On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Uncle Ebeneezer
When we won our trip to Saigon and Da Nang, my wife decided that there was no way we were going to miss the opportunity to also visit Angkor Wat, while we were in that part of the world. I knew very little about the temple complex, or Cambodia, but like a good husband I was happy to defer to my wife, who studied art history and had already made up our minds.
After looking into various tours, we found one through GrasshopperAdventures that lets you explore the large complex via bicycle. It included a tour guide, snack break and ends with an authentic Khmer lunch. The tour started at sunrise, lasted about 6 hours and only cost $150 for the two of us combined. Like everything in Cambodia, it was a very good deal.
We rolled out of bed around 4:30 am to catch our shuttle bus. It was about a 20 minute drive in pitch black from our hotel to Angkor Wat. Once we were there we all sat down on a grassy knoll facing the West gate of the temple grounds. Our tour guide started to tell us some of the basics of the history and then we all sat quietly and watched as the silhouette of the main temple slowly emerged from the pre-dawn sky. It was one of the most surreal things I have ever experienced. After the sun was fully up, we headed in to begin our tour. It was already quite warm.
Several of the buildings still have bullet holes from the wars with the US and Vietnam.
The morning light on this ancient architecture was particularly stunning.
Here is our tour guide looking at the grounds, pausing while we snap pictures. He was a great guide. Very knowledgable, nice and told us the kind of juicy details that only a local Khmer person would know. He also liked to make a screeching cat noise and then look around as if wondering where it came from. He would do this especially when we were around other tour groups. It was kinda funny at first. But he would do it like every couple minutes. FOR SIX HOURS…
Here is the library from Angkor Wat.
There are numerous monkeys that climb about the temple grounds. They are loud and can be a bit aggressive, so it’s best not to feed them.
The make-shift steps for some of the temples were rather steep.
When you get up to the top of some of these temples you get a real reminder of where you are. Jungle surrounds much of the grounds, and they are filled with unexploded ordinances.
Here is another view of the temple grounds from above.
Getting one last picture of the East Gate of Angkor Wat, as we are about to hop on our bikes and start pedaling towards Angkor Thom and several other temples (next post in series). It was probably in the mid 90’s by this point and very humid.
satby
Beautiful! Glad to see pictures from that high vantage point, because I took one look at those stairs and hoped right out. TBF, I probably would have collapsed if I had tried.
OzarkHillbilly
All these years, I thought my wife was an only child. Who knew she had a sister?
Yutsano
I could probably go to Southeast Asia if it wasn’t for the humidity. My body just cannot stand humid. I wonder if this has anything to do with growing up in the South until I was 4 years old when we moved to California. I will gladly live vicariously through your photos which are nothing short of stunning! Plus monkeys. Because ?.
MazeDancer
Your wife was right. Wonderful pictures!
lexilis
I went to Angkor Wat in 1999 when there were still very, very few Westerners in that part of Cambodia. Pol Pot had died only the year before (last interviewed by Nate Thayer, a incredible journalist I had met previously in Bangkok and who photographed Pol Pot’s funeral pyre) and there was still KR guerilla activity in the remote jungles. For that reason I basically had the entire temple complex to myself and maybe 10 other people (today – pre-covid – there would be thousands). At that time you could still climb and go anywhere you wanted. At the Bayon temple, a few kilometers away and of Apocalypse Now fame I had the place to myself (and the 10-year old Khmer boy I had hired to hired to guide me through the areas of possible land-mines). It was extraordinary and one of the peak experiences of my life. Thanks for reminding me of it.
Betty
It was a great idea to give you that vantage point at sunrise. Spectacular view. The place is a treasure.
sab
@Yutsano: Growing up in the South should have helped you with humidity. The problem is they moved you out too soon.
UncleEbeneezer
@lexilis: Wow! Very cool. Next post will feature Bayon and other temples from Angkor Thom.
Wag
Amazing photos, another place to add to my bucket list.
Mary G
Wow. Wonderful pictures including the monkey in silhouette.
Another Scott
Thanks very much. It has been on my bucket list for a long time, but we need to get to Alaska first. It’s not going to happen by diffusion…!
Cheers,
Scott.
YY_Sima Qian
Great photos! Angkor Wat (as well as the ruined royal city of Angkor Thom & other temple complexes around Siem Riap) is such an amazing place! I went there around Christmas time in 2012, so it was quite crowded. I made sure to get to the gates of Angkor Wat as soon as it opened, so I could rush to the reflection pools to set up my tripods & cameras, before all of the good places were taken. I did so for 3 consecutive days.
cope
Wonderful pictures of a spectacular place, thanks. Another part of the world I will never get to so it’s a treat to visit it vicariously through your images.
Thanks again.
Elma
I have been watching a podcast series on YouTube called The Fall of Civilizations. Very depressing on the whole, but he has one on the Khmer which is very informative about the rise and eventual fall.
eclare
As others have said, thank you for letting us live vicariously through your trip!
UncleEbeneezer
@Betty: That sunrise was one of the coolest experiences of my life. Of course we were also pretty loopy from getting up so damn early.
UncleEbeneezer
@Elma: Cool. I’d love a good documentary on the Khmer but so many of the ones we’ve found are the Discovery/History Channel types with way too much CGI or actors doing reenactments, which always turns us off.
UncleEbeneezer
@YY_Sima Qian: That sounds awesome. It was very crowded at Angkor Wat, Bayon and Ta Prohm . But the cycling nature of our tour also let us hit several smaller temples that were much less crowded. There will be pics of some of those in the next post :)
UncleEbeneezer
@eclare: Glad you’re enjoying. We do alot of vicarious travel through photos and videos ourselves. Places we HOPE to visit someday, but realistically, probably won’t. If we ever hit the mega lottery I think that would be most of what we’d do.
YY_Sima Qian
@UncleEbeneezer: Look forward to them!
JanieM
Thanks, Uncle Ebenezer, wanderlust-inducing as usual. The first picture is especially wonderful. Sunrise isn’t my cup of tea; it would be easier for me to just stay up to catch that bus than to sleep a bit, then try to get up. So I really appreciate it when people give me a notion of what dawn looks like.
Emma
@UncleEbeneezer: there’s a pretty good podcast called HERstory: Southeast Asia, and it’s got an episode called “Indradevi, the Poet Queen of Angkor” if you’re interested.
Otherwise, great photos! I went to Angkor Wat about a decade ago, and alongside the amazing history and architecture, I was struck by the busloads of tourists from the PRC rubbing their hands all over the thousand-year-old statuary… I figure if they have a rule about wearing “modest” clothes, they should definitely have one about keeping your filthy hands to yourself XD
UncleEbeneezer
@JanieM: I rarely watch sunrises either (though I’m often up early enough to do so).
UncleEbeneezer
@Emma: Thanks, I’ll check that out. There’s a great documentary called Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten about Cambodian rock bands from the 60’s-70’s. Has alot of great footage from that period. If you like the band Dengue Fever you’d probably enjoy it.
Ruckus
@Yutsano:
I was born and raised in CA. I have a similar issue with humidity. I have found though that too low a humidity isn’t all that good either, for sleep and general breathing. So I have a humidifier. Bought it 2 yrs ago and have used two days in the last year because the humidity in my apt stays above 45-50 all the time now, due to the weather having changed a bit. Currently the humidity outside is 68%. It’s like moving to a tropical island, with 11 million other people.
Ruckus
@UncleEbeneezer:
Very, very nice. I’ve thought about going, if my world works out the way I hope it does I will get to do a bit of travel and Vietnam and Cambodia are two places on my list. Down the list a bit, but on there. And at least if my plans don’t work out, I’ve got your great photos to study and great story to read.
It’s mostly a wonderful and beautiful world out there, it’s just that sometimes you have to search for it.
UncleEbeneezer
@Ruckus: The humidity would probably be a challenge for you, (because it’s almost always humid) but the upsides: both are beautiful, nice people, excellent food/culture and prices are very cheap, make both very worth trying to visit if you can.