marmot: A few days in Angkor
Jan 25th, 2010, 04:23 PM
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marmot: A few days in Angkor
Thanks to everyone who gave us recommendations and advice. We had a wonderful trip. I only wonder why we waited so long to get there. We’re temple/art/architecture fanatics and we were absolutely overwhelmed by the scale and grandeur. With four days we stayed pretty much in the central Angkor area. Visited the main temples, some more than once. We could have easily filled up another 2-3 days, but would have needed a midway break to counter temple-fatigue. We made to everything on our list except Tonle Sap and Beng Mealea. Next time.
Tourism in Angkor is rapidly expanding. Although I certainly don’t begrudge Cambodia the opportunity to pull in foreign exchange and employ its young population, and I certainly want the world to experience Angkor, the development of multiple huge hotels is worrisome. No matter how many resorts are added, the number of temples remains constant and eventually the visitors' experience will be diminished. This issue is not special to Angkor; it is equally problematic at other deservedly popular sites, the Vatican Museum for example. I would have hoped that the Cambodians would take action now to limit buses and group sizeand especially to control pollution in the Angkor area, but by the looks of the new roads and massive construction this doesn’t seem likely.
We (my husband, 25 year old son and I) flew SQ and Silk Air from Jakarta to Singapore and on to Siem Reap. Non-eventful flight, smooth visa on arrival process, pick up by the car from La Residence d’Angkor hotel. Perhaps it was a function of the dry season but I was surprised that the country side was arid and scrubby. I was expecting it to be more jungle-like. The air was sweet and balmy. After the humidity of Indonesia it seemed less tropical and delightfully temperate. The drive took us past the moat and entrance to Angkor Wat. Enticing like seeing the Coliseum when entering Rome for the first time .
La Residence has a welcoming teak entry way and lobby. As was to be the case throughout the trip we were treated with quiet deference and kind hospitality. We had booked a river view room and were told that we had been upgraded to a pool view. We all tromped off to the room followed by our considerable luggage (our son was on his way back to the snowy North). The room was quite nice – a double with an extra bed, though somewhat dark due to the extensive foliage surrounding the pool.
The bathroom arrangement gave us pause. A huge stone bathtub with shower was fully visible from the main room. The connecting window did have a rattan shade of sorts but offered no privacy. We decided to have a look at a river view room, which caused no end of concern that we would be bothered by the noise. The noise from the river and bordering road and walkway were fairly non-objectionable; however the same bath/shower configuration prevailed. This was going to be a challenge. We asked to see a suite.
The suite turned out to be the ideal solution, even though we had to pay an additional charge. The room was spacious and had a large and lovely balcony with bougainvillea and candle niches. The bathroom dressing area was one of the best that I’ve ever encountered – anywhere – and I pay a lot of attention to those kinds of facilities. We were happy.
Overall I give La Residence high marks as a well designed and well run establishment. Excellent breakfast buffet, good service, a beautiful pool, gardens and restaurant/bar areas. We toured the spa but weren’t tempted to give it a try. It seemed a little overwrought.
That night we chose a nearby restaurant from Offwego’s handy list – Selantra. We had our first encounter with the tuktuk – although we discovered shortly that the restaurant was just a short walk from the hotel. A pleasant garden, eager service, a potpourri of Asian and Western food all well prepared. Some wine. We continued to be happy. Lighted the candles on our terrace and enjoyed being in Cambodia at last.
The next morning some of us rose early, some later – we decided to move at our own pace. After breakfast we arranged for a tuktuk to take us to Angkor Thom. Our driver, Mi Rith, was a wonder. Over the course of several days we tried our best (inadvertently) to lose and confuse him but despite our profound ineptitude, he always succeeded in finding us.
We bought a three day temple pass. There was a lot of to do over whether we wanted a pass for three consecutive days or any three days in a week. We bought the latter and used it for the former without any problem and I never did understand the difference.
We wandered through Angkor Thom and the Bayon until our heads nearly exploded from architectural stimulus. Then we re-connected with Mi Rith, spent a cooling half hour taking in the breeze via tuktuk and stopped for lunch at Khmer Village one of the large touristy restaurants across from Sras Srang. The food was surprisingly good!
Energized we set off for Angkor Wat. Mi Rith let us off at the “back” (East) entrance which was fairly empty. We devoted a long, long time to the extraordinary bas-reliefs and completed our circumnavigation just as the temple was overrun by the afternoon crowd. We realized that we were exhausted and headed back to our terrace.
In the evening Offwego joined us for a glass of wine and shared some travel advice and some observations on the politics of Cambodia specifically and Southeast Asia in general. We were grateful and intrigued. Later we headed out to another of her recommended restaurants – Abacus. The food from start to finish was excellent.
We intended to start off early on Monday but lagged a bit. The hotel arranged a car and driver to take us to Banteay Srei. A lovely intimate temple which about half an hour after our arrival was overwhelmed by several large tour groups. We had been warned that this would happen, but it was still discouraging.
Afterwards we asked the driver if we could go to Beng Mealea. For reasons known only to himself, he was shocked and dismayed by the request so we gave it up and went back to the Angkor area for a visit to Ta Som and Preah Khan. Ta Som was charmingly crumbled and Preah Khan quiet with birds singing and music playing. We then asked the driver to take us to the same restaurant at SS. He was once again recalcitrant (he didn’t want to backtrack!), but we testily prevailed. After that we ran out of energy to argue with him and headed back to the hotel.
It seems (we were a little slow on the uptake here) that the routine is early start, return to the hotel from 10 to 2, then out again to the temples in the afternoon. We found that from 10 to 2 was actually one of the best times to visit the popular temples as everyone else was recuperating from their early wake up calls but made a mistake in not making our plan clear to the driver at the outset.
After a respite, we headed off by tuktuk for sunset at Pre Rup and negotiated the precipitous stairways. The crowd on the upper terrace gave my husband a combination of vertigo and claustrophobia. He decamped to ground level and bid the day farewell with cold beer or two. The sun performed admirably and the ambience was serene and pleasant. (Although we never did spot Angkor in the far distance as the guidebook promised.) We had dinner at yet another offwego choice – Sugar Palm – which was Asian, I believe Khmer + Thai + Chinese. Well prepared choices in a charmingly relaxed atmosphere.
On Tuesday, we set off at 5:00 a.m. for the sunrise show. Strongly suggest to anyone who takes on this event to bring a flashlight as stumbling over centuries’ old stone steps in pitch darkness was less than a magical mystical moment. We joined the fray at the lotus pond and hired a chair and cup of chocolately coffee (or coffee flavored chocolate). And waited. The sunrise was somewhat of a bust but the watching the silhouette of Angkor Wat emerge as the sky slowly lightened was memorable.
In retrospect we felt that the sunrise and sunset events were superfluous to the temples themselves and wouldn’t necessarily make the extra effort again.
We then spent the next few hours at an in-depth study of the nooks and crannies of this architectural wonder. The upper level opened at 9:00 and was well worth the effort, despite what Dawn Rooney rightly calls a “formidable climb”. Then breakfast back at La Residence, a nap and swim.
In the afternoon we visited Ta Prohm, another of the charmingly overgrown sites. We had had more ambitious plans but felt suddenly templed-out. That evening, we decided to take on the restaurant bar area on foot. My husband and son were determined to sit outside and people-watch. By the time we arrived it had started to rain which literally dampened their resolve, but nevertheless we pressed on for what seemed like an eternity around and around the crowded lanes, selecting and rejecting restaurant after restaurant in true Goldilocks manner. We finally settled on Amok. Great table, lousy food. The area was lively and upbeat, though. Bali could learn from this.
On Wednesday we decided to revisit some of the sites that we hadn’t adequately appreciated. First Preah Kahn, which turned out to be one of my favorites. Quiet, mysterious, overgrown with spectacular carvings and a kind of hall of mirrors layout. We spent several meditative hours there. After lunch #4 at Khmer Village (they gave us complimentary fruit plate!) we went back to the Bayon and tried to make sense of the stupendous architecture. Again, early afternoon seemed to be the best time to avoid the masses.
Satisfied that we’d seen and done as much as we could digest in four days we returned to town. We stopped at Hotel de la Paix for a looksee. To me the design was “close but no cigar.” We were glad we had chosen La Residence. By now it was really raining. So we relaxed on our terrace, returned to Selantra for another delightful meal, said our goodbyes to Mi Rith and Angkor, packed up Dawn Rooney and headed off to Singapore.
Tourism in Angkor is rapidly expanding. Although I certainly don’t begrudge Cambodia the opportunity to pull in foreign exchange and employ its young population, and I certainly want the world to experience Angkor, the development of multiple huge hotels is worrisome. No matter how many resorts are added, the number of temples remains constant and eventually the visitors' experience will be diminished. This issue is not special to Angkor; it is equally problematic at other deservedly popular sites, the Vatican Museum for example. I would have hoped that the Cambodians would take action now to limit buses and group sizeand especially to control pollution in the Angkor area, but by the looks of the new roads and massive construction this doesn’t seem likely.
We (my husband, 25 year old son and I) flew SQ and Silk Air from Jakarta to Singapore and on to Siem Reap. Non-eventful flight, smooth visa on arrival process, pick up by the car from La Residence d’Angkor hotel. Perhaps it was a function of the dry season but I was surprised that the country side was arid and scrubby. I was expecting it to be more jungle-like. The air was sweet and balmy. After the humidity of Indonesia it seemed less tropical and delightfully temperate. The drive took us past the moat and entrance to Angkor Wat. Enticing like seeing the Coliseum when entering Rome for the first time .
La Residence has a welcoming teak entry way and lobby. As was to be the case throughout the trip we were treated with quiet deference and kind hospitality. We had booked a river view room and were told that we had been upgraded to a pool view. We all tromped off to the room followed by our considerable luggage (our son was on his way back to the snowy North). The room was quite nice – a double with an extra bed, though somewhat dark due to the extensive foliage surrounding the pool.
The bathroom arrangement gave us pause. A huge stone bathtub with shower was fully visible from the main room. The connecting window did have a rattan shade of sorts but offered no privacy. We decided to have a look at a river view room, which caused no end of concern that we would be bothered by the noise. The noise from the river and bordering road and walkway were fairly non-objectionable; however the same bath/shower configuration prevailed. This was going to be a challenge. We asked to see a suite.
The suite turned out to be the ideal solution, even though we had to pay an additional charge. The room was spacious and had a large and lovely balcony with bougainvillea and candle niches. The bathroom dressing area was one of the best that I’ve ever encountered – anywhere – and I pay a lot of attention to those kinds of facilities. We were happy.
Overall I give La Residence high marks as a well designed and well run establishment. Excellent breakfast buffet, good service, a beautiful pool, gardens and restaurant/bar areas. We toured the spa but weren’t tempted to give it a try. It seemed a little overwrought.
That night we chose a nearby restaurant from Offwego’s handy list – Selantra. We had our first encounter with the tuktuk – although we discovered shortly that the restaurant was just a short walk from the hotel. A pleasant garden, eager service, a potpourri of Asian and Western food all well prepared. Some wine. We continued to be happy. Lighted the candles on our terrace and enjoyed being in Cambodia at last.
The next morning some of us rose early, some later – we decided to move at our own pace. After breakfast we arranged for a tuktuk to take us to Angkor Thom. Our driver, Mi Rith, was a wonder. Over the course of several days we tried our best (inadvertently) to lose and confuse him but despite our profound ineptitude, he always succeeded in finding us.
We bought a three day temple pass. There was a lot of to do over whether we wanted a pass for three consecutive days or any three days in a week. We bought the latter and used it for the former without any problem and I never did understand the difference.
We wandered through Angkor Thom and the Bayon until our heads nearly exploded from architectural stimulus. Then we re-connected with Mi Rith, spent a cooling half hour taking in the breeze via tuktuk and stopped for lunch at Khmer Village one of the large touristy restaurants across from Sras Srang. The food was surprisingly good!
Energized we set off for Angkor Wat. Mi Rith let us off at the “back” (East) entrance which was fairly empty. We devoted a long, long time to the extraordinary bas-reliefs and completed our circumnavigation just as the temple was overrun by the afternoon crowd. We realized that we were exhausted and headed back to our terrace.
In the evening Offwego joined us for a glass of wine and shared some travel advice and some observations on the politics of Cambodia specifically and Southeast Asia in general. We were grateful and intrigued. Later we headed out to another of her recommended restaurants – Abacus. The food from start to finish was excellent.
We intended to start off early on Monday but lagged a bit. The hotel arranged a car and driver to take us to Banteay Srei. A lovely intimate temple which about half an hour after our arrival was overwhelmed by several large tour groups. We had been warned that this would happen, but it was still discouraging.
Afterwards we asked the driver if we could go to Beng Mealea. For reasons known only to himself, he was shocked and dismayed by the request so we gave it up and went back to the Angkor area for a visit to Ta Som and Preah Khan. Ta Som was charmingly crumbled and Preah Khan quiet with birds singing and music playing. We then asked the driver to take us to the same restaurant at SS. He was once again recalcitrant (he didn’t want to backtrack!), but we testily prevailed. After that we ran out of energy to argue with him and headed back to the hotel.
It seems (we were a little slow on the uptake here) that the routine is early start, return to the hotel from 10 to 2, then out again to the temples in the afternoon. We found that from 10 to 2 was actually one of the best times to visit the popular temples as everyone else was recuperating from their early wake up calls but made a mistake in not making our plan clear to the driver at the outset.
After a respite, we headed off by tuktuk for sunset at Pre Rup and negotiated the precipitous stairways. The crowd on the upper terrace gave my husband a combination of vertigo and claustrophobia. He decamped to ground level and bid the day farewell with cold beer or two. The sun performed admirably and the ambience was serene and pleasant. (Although we never did spot Angkor in the far distance as the guidebook promised.) We had dinner at yet another offwego choice – Sugar Palm – which was Asian, I believe Khmer + Thai + Chinese. Well prepared choices in a charmingly relaxed atmosphere.
On Tuesday, we set off at 5:00 a.m. for the sunrise show. Strongly suggest to anyone who takes on this event to bring a flashlight as stumbling over centuries’ old stone steps in pitch darkness was less than a magical mystical moment. We joined the fray at the lotus pond and hired a chair and cup of chocolately coffee (or coffee flavored chocolate). And waited. The sunrise was somewhat of a bust but the watching the silhouette of Angkor Wat emerge as the sky slowly lightened was memorable.
In retrospect we felt that the sunrise and sunset events were superfluous to the temples themselves and wouldn’t necessarily make the extra effort again.
We then spent the next few hours at an in-depth study of the nooks and crannies of this architectural wonder. The upper level opened at 9:00 and was well worth the effort, despite what Dawn Rooney rightly calls a “formidable climb”. Then breakfast back at La Residence, a nap and swim.
In the afternoon we visited Ta Prohm, another of the charmingly overgrown sites. We had had more ambitious plans but felt suddenly templed-out. That evening, we decided to take on the restaurant bar area on foot. My husband and son were determined to sit outside and people-watch. By the time we arrived it had started to rain which literally dampened their resolve, but nevertheless we pressed on for what seemed like an eternity around and around the crowded lanes, selecting and rejecting restaurant after restaurant in true Goldilocks manner. We finally settled on Amok. Great table, lousy food. The area was lively and upbeat, though. Bali could learn from this.
On Wednesday we decided to revisit some of the sites that we hadn’t adequately appreciated. First Preah Kahn, which turned out to be one of my favorites. Quiet, mysterious, overgrown with spectacular carvings and a kind of hall of mirrors layout. We spent several meditative hours there. After lunch #4 at Khmer Village (they gave us complimentary fruit plate!) we went back to the Bayon and tried to make sense of the stupendous architecture. Again, early afternoon seemed to be the best time to avoid the masses.
Satisfied that we’d seen and done as much as we could digest in four days we returned to town. We stopped at Hotel de la Paix for a looksee. To me the design was “close but no cigar.” We were glad we had chosen La Residence. By now it was really raining. So we relaxed on our terrace, returned to Selantra for another delightful meal, said our goodbyes to Mi Rith and Angkor, packed up Dawn Rooney and headed off to Singapore.
Jan 25th, 2010, 06:40 PM
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Glad to hear from someone else who thinks the whole sunrise/sunset thing is over-rated.
Preah Khan is also one of my favorites. Since it's so big and jumbled up, it seems that the big tour buses avoid it, so you almost always have it practically to yourself.
Preah Khan is also one of my favorites. Since it's so big and jumbled up, it seems that the big tour buses avoid it, so you almost always have it practically to yourself.
Jan 25th, 2010, 06:41 PM
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Sounds nothing short of tremendous, marmot.
Sorry that Pre Rup ended up being so crowded. It was a bit dizzying being up there dangling off the edge of a temple even without a crowd when we went--but we found it a really amazing experience...sitting on a temple, surrounded by people of many nations sitting in utter silence and contemplation while the magnificent sun went to rest. Talk about the peace process. Maybe all warring nations really need is just an indescribable sunset to bring them together (okay, fine, I'm being idealistic again.)
Just reading this one post makes me want to go back so badly. Glad you had such a wonderful time.
Sorry that Pre Rup ended up being so crowded. It was a bit dizzying being up there dangling off the edge of a temple even without a crowd when we went--but we found it a really amazing experience...sitting on a temple, surrounded by people of many nations sitting in utter silence and contemplation while the magnificent sun went to rest. Talk about the peace process. Maybe all warring nations really need is just an indescribable sunset to bring them together (okay, fine, I'm being idealistic again.)
Just reading this one post makes me want to go back so badly. Glad you had such a wonderful time.
Jan 25th, 2010, 10:00 PM
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filmwill, not at all. All three of us(at our various altitudes) enjoyed the sunset experience. I might not do it every time, but I was glad I didn't miss it. What surprised me was how fast everyone descended after the eggyolk slipped beneath the horizon. I would have liked to soak up the afterglow but didn't want to be reverse clambering down those steps in the dark.
Jan 26th, 2010, 01:49 AM
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Appreciated the mini gtg we had at your hotel. I'm glad my restaurant recos are holding up and that you had a nice time in our town. I'm impressed with your "saunter" through the temples. So many people run through here checking temples off the list and miss the whole point.
I think it's hilarious your driver wouldn't get outside the box on your possibly circuitous route. I find that really frustrating sometimes and neither love nor money will change their mind about backtracking.
A note about seeing the temples in mid-day in case anyone reads this later....yes the crowds are thinner, but the mid-day heat can get to some people (people who don't live in Indonesia for instance) AND photographers need to be aware the mid-day glare doesn't do much for the snappies.
Hope to see you around this way again sometime!
Lori
I think it's hilarious your driver wouldn't get outside the box on your possibly circuitous route. I find that really frustrating sometimes and neither love nor money will change their mind about backtracking.
A note about seeing the temples in mid-day in case anyone reads this later....yes the crowds are thinner, but the mid-day heat can get to some people (people who don't live in Indonesia for instance) AND photographers need to be aware the mid-day glare doesn't do much for the snappies.
Hope to see you around this way again sometime!
Lori
Jan 26th, 2010, 03:11 AM
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Good report. I agree that the whole sunset thing is rather overrated. Personally my greatest memories from Angkor were being alone to appreciate the magnificence of the place rather than surrounded by hoardes of people appreciating the same view at a picture-postcard time of day.
Despite the overwhelming number of tourists at Angkor we always found that by doing completely our own thing (and for that we did have a very accomodating driver) we often managed to luck out and miss the crowds. Next time definitely go to Beng Mealea - extraordinary atmosphere and because it's a bit further out there aren't many people around.
Despite the overwhelming number of tourists at Angkor we always found that by doing completely our own thing (and for that we did have a very accomodating driver) we often managed to luck out and miss the crowds. Next time definitely go to Beng Mealea - extraordinary atmosphere and because it's a bit further out there aren't many people around.
Feb 3rd, 2010, 06:41 AM
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Excellent report. So frustrating to have guide/driver who will only do what he does. On the other hand, in Morocco we finally got our driver to agree to take us to some gardens shown in our guidebook (complete with map). He strongly objected but finally took us there. They were part of the king's palace and definately not public. A cash gift to the guards ended the brief visit. Our driver was very grateful that we understood the need for the "gift". Part of being a tourist.
Feb 3rd, 2010, 09:44 AM
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Thank you for a lovely report. It triggered some wonderful memories of days and hours spent wandering through the temples. I too was less than enchanted by the "must-do" sunrise and sunset visits because they were mob scenes. It was the quieter moments of observation and discovery that made for the best experiences and now memories. We also felt fortunate to have the daily guidance of Dara Ly who is gentle and insightful rather than dogmatic. A superb guide.
