A guide to Angkor Cambodia – Fascinating ruins or hot and expensive?

Angkor Cambodia, a UNESCO heritage site, is considered to be a photo paradise. Unbelievable sun rises, ancient ruins and wild rainforest combine to make this place unbearably attractive for any photographer. Of course, we weren’t that lucky: while we enjoyed ancient ruins, it was raining, cloudy and gloomy. The temperature was either extremely high (in the middle of the day) or extremely low (early in the morning), so it was pretty hard to choose what to wear. Nevertheless, we managed to take a few of pictures and now want to share them with you.

Our guest writers, Illia and Nastia share their tips for visiting Anghor Cambodia – while it’s a one of those must-see sites with a huge amount to cover in a day or two, we find out whether the heat and high prices were worth it.

Morning in Siam Reap

When you depart early in the morning from Siam Reap, the nearest Cambodian town, it is 6 o’clock in the morning and the only thing you can think about is how much you want to sleep. The wind blows through an open tuk-tuk and it’s freezing cold.

The price of the entrance tickets quickly wakes you up and here you are, awaken and ready to explore ancient Hindu-Buddhist temple complex. Ancient? Hmm, not really. In fact the majority of temples were constructed in the 12th-15th centuries. However, if Lara Croft considered it to be old enough to die for its treasures, we can assume that it’s old enough to pay the entrance fee.

The Angkorian Period

The Angkorian period began in AD 802, when self-confident Khmer monarch Jayavarman II decided that he was a “god-king” and “universal monarch” and lasted until the late 14th century, when Ayutthaya conquered “god’s territories”. Khmers didn’t like it and organized a rebellion which resulted not in freedom, but in migration of population to Longvek.

The complex includes so many temples that it is physically impossible to visit all of them. Scientists believe that some of them are still hidden in jungles and are impossible to reach both for tourists and explorers. Many temples are built on moors, so it’s hard to understand how Khmers managed to access them at all. We took a traditional two-circle tour (small + big circles) and were completely satisfied with the amount of ruins we saw.

Interestingly enough, these ruins were never used for living or praying in them, but were rather considered to be home for gods, accessible only for priests. The great-grandchildren of the architects and constructors believed that the temples were erected by gods. In 1850 Angkor was found by a French priest, owing to whom it became a popular destination for European tourists and researchers.

The crowds of tourists in Angkor

Nowadays there are so many tourists in Angkor that sometimes it’s impossible to take a picture. The situation is worsened by numerous local sellers, trying to persuade you to buy totally unnecessary stuff. In addition to the crowds of tourists there are lots of orphans hanging around in Angkor. At first, it looks strange, but in fact there is nothing surprising about that: there are several orphanages in the temples’ neighborhood.

Orphans either beg for food and water, or collect plastic bottles, thrown away by tourists, to sell them to recycling companies. Even though the life style of these children is miserable, they don’t look unhappy: we saw lots of them playing in the jungles and riding the vines.

Experiencing Angkor Cambodia

To cut a long story short, the visit to Angkor can be described as follows:
Day 1 – Wow! Ancient ruins!!! I must see ALL of them!
Day 2 – Hm, that is interesting collection of stones, I think it differs a little bit from the previous temple.
Day 3 – I am fed up with heat and rocks! I want ice-cream and rest.
That’s why we conclude that two days are enough.

In general, visit to Angkor was unusual and quite inspiring experience we highly recommend to everyone visiting South East Asia.

Practical information for visiting Angkor

How to get there: from Cambodian town Siam Reap you can take a tuk-tuk per day or a bike. Take into consideration that Angkor is pretty big; walking might take too much time.
Where to stay: Only in Siam Reap – our budget (but totally fine) hotel per night for double room.
Where to eat: Only in Siam Reap. When going to Angkor, take food with you, since it is quite expensive to eat there.

Many thanks for this article to Illia and Nastia who are passionate about each other, traveling around the world and sharing their experiences at crazzzytravel.com, a blog where you can find plenty of budget travel tips as well as practical information about numerous destinations. They have already been to 33 countries on 4 continents and ain’t no stopping.

For more things to see in Southeast Asia:

The Best Places to Snorkel in Thailand

Photo Credit: All photos by crazzzytravel.com

This article is originally published at Heatheronhertravels.com

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