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The faces on the gate to Angkor Thom

Siem Reap has two wonderful faces. One face is a landscape of sprawling ancient temple ruins, dotted by orange-robed monks and steeped in the scent of burning incense sticks. The other face is lined by lamp-lit streets made colorful by throngs of walking locals and tourists, leading to quaint, French-windowed and vine-trellised cafes, very modern and hip shops selling everything from fish foot massages to vintage clocks. It’s this perfect blend of history and modernity that jars the senses and stimulates the mind of every keen traveler. It’s the reason why one can’t get enough of Siem Reap and why there is reason to expect more discoveries when the next trip back comes around.

ANCIENT FACE

Of course, the number one Siem Reap destination is Angkor Wat and the other temples (and there are a lot!) in the area. We spent three full days exploring the temple sites. Must-go-tos aside from Angkor Wat are Ta Prohm (where the movie Tomb Raider was shot), Angkor Thom, Banteay Srei, Bakheng, Baphuon and Bayon. You can get any tuk-tuk driver to bring you to the ticket station where you can buy all-day passes: 20 USD for one day (definitely not enough), 40 USD for three days and 60 USD for 7 days. The tuk-tuk driver will most likely offer to serve as your transportation the whole day (or you can ask him) but make sure he doesn’t charge you over 30 USD for it.

Exploring the temples would be leisurely if it were not for the heat. My boyfriend and I repeatedly got dehydrated and tired. Be sure to bring lots of water (or buy from the many, persistent vendors surrounding the temple sites), a wide-brimmed hat and a fan. Also be sure to wear pants and bring a shawl because some of the temples have a dresscode.

Monks in Angkor Wat which to this day is used as a Buddhist temple

Sharing a sentimental moment with a lion on the bridgeway leading to Angkor Wat

Appreciating the anatomical detail of ancient Angkorian sculpture

But on the whole, exploring the ruins is very pleasant. Angkor Wat is enormous and just as impressive as you’d expect it to be after looking at the pictures. It’s larger than life and you can easily imagine (or actually experience) getting lost in its labyrinthian passageways. But you can just as easily imagine monks in serene contemplation walking through the cool corridors looking out into the greenery beyond the windows.

Astounding detail in Banteay Srei

A post in Banteay Srei

The temples aren’t only impressive on the large-scale. They’re into the tiny details too. I marveled at how intricate and minute the carvings were on the walls, posts, floor and ceiling. They adorned everything with stories of Hindu gods and later on, Buddha. They carved the victory parades held after every successful war, with cone-hatted, armored soldiers trotting beside bedecked elephants. One particular set of panels caught my imagination. They depicted all the gods churning the Ocean of Milk in order to obtain Amrita, the elixir of eternal life. While they were churning the Milk, thousands of apsara, impossibly beautiful muses that were the Cambodian equivalent of the Greek muses, came into existence. The apsara is one of the most ubiquitous images in Siem Reap and the rest of Cambodia. They decorate public buildings and are used as names for a variety of businesses.

Apsaras in Angkor Wat

In front of Angkor Thom

Banteay Srei is the temple to go to for detail and intricacy. It boasts the most minute of carvings out of all the temples. It’s red stone walls also make it different. Angkor Thom is perhaps the most striking temple because of all the giant stone faces that look down at you from their lofty perches. The number of the giant faces supposedly correspond to the number of villages or principalities in Siem Reap at the time.

Looks familiar? Ta Prohm is where the movie Tomb Raider was shot

Interesting Transportation

Despite the convenience and luxury of a tuk-tuk, don’t hesitate to try out different modes of transportation. On the fourth day of our visit, we got so tired of being paraded around on the tuk-tuk that we decided to rent bikes for 2 USD each and just bike all over town, to Angkor Wat for one last look and to the Angkor National Museum (which we should’ve done on the first day, before visiting any temple). Siem Reap is a wonderfully bike-friendly place. In fact, there aren’t that many cars. The road is mostly dominated by tuk-tuks and motorcycles. Bikes are a great way to get around and see the city. It’s faster than walking and gives you a great breeze with which to fight off the stifling heat. Bring a hat though because no matter how fast you go, you’ll never escape the sun rays beating on your head and back.

Elephant ride up Bakheng Hill

Tourists waiting for the sunset in Bakheng Temple

The Bakheng Temple is a great place to watch the sunrise or sunset because it’s on a hill. To add a bit of a twist, the locals let tourists get to the top of the hill via elephant ride which is what we tried. Verdict: not exactly the most comfortable ride, but definitely interesting. It was extremely bumpy and my boyfriend got arm cramps afterwards from the effort of staying on. The dirt road up can get very narrow at certain points and you’d just wonder how on earth the elephant fit in there.

We waited a long time for the sunset and were in the company of perhaps a hundred other tourists all positioning their cameras to face one direction: west. In the end, we were able to get the photos we wanted. A tip: get to the bottom of Bakheng early, around 3:30 to 4 PM. The cut-off time for tourists to enter Bakheng is 4:30 PM. I guess this is to minimize the number of people up there.

Kbal Spean

Carvings in Kbal Spean lie on the streambed

Serenity in Kbal Spean

Discovering something new and unusual is one of the great pleasures of traveling with an open mind and an open itinerary. A few days before leaving for Cambodia, my older brother and his wife who were also going to be in Siem Reap at the time we would be there invited us to visit this not-so-known temple site called Kbal Spean. What’s so special about Kbal Spean, aside from it being older than all the other temples, is that it’s a stream. The carvings of Shiva (because it’s dedicated to this particular god), lingas (a sacred phallic symbol) and other divine images are carved right on the bedrock and surrounding rock formations. Stream water gushes over the carvings, strangely still visible despite the years of contact with swiftly moving water. It was a place I found so beautiful because of the perfect harmony of history, nature and the human belief in a greater being. It’s no wonder ancient Angkorians decided such a place was fit for divinity. Kbal Spean deserves a separate blog entry but for now, let me inform you that getting to Kbal Spean requires a 30 minute to 1-hour trek of 1.5 kilometers of forest. You won’t enjoy this if you hate physical exertion. But Kbal Spean is worth every drop of sweat so I say go for it nevertheless!

The Magical Powers of Coconut Juice

There’s only one thing that can completely quench your thirst and ease the heat in Siem Reap: a drink from a coconut. Vendors serve this drink everywhere. Just look out for baskets or piles of the green-shelled fruit. They’ll hack a hole for you, throw in a straw and offer you a little bit of heaven.

MODERN FACE

One thing people don’t realize about Siem Reap is that it’s in fact a very hip and modern place to be. The influx of tourists over time has transformed Siem Reap into a tourist town. You don’t even see where the locals live. You only see hotels, shops, parks and restaurants. And because there are so many culturally-diverse people coming together in Siem Reap, the establishments have evolved to cater to all kinds of tastes. Steadily, the stores have become more and more metropolitan and, no other word for it, chic.

An alley ful of personality in the Pub Street area, beside the Old Market

The best part about days in Siem Reap is that you get to spend the hot mornings and afternoons exploring the temples ala Lara Croft then in the evenings to late nights, get to relax in a very stylish restaurant and go shopping in tres chic stores ala Blair Waldorf.

Siem Reap city night life is teeming. Tons of tourists weave in and out of the streets, vendors are everywhere calling out bargains in accented English, streets are lined with quaint al fresco restaurants, tuk-tuks and bicycles are careening through the streets. My eyes wanted to take it all in but failed. It was a visual buffet of all things exotic and new. It was intoxicating to be amidst so much life.

This pretty place serves Indian cuisine. Siem Reap is full of charming restaurants like this all serving dishes from different cultures.

Bring on the charm! I wouldn’t just want to eat here, but live here as well!

The best place to go to for charming restaurants is Pub Street. Take the same exploring/tomb-raiding streak you displayed while in the temples and demonstrate it once again as you step off the beaten path to explore hidden alleys. You’re bound to discover something be it a hole-in-the-wall French-Cambodian restaurant or a small antiques shop.

One of the quirkier services offered by locals: fish massages. Don’t worry, no piranha!

Pub Street is also very near the Old Market which is where everyone goes for shopping. If you’re skillful, you can get those orange jhodpurs for less than 10 USD. We also found these quirky metal cigarette lighters that say things like, “I’m an alcoholic. In case of emergency, bring me a beer.” On the back, as if just to remind you this is a souvenir item, it says, “Siem Reap, Cambodia.”

My trip to Siem Reap captured my imagination. It’s a city so unlike any other city I’ve ever been to. How can it be that just a few kilometers from these quirky, cosmopolitan restaurants lies a sprawling temple that is centuries old? It’s a heady mix of old and new, modernity and tradition. It’s one thing, or two things, I’ll never forget about Siem Reap.