Angkor Wat Review
 

GREAT EXPERIENCE
If you are a nut for historical sites, if you love the Pyramids, Machu Picchu, Chichen Itzen, Stonehenge, The Great Wall Of China, or love wondering around big churches and temples, you have to see the Angkor temples. Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom (Bayon, Baphuon), Baentey Srey, Ta Phrom, are all worth a visit. All of these major temples will blow your mind.

With a good guide (or if you plan carefully before hand), you could cover the major temples in 2 days, and cover 3-5 other secondary temples on the third day.

But a guide (as in a human guide) could save you major headaches or wasted time, and can tell you which stairs are safe to climb if you intend to scale any of the steep stairs leading up to the top of the temples. The stairs are steep, tall, narrow, uneven and weather-worn, and knowing which ones are safer could save you a trip to the hospital or morgue, so a human guide is probably a good investment.

Climbing the stairs is probably not a good idea if you are not sure footed or suffer from vertigo. But if you do some climbing, it definitely adds a whole new perspective to your visit (one thought that flashed through my mind was "Which crazy architect designed these stairs anyway??? Spiderman ???").

On the topic of human guide to Angkor, let me put in a plug for Kim San, recommended by 2 other reviewers (Mark and Kate: thanks to both of you). I managed to get him as my guide for 2 days, and he was great! Bubbly, friendly, punctual, knowledgeable about the temples AND local cuisine (beat that!), he's a huge asset to Siem Reap's booming tourist industry. His website : http://www.angkor-guides.com/.

He was also willing to go beyond the call of duty by volunteering to help me buy and amend tickets to Tonle Sap cruise (which is of course NOT part of Angkor Archeological Park, so he needn't even have bothered with it, but he did. Bless him). He also constantly pointed out good spots from which to take photos (I'm a photo buff). Turns out he has taken huge bucket loads of photos of the temples himself, and is able to tell you what the good photo ops are.

He also obviously loves his country and his heritage, and it shows in the pride he has for Angkor. He made my good trip into a great one.

Well, thanks flyer: nice to read some unbiased opinion in here for once. I'd never heard of those Ankor Wat temples. Are they in Laos?

It's good to know that a guide can tell me where to step. I don't think I'd be able to get around without one, since my hernia operation. Could he carry me up the stairs? I'm quite small.

It's always very hard to know who to believe. Did you know, sometimes guides come in here, disguising themselves as tourists, to tell us how great they are? Yup, really. But I know I can trust you. I've been reading all your other posts.

In the vein of Dogster:

I went to Angkor Wat and was really bored. Who wants to walk around in that heat with all those mosquitoes just to see a bunch of old buildings that are crumbling down? The paths are not well kept and footing is treacherous. Fortunately, we had a guide, who was otherwise completely useless, but he knew exactly where to walk and not stumble.

Plus, do you have any idea how hard it was to get a decent hamburger? As far as I could tell, there was no ketchup in the entire country.

I have my suspicions about this post as well. Ruff, Ruff!

I hear that place is rip-off central. People losing ALL their valuables and passports and being stuck there for some time to untangle the red tape.

Has anyone read flyer's other posts? They range from the odd to the incomprehensible. None have any content until this one. Were the other posts just to give weight to this ad for a guide?

Author: flyerwatch
Date: 01/28/2009, 08:04 am
GREAT EXPERIENCE
he post begins as follows:


If you are a nut for historical sites, if you love the Pyramids, Machu Picchu, Chichen Itzen, Stonehenge, The Great Wall Of China, or love wondering around big churches and temples, you have to see the Angkor temples. Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom (Bayon, Baphuon), Baentey Srey, Ta Phrom, are all worth a visit. All of these major temples will blow your mind.

If this is not advertising copy, I am not a Giant panda. The double use of "if" is a dead giveaway. No onw writes that way. Even Bob';s English is not that fractured. Plus, we get the added bonus of "wondering" around temples. I guess one could wonder in place without wandering. I wonder whether Flyertalk will participate any more in this thread or is it a once off?

dogster, I can think of a certain someone else who might require a guide/porters to carry her up stairs.

:)

Well, I think we've all entered fully into the spirit of the event.

Yup, Kathie - I think it's deep cover, like a spy. Remember the Cold War?

I WAS carried by a guide once - in Papua New Guinea. He hoiked me up and over his shoulder like I was a rag doll and promptly waded barefoot through a stream of killer crocodiles. True story [except for the crocodiles].

Flyerwatch loved another guide, Soluy Loeurt, JUST AS MUCH, last June per the website below:

https://www.infohub.com/Destinations...or/9161546.htm

"If you are a nut for historical sites, if you love the Pyramids, Machu Picchu, Chichen Itzen, Stonehenge, The Great Wall Of China, or love wondering around big churches and temples, you have to see the Angkor temples. Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom (Bayon, Baphuon), Baentey Srey, Ta Phrom, are all worth a visit. All of these major temples will blow your mind. With a good guide (or if you plan carefully before hand), you could cover the major temples in 2 days, and cover 3-5 other secondary temples on the third day. But a guide (as in a human guide) could save you major headaches or wasted time, and can tell you which stairs are safe to climb if you intend to scale any of the steep stairs leading up to the top of the temples. The stairs are steep, tall, narrow, uneven and weather-worn, and knowing which ones are safer could save you a trip to the hospital or morgue, so a human guide is probably a good investment. Climbing the stairs is probably not a good idea if you are not sure footed or suffer from vertigo. But if you do some climbing, it definitely adds a whole new perspective to your visit (one thought that flashed through my mind was "Which crazy architect designed these stairs anyway??? Spiderman ???"). On the topic of human guide to Angkor, let me put in a plug for Soluy Loeurt, recommended by 2 other reviewers (Mark and Kate: thanks to both of you). I managed to get her as my guide for 2 days, and she was great! Bubbly, friendly, punctual, knowledgeable about the temples AND local cuisine (beat that!), she's a huge asset to Siem Reap's booming tourist industry. She was also willing to go beyond the call of duty by volunteering to help me buy and amend tickets to Tonle Sap cruise (which is of course NOT part of Angkor Archeological Park, so she needn't even have bothered with it, but she did. Bless her). She also constantly pointed out good spots from which to take photos (I'm a photo buff). Turns out she has taken huge bucket loads of photos of the temples herself, and is able to tell you what the good photo ops are. She also obviously loves her country and her heritage, and it shows in the pride she has for Angkor. She made my good trip into a great one."

Great sleuthing Happy.

You are officially King of the Cyber-Detectives. Constable Dog [Probationary] salutes you.

Great detective work. Of course, the Dogster sniffed this out without background info. The use of caps at the top of the thread was another indicator of pretense.

Further sleuthing:

Did the OP lift the thread from Tripadvisor and plug in his own name and e-mail?

(The reviews on the website that HappyCheesehead posted a link for come from TA)

curiouser and curiouser...

Ooo Craig - you could be on to something!

You Guys!!!! Such a cynical lot.
Kim San seems like such a lovely guy, he even tells us so on his website. I might book him for my trip in June then you can all have an unbiased review.
Is $30US for a full day reasonable?

there's a least one born every second, lmao

"Kim San is very kind guy. He is a resourceful, enthusiastic and trustworthy guide and driver, with an infectious laugh and permanent smile.."

Hmmm. "Infectious" is not a good quality to have in SEA, as well as a permanent smile (yaba fueled?)

shanek, please do use this guide and report back to us. $30 per day is a pretty standard price. Car and driver (or tuk-tuk and driver) are additonal, about $25.

Shanek, that would be great. the price is common and you're not getting overcharged for a guide. The laugh would be on us if he turned out to be a wonderful guide. There's no reason why a self-promoter (or kin thereto) needs to be bad.

I will take the plunge...in the name of research. Being a retailer, I appreciate anyone who promotes his business in different ways even if he is being a little deceitful..as you say Gpanda, that doesn't make him a bad guide.

He looks like a nice guy despite his disproportionately long phalanges