Travel, Wine & Shoes

Angkor Wat is an UNESCO World Heritage Site and was built in the early 12th century as a Hindu temple. It was changed to a Buddhist temple in the late 12th century. It faces West instead of East like other temples in this region.

The Angkor Archaeological Park is 402 acres with the temples sometimes a few kilometres away from each other. There are over 1000 temples!

Angkor Wat is a symbol of Cambodia and it is on the Cambodian 🇰🇭 flag. In 1992 it was placed on UNESCO’s World Heritage in Danger List and removed in 2004 due to ongoing conservation and restoration. In 1993 there were a little over 7000 foreign visitors to Angkor Wat and 2 million in 2013.

Angkor Wat has been on my bucket list for years and I was over the moon excited.

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I’m staying at Cozy Cloud Hostel and it’s awesome. I took the bus to Siem Reap. Thet is my tuk tuk driver 😊 ~ I met him at the bus station and he took me to buy my Angkor Wat ticket and to the post office. I was the only person at the ticket office and they put my picture on the ticket! Some people wait for the morning to buy it before going on to Angkor Wat, but the difference was a 4:30 am pickup instead of a 5:00 am pickup by Thet. Times are so early in order to see the sunrise!

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Angkor Wat

Angkor was the capital city of the Khmer Empire, which flourished from approximately the 9th to 15th centuries. Angkor was a mega city supporting at least 0.1% of the global population between 1010-1220.

I arrived in time for sunrise and it was gorgeous. The temple is magnificent.

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Prasat Bayon

The Bayon is a well known and richly decorated Khmer temple at Angkor. Built in the late 12th or early 13th century as the official state temple of the Mahayana Buddhist King Jayavarman VII.

Prasat Bayon was full of monkeys and “face towers”. Some were of smiling faces! It is at the centre of Angkor Thom.

The monkeys were having a lot of fun playing.

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Prasat Ta Prohm

Ta Prohm is the modern name of the temple at Angkor, built in the Bayon style largely in the late 12th and early 13th centuries and originally called Rajavihara.

There is a lot of restoration work ongoing at Ta Prohm. Trees are growing through the ruins.

Both Indiana Jones: Temple of Doom and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider filmed scenes in Ta Prohm.

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Angkor Wat was amazing! I ended my day by going to Starbucks ~ look at my name! I had Canadian Poutine for dinner and wrapped it up with a beer.

I had my laundry done ~ this is what I got for $2!

I was sitting by the pool at the hostel reading and the rain poured for a little while. I got wet a little bit, but my Kindle is waterproof!

Thet was my tuk tuk driver and took me everywhere I needed to go from when I arrived on the bus to when he dropped me off at the airport. Very nice man who’s expecting twin girls with his wife in a few weeks.

Off to Laos for a few days! I’ve had the best time in Cambodia and will come back. I keep thinking about Mr. Chum Mey. He will always be the first thing I think of when I think of Cambodia and I will never forget him.

Happy Travels

Cambodia