Siem Reap – Terrace of the Elephants

Ended the tour on Angkor Thom and Cambodia at this terrace with a large field in between it and Prasat Suor Prat. After seeing 17 temples in less than less than 36hrs I’m stuck at how incredible the sites are and through restoration work and protection will last much longer. Crazy to think that these were all built with rudimentary tools and animals, not to mention too many slaves, and they’ve lasted over a 1000 years in some cases.

Prasat Suor Prat

South Gate

West side of bridge

East side of bridge

Siem Reap – Phimeanakas Temple

Could only walk by this small temple. On one side there was a massive pool that was reserved for the queen and a significantly smaller one next to it for the king.

Siem Reap – Baphuon Temple

It was so hot and humid after the rain even the monkeys were cooling off by jumping into the pools. Baphuon was originally built as a Hindu temple.

Hard to tell in a photo but the wall is built to show a reclining Buddha, 9-meter tall by 70 meter long

Siem Reap – Bayon Temple

I’m glad it started rain to while we pulled into Bayon’s parking lot rather than five minutes later as it would not have been fun to be soaking wet while walking around the large complex of Angkor Thom, the last capital of the Khmer Empire.

Siem Reap – Lum Orng

I was happy to be able to work this other tasting menu restaurant into the trip, even happier when I got inside to the AC blasting and cold white wine. The dishes weren’t as complex as Embassy much more of the raw ingredients were used and showed off a different style of Cambodian cooking. The beef ravioli were the best things I ate in my two days in Siem Reap, I would’ve love to have a whole bowl while waited for the delayed flight back to Bangkok that evening.

Duck Salad – homegrown vegetables, beet coulis

Preserved lime broth

Elephant Fish – pound long bean, mixed herbs

Out of Pot Soup – river langoustine, green mango, vegetables, quail egg, lemongrass chili broth

Saraman Ravioli – beef cheek, young lotus seed, saraman curry, coconut emulsion

Lime Sorbet – watermelon salsa, dried fish powder

Sandai Fillet – soya bean sauce, ginger, young tomato chutney

Waffle and Coconut – coconut ice cream, caramel sauce

Siem Reap – Prasat Kravan Temple

Prasat Kravan has a very small footprint, five towers on a terrace. The highlight is a few towers has very well preserved carvings on the interior.

Center tower

Far right tower

Siem Reap – Ta Prom Temple

Ta Prom was one of the only temples I saw that was originally built at Buddhist rather than Hindu. It also Hollywood famous as used in Tomb Raider and there were the crowds to speak to its Insta worthiness around where the main scene in the movie was shot.

Massive roots of this one tree need a lot of support

Siem Reap – Pre Rup Temple

The guide added Pre Rup since we had a bit of time to spare, but not much and power walked, as much as one can up and down stairs in the blistering heat, through this relatively small complex.

Siem Reap – Banteay Srei Temple

This was by far the most commercialized temple I visited, in fact the original road had been moved to create a large parking lot and visitor center complete with souvenir market and a few restaurants. The carving at Banteay Srei were extremely intricate and very fine and delicate layering to them.

Siem Reap – Street Food

After Angkor Wat got a much needed infusion of caffeine and street food.

Num Pang was something I’d be craving

50 cents

Palm sugar cupcakes with coconut filling and shaved coconut on top. Vegan.