After my 1st trip to Cambodia in 2009, I knew I would return to the country someday for a 2nd trip. I named the trip "Conquest of the temples" as I aimed to visit the temples in grand circuit and those at outlaying areas outside Siem Reap.
Thought of staying in another guest house but I decided to return to Golden Mango. Their service was excellent and they are constantly improving. I am happy that I made the right choice.
Actually I thought this trip might be boring as there was no hiking or boat trips to Tonle Sap lake. Some more it's Tuan first visit to Cambodia. I did not include any museum for her as well. (Actually the temples are open-air museums ya! Haha!) Luckily I added the ATV ride on our last day and it was quite an adventure to drive through the Khmer villages and paddy fields. Even though I had to pay the price of suffering from sun burns on both arms and face, the ride was truly fun and memorable.
The temples in small ciricuit remained the same, and I managed to see "Sea of the churning milk" bas-relief in Angkor Wat. I also got to climb up to the upper tower in Angkor Wat as well. Nice view from the top!
The true surprise in this trip was the temples in grand circuit. They might not be as magnificant as those in small circuit, but they are unique in their own ways. These temples are ideal location for photography and I quite pleased with my pictures.
Koh Ker actually consisted of several temple groups, but most of them were in ruins. The pyramid temple was the highlight of the trip. The real gem got to be Beng Mealea, which is actually quite a big temple on its own. I would say it's more spectacular than Angkor Wat.
Siem Reap old town did not change much. The place was flooded with tourists, shops, restaurants, massage palours and night markets. I revisited several restaurants and tried a few new ones. My favourite "Angkor Wat" juice disappeared from the menu but I ordered something similar. Guess they changed the name only. Lolz!
Have to mention my flight to and fro Siem Reap. Silkair is not the cheapest option for the trip, but their plane schedule suited my plan best. Furthermore I am a supporter of the airline as well, so did not mind paying more. Everything was good except for our return leg, where they messed up with E.W's meals. Thanks to this incident, I wrote my 1st ever complaint email to Silkair and they compensated with a 40 bucks voucher. Haha! Well, this won't stop me from using them in future trips, but I would try to avoid any non-direct flights.
I guess I would not return to Cambodia anytime soon, though the places I visited only made up a small portion of the country. There are other places to explore but they are still under developed for tourists.
Due to the lack of spare time, I could only provide a link of my trip photos in Facebook. It was tedious to upload the pics again here, so I would only maintain the pics at one place.
Siem Reap 2012
