So many temples to choose from and so little time! My husband and I will be in Siem Reap (first time) for 5 nights, 4 days in Feb. and I am wondering which temples you all think are "must sees". I'd be grateful if you could tell me your favorites. Not to be greedy, but if you can tell me whether it's better to visit in the morning or afternoon, that would be great too!

Ta Prohm and Angor Thom

With 4 days you can see a lot - the majors - Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm, Angkor Thom, Banteay Srei etc and some smaller temples which may be a matter of personal choice or your guide's choice. Your guide will also know when its best to go but Ta Prohm very early in the morning was downright surreal for us.

I saw in another post that you are considering the Hotel de la Paix. You will love it. Are you going to do a school with Ponheary or do something through the Hotel?

Many favorites: Banteay Srei, Ta Som (a small temple that was unrestored when we were there but they were working on it soon after), Bayon (but it's always crowded), Preah Khan, Ta Prohm, and perhaps the most spiritual experience - doing a walking meditation in the empty hall os Angkor Wat right after sunrise.

We visited many of the so-called minor temples. We were often the only people there... magical.

You are welcome to view our Angkor photos from 2001 at www.marlandc.com

Thanks for the responses! Craig, in response to your question- I emailed Lori earlier today about possibly making a donation and visiting a school through the PLF. We have a guide for our first day and a half (arranged through our travel agent) but we left the rest of the time open and figured we could always hire a guide once we are there (or extend the time with the original guide). We were actually interested in visiting Beng Melea and Ko Ker one day. While reading the plf website, I saw a story on a school in Ko Ker that really needs help. I am hoping that we might be able to make a donation and visit the school through the PLF and combine it with a visit to those temples.

Hi-
I was going to reply that Baeng Melea was my fovorite, but I thought it might be too far out for you to visit.
We visited it after going to Koh Ker school with Lori and Ponheary. If you can do it, please make the trip. We donated over $2400 to Koh Ker school, but they certainly need more help.
My trip report is posted on my website:
http://www.wired2theworld.com
I haven't posted about Baeng Melea and Koh Ker school yet, but I'm working on it! In the meantime, you can see all the other temples we visited.

Oh, and if you don't have Dawn Rooney's guide to the temples, buy that now so you can read up on the temples and decide on which ones to visit.

The organization through which Kristina donated is www.theplf.org Many of us here have donated through the plf. We sort of feel like it's "ours" as it was started by a regular poster here on Fodors, Offwego.

After Angkor Wat itself Ta Prohm and The Bayon are probably the popular favourites. It's worth taking some time to visit Banteay Srei though which has some of the most intricate carvings of all the temples. Maurice Glaize referred to Banteay Drei as"the jewel of Khmer art" Banteay Samre is less ornate but also well worth a look. Both could easily be combined with a visit to Kbal Spean.

http://travelsinasia.com/Cambodia/SiemReap.html

We really enjoyed Ta Prohm and Beng Melea because they were both overgrown by jungle. We liked to see the ruins in a somewhat ruined state.

Thanks again for the great suggestions! I really appreciate the links to your photos too- I am even more excited for our trip (if that's even possible)! Kristina (and anyone else who has donated through the plf), can you tell me a bit more about your experience and how it all works? I am still waiting to hear back from Lori, but now I am sure that I want to help through the plf and am particularly interested in the Ko Ker school because it seems to be in so much need. I know that Ponheary books up fast for tours- if she is unavailable would we still be able to donate food, supplies or money to the school if we are making a trip out to that area?