I wrote a bit about Cambodia while I was there, so here's a brief summary of what I did:
Dec. 28th: Walk Around Siem Reap (the town right next to Angkor Temples).
Dec. 29th: Visited Central Angkor Thom in the morning, including Baksei Chamkrong, Bayon, Baphuon, Phimeanakas, the royal pools, Terrace of the Elephants, Terrace of the Leper King. In the afternoon, we visited Prasat Krayan (Hindu Temple), Banteay Kdei, Ta Prohm (where "Tomb Raider" was filmed), and watched sunset at Pre Rup.
Dec. 30th: Watched sunrise at Angkor Wat, then stop by Pre Rup again and East Mebon (used to be a temple in the middle of the lake, but the lake has since dried out). After breakfast, we drove to the far away temple -Banteay Srey. After lunch, we came back to visit Ta Som, Neak Pean, and Preah Khan.
Dec. 31th: Visited Angkor Wat. Lunch at hotel so James can go to airport. In the afternoon, visited Rolus group (Lolei, Preah Ko, and Bakong). Then came back to Siem Reap for dinner before we head to the airport.
Four days at Siem Reap was perfect amount of time because Siem Reap can be seen in half day (it is very small) and by the end of 4th day, I was all Wat out. I have not visited the Egyptian Pyramids yet, but I'd imagine the grandiones of Angkor Temples is up at that level. Consider how ancient these temples are and the technology available at those time, it's very impressive that the Khmer built such sturdy and decorative temples with gigantic volanic stones and sandstones, and made the temples last so many hundreds of years. It's a shame that many of the statues were destroyed during the Khmer Rouge period.
I never joined a tour group when I travelled but from this trip, I learned that I don't have the personality to enjoy tour group. I didn't mind too much about waking up at certain hours, I did find myself not listening to the tour guide and my mind wandered elsewhere by the end of the days. I do highly recommend having a tour guide showing you the beauty and history of Angkor Temples. I know I definitely appreciate the temples a lot more because of the insight and history the tour guide provided (I think it'd have been perfect if I had tour guide only for two days). I learned (and forgotten) many interesting facts from our tour guide, such as Angkor Wat is the tallest building in siem reap (65m) and no other buildings are allow to build higher than Angkor Wat. Also, all the temples have moats around them. If they don't have it, it's because the moats had dried up, and some temples are built in the middle of lakes.
Like every trip, I was very snap happy at the beginning, so you get to enjoy 450+ pictures I took of Angkor Temples.
Note: I added comments to many pictures so you'll know what you're looking at.
I'll write about how I spent NYE count down in the taxi cab and bombing in Bangkok on NYE after I upload the Bangkok pictures.
