Sunday, July 20, 2014

Siem Reap Trip 2014 - Day 2 - Sightseeing - South Gate of Angkor Thom

On our first day of arriving in Siem Reap, we booked our temple tour from the hotel where we stay. There's a tour desk on the ground floor of the hotel. We paid for US$55 for a private car and a driver but we did not get a tour guide (US$45). We need to pay for our own lunch and temple entrance fees.

We choose the Day 1 tour itinerary (see above photo) but we can negotiate with the driver to bring us anywhere we want as long as the tour was within the time limit. The tour starts around 8 am to 6 pm.

Please note the dress code when visiting the temple, need to cover up the knee and shoulder otherwise you will be denied entry. You can always buy tee shirts and long pants from the serveral vendors outside the temple ruins.

We being in our fifties and sixties as with most tourists opt for the small tour circuit (coloured RED in the above map). There were be a lot of walking and climbing steep steps so do ensure proper covered shoes. Saw quite a few tourists in arm slings in our hotel and PUB Street, I guess they had fall while climbing. July being the raining season, will see lots of wet and muddy ground.

Our assigned minivan could easily sit 7 passengers but there's only four of us so we were very happy and the hotel also provided cold drinks for us.

Took us about 15 to 20 minutes to arrive the main entrance of Angkor Thom from our hotel. Angkor Thom is an ancient city established during the twelve century. Read more information about it from wikipedia.

It costs us US$20 per person for a one day pass to visit the city.

They would take a photo of us and print out on the pass, need to keep the pass with us for the entire day as we need to show the pass each time we visit different temple ruins. This means the ticket is non transferable.

After purchasing our tickets, we hopped back into the van and arrived at the South Gate of Angkor Thom. The driver will let us alight and take photo at the south gate and he would wait for us at the other end of the gate.

Wow was so amazed by the giant faces on the tower of the south gate. Need to bring extra camera battery and memory cards cause lots of photos to take at the ancient city.

The causeway leading to the south gate were flanked both sides by statues of Gods.

Some tourists choose to ride the elephant to cross over to the other side of the gate.

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