The Angkor Wat Archeological Park is a World Heritage Site. These ancient temples date from the Khmer era and were built between the ninth and fifteenth century. It is the largest temple complex in the world and is spread out over an area of more than 400 km². The site is surrounded by forest and is located in the north of Cambodia, close to the city Siem Reap.

Mickey at Angkor Wat

During its golden years, the Khmer Empire extended its power in South-East Asia and conquered parts of China, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand. Angkor was the capital then, there were more than hundreds of temples and its estimated population reached over a million. In the fifteenth century Angkor was deserted and the capital was moved to Phnom Penh. The temples were totally overgrown by the jungle and were rediscovered by a French archaeologist around end of the twentieth century.
During our meeting with Jens and Helen, they mentioned they found a nice hotel in Siem Reap with a swimming pool and including breakfast for 12 euro. So we check the internet and it seems there are lot of cheap hotels in Siem Reap with a swimming pool. We book a room on Booking.com and we leave for Siem Reap. On arrival we notice we got some wrong information about the facilities of the hotel but in general we are very happy with our choice. We have a nice room and the swimming pool is lovely.
Siem Reap itself is a nice place, especially the area around Pub Street where our hotel is located. There are many bars, restaurants and night markets.

Pub Street

We decide to visit Angkor Wat in the week because we heard it can be crowded during weekends. We buy our tickets for Monday on Sunday after 5pm. This ticket is also valid the same day of purchase to visit the sunset temple. Unfortunately, we are refused to go up the temple because of our sleeveless shirts. The next day we bring an extra t-shirt with us but we only need this to visit the sunset temple and the tower of Angkor Wat.

Angkor Wat, Bayon and Baphuon

In general, Angkor Wat is very impressive and most of the temples are in a really good condition, thanks to the good restoration works. We go to Angkor Wat from early in the morning ‘til closing time at six o’clock. It has been a long day but this way we saw everything we wanted to see. The temples are, without a doubt, the most impressive temples we have seen in our life.

The Beauty of Angkor Wat

More info on www.wijzijnweg.org