My morning started with a nice 20 minute stretch/yoga flow hybrid I made to hit all my tough spots, then after grabbing the rented motorbike from my hostel (Funky Village), I made my way towards Angkor for the first day of temple exploration. I quickly realized both the fuel gauge and speedometer were not working, so fingers crossed I don’t run out of gas or get pulled over for speeding. Along the way, I stopped at a random local Cambodian restaurant (with a Khmer name) for noodle soup and fruit green tea for breakfast. Once finished, I got back on the questionable rental motorbike and made my way towards Angkor.
After driving 20 minutes from Siem Reap to Angkor, I was stopped by the “ticket police” who verified tourist’s Angkor Temple passes. Without doing any research, I wrongly assumed I could buy one there, and had to head back to Siem Reap to buy a pass from Angkor Park Pass Ticket Counters. I paid $62USD for 3 days of temple visits, then made my way back to the Angkor to proudly present my pass to the same “ticket police” guy who stopped me before.
From what I’ve heard, some people do tours and try to cram all the big temples in a single day. While it can be done, I have some time in Siem Reap, and would rather casually explore temples at a relaxed pace for a few hours over multiple days than have one super long day quickly going to many temples. There’s a pretty consistent route I’ve noticed between my SE Asia travel book and guided tours offered in Siem Reap that starts with the smaller temples and progressively gets to the bigger and more prestigious temples and ending with the two most renowned temples on day 3. I managed to create a route that made sense logistically, and would hit 12 temples across 3 days. Today, I would visit 5 of the smaller temples.
First, I took a trip to Preah Khan, a fair sized temple with many different chambers and routes to go. It took no time before I became fascinated with aimlessly exploring random rooms and chambers, creating my own route through the temple. I felt like Indiana Jones finding many small, dark caverns filled with bats. Luckily, I didn’t trigger any traps and have to escape massive rolling boulders or poison darts flying out of walls.
Next, I listed Preah Neak Poan, a small tower set in the middle of a lake, bordered by a smaller pond on each side. It took crossing a long bridge cutting through a large body of water to get to the temple entrance. Once arrived to the main area of the temple, I walked the open half perimeter around the bodies of water before leaving.
The third stop was to Ta Som, a temple similar to Preah Khan, but with a narrower and longer layout. At the far end, there is a large stone archway topped with a carved head. Once through, looking back through the same gate, there is a tree swallowing the the opening and branching to the sky.
Fourth, I visited East Mebon, a religious temple with a Buddha sanctuary sitting high and center within the walls. My temple exploration was disturbed by the annoying buzzing of a drone flying overhead. I looked around and saw a tourist wielding the remote controller and taking footage of the drone, which was forbidden. Seconds later, a guard asked me if it was my drone, and I shook my head and pointed to the direction of the drone pilot. I’m personally not a fan of drones, but fortunately for me it only momentarily disrupted my temple visit before the guard let him have it. If you like drones or videography, don’t feel bad for this guy. Drones were prohibited and the rule is stated clearly on the ticket.
Finally, I visited Pre Rup, which looked pretty similar to East Mebon in my opinion. At this point in the day I reached my capacity for temples and the heat of the day, so made my return towards Siem Reap and Funk Village Hostel. My motorbike ran out of gas as I was on Funky Ave and I coasted perfectly to the hostel. How fortunate my motorbike with a broken fuel gauge ran out of gas and stranded me exactly where I needed to be.
I showered, grabbed a bite at the hostel’s restaurant by the pool, and made some new friends. We played a few games poolside including beer pong and bingo before rallying a crew to go out to the town. We headed towards Pub Street, the main strip of Siem Reap with most of the busy bars and clubs. We posted up at Club Temple and danced here for a few hours. You could say Club Temple was the 6th and bonus Temple of the day. Eventually, I had my fill of temples for the day and my bed called me back to Funk Village Hostel.