Fun things to do in Angkor Wat

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I'm sure each place you visited as a traditional performance and Apsara Dance is one of the few performance which is a must to go and watch.

We had ours at Mondial Angkor restuarant. 5 mins walk from our hotel. Europrean & traditional buffet at only US12 and the performance is free ;)
In fact there are many other restaurants that provide free performance with a paid ala carte/buffet dinner. From the luxurious one eg. Le Meridien to the budget backpackers roadside restaurants.

Basically, the plot of story to the dance is actually quiet the same as those i watched in Bali as the beliefs and religion is the same. The difference here is the Apsara Dance aka as Celestial dancers. The dancers dance gracefully and they are simply gorgeous with the make-up and costumes. I personally loves the head gears. Hee....

So don't forget to catch one when you are in Siem Reap ;)

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Around the various parking-lots in the jungle infront of Angkor Wat many small villages have been created, housing mainly hawkers and petty dealers. Here you may encounter the rather "normal" family-life, mostly in big families, sometimes with grandparents as babysitters.

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When I visited Ta Prohm, I had a sense of deja vu - strangling fig trees amongst the ruins. It must have come from my visit to Ta Som earlier.

Ta Som could have been a mini Ta Prohm. Not a popular temple due to the small size and distance from the major temples.

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Preah Khan is one of the bigger ruins in Angkor. I didn't have much energy to explore as I was kinda "templed out" by end of the day. Morever, I would be running 21km on the next day. So I had better reserve some energy. So, I took a brief visit to take some photographs.

Maybe I'll be beck next time.

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Before you die of boredom, there are a few things that you can do while waiting to board your plane. Siem Reap International Airport is a modern, small yet beautiful airport. After passing the passport check, there are a few shops you can check out.

My favourite: Free reading at Monument Books. They have browsing copies. As you thumb through the books on Angkor, you will be reminded that there are so much more things you can see and do in Angkor but you will be leaving the country soon. Sigh!....

There are many people waiting for the sunrise early in the morning. We wake up 4.30am, and get ready to take off from the villas at 5am, when we reach there, there are many people already getting ready to admire the beauty of the sunrise with Angkor Wat temples, we are quite lucky to get quite a nice place, set up out tripods, and waiting for the sun to come out...

After watching the sunrise, we walked toword the back of Angkor Wat - North Gate if not mistaken... Along the way, we saw monkies playing around at the outer wall of the temples, and when we walk through the north gate, and look back, wao! the view from here are differents and owesome... A Special View of Angkor Wat!

Angkor Wat
"The temple city"

Dated first half of the 12th century
King Suryavarman II
(posthumous name: Paramavishnouloka)
Cult Brahmanic (Vishnouïte)

One of my favourite temples, the magnificant scale of this temple with its towering tips just make the Ang Kor Wat almost picture-perfect.

Angkor Wat, forming a rectangle of about 1,500 by 1,300 metres, covers an area - including its 190 metre wide moats - of nearly 200 hectares. The external enclosure wall defines an expanse of 1,025 metres by 800, or 82 hectares. It is the largest monument of the Angkor group.