The four of us spent about two days touring various ruins of Angkor Wat, a temple complex and archeological park that covers 400 square kilometres (about 150 square miles). No matter how you measured it, the place was huge. Thank goodness Alex and Camille planned ahead and arranged to have a guide with an air conditioned van! I’m not sure I could’ve made it through two days of touring the ruins in the intense heat otherwise. Our guide picked out about 7 ruins for us to visit over two days. She knew the best times to go to each one in order to get the best light and have the fewest crowds. I am sure you could enjoy Angkor Wat without a guide or with a bicycle or tuk tuk, but I’d highly recommend the way we did it.

Our fantastic guide for Angkor Wat. Both days she wore two long sleeved shirts, pants, socks, and a backpack with waters for us. I couldn’t understand how she did it in the sweltering heat!

Inside Ta Phrom, aka The Tomb Raider, where said movie was filmed. The jungle has grown over much of the ruins here and looks really cool.


Several of the temples in the complex are active religious sites, so everyone had to have pants, skirts, or shorts to the knees, and women had to have their shoulders covered. This was how I covered up inside those ruins, and it was pretty sweltering.

Crowds outside of Angkor Wat at sunrise. The building in the background is where we camped out at sunrise.

Inside Angkor Wat. It was interesting to learn that while it began as a Hindu temple, it was later ruled by Buddhists. There are carvings and reliefs representing both religions inside.

Banteay Srei, (“The Citadel of Women” in Khmer) is a sandstone temple about 35 km from Angkor Wat. It is much smaller and more intricately carved than the larger temples and there are many carvings of female, as well as male, deities. It is also the only temple not commissioned by a monarch, as this one was built for a counselor to a king.

Cambodian musicians playing outside of Banteay Srei. Of all the local music we heard on the trip, Cambodian was my favorite as it reminded me of Bluegrass and Celtic music.
very beautiful photographs and feel visiting there once in life time.
Biking Angkor Wat is without a doubt the best way to see the temples. It s nice because you see everything clearer and you can stop to take tons of photos along the way. Clearly you took plenty of photos! Great photography!