old Market (there was a reclining Buddha statue)

As an aside, my collection of reclining Buddha photos now includes three (the other two are from a Thai temple in Penang and a famous temple near the Grand Palace in Bangkok). The image of Buddha reclining with his elbows as a pillow is peaceful and beautiful.

Wat Preah Prom Rath

Border-conflict Reporters Also Stated There

Cambodia's second-largest city was so peaceful during my stay that I didn't even sense any fighting in the border area.

It was the dry season, so there were many tourists.

There was just one thing that made me wonder if it was related to the border conflict.

I was staying at an affordable hotel a little way from the city center, and

I saw a group of people wearing windbreakers with "PRESS" written on them.

I saw them every morning at breakfast, so I assumed they were staying long-term.

Two large vans parked outside had Phnom Penh license plates.

Siem Reap is the largest city in the western part of the country, and I imagined they were using it as a base for reporting to the western border area.

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