We had a very long journey ahead of us as we traveled from Denver to Cambodia. Starting with our flight to LA and then a several hour wait in the Star Alliance lounge, our ANA flight to Tokyo (another several hour wait) and then on to Bangkok, where we had a shorter time and finally our flight on smaller prop plane to Siem Reap! We finally landed in Cambodia around 9am on Sunday after leaving home on Friday (with the time change not in our favor, we will make up the time on our travel back!). We were picked up by our hotel the Jaya House River Park Hotel, which we would like to call out as being one of our favorite places we've stayed at recently. The hotel includes a ton of perks such as free daily laundry service, many choices of breakfast included, free airport pickup, 1 hour free massage each day (!!), free tuk tuk around town, cold towels every time you arrive, natural mosquito spray when you leave, and the most friendly service and helpful staff you could imagine.

After our long journey, we had breakfast and took a short rest before heading out to see a few things. We had intended to see a bit more, but the weather had other plans. As we waited to rent our motorbike in town, we sat out about an hour long downpour, which delayed our afternoon. We rented one of the nicer motorbikes from Tiara Air Travel and Tours Agency in town for $25 per day, as we prefer to be able to get around ourselves.

APOPO Visitor Center

Our first stop was to visit the APOPO visitor center, where you can learn all about the giant African pouched rats that are used to detect the millions of unexploded landmines, bombs and other devices that are left over from the Cambodian civil war and the Vietnam war from the 1970's through 1990's. The unexploded devices pose a large threat to the local people, especially in the northern part of Cambodia. The African rats are specially trained only in Tanzania, where they are then sent around the world to places that need them. The rats are led back and forth on small patches of land, clearing a little at a time. It's still quicker than using a metal detector, as there are too many metal fragments that are also buried. The rats sniff out TNT and are too light to explode the mines, alerting the humans to the danger and allowing for the mines to be diffused.

At the visitor center, we were able to watch a demonstration of how the rats work and got the chance to hold one. They are very calm and domesticated, since they have been handled their entire lives. The rats will train for a year, then work for about 5 years, before retiring and living out the good life in their air conditioned condos. For $10pp, this non-profit is definitely worth a visit when in Siem Reap.

Pub Street and Night Market

After visiting with the rats, we headed out for an early dinner on Pub Street, a very touristy street lined with restaurants, bars and shopping. We decided on the Station B Pub Street where we took a seat on the upper level overlooking the busy street. We were eager to try the Cambodian amok curry, and had chicken amok, served in a coconut with a side of rice, as well as some spring rolls. Food was cheap and delicious, with $1 beer, and most meals ranging from $5-$7.

After dinner, we were feeling pretty tired, so spent a little time walking down pub street and over to the riverside Night Market. The market was fairly quiet, as we were probably still a bit early in the evening for most shoppers. We got a banana nutella roti ($1) from a street vendor for dessert and walked through the night market where you can find souveniers and local crafts. We have our eye on some of the paintings and plan to return another night when we are more refreshed.

After a long nights sleep, we enjoyed breakfast at our hotel before setting out on the motorbike to explore as many temples around the area as we could. For about $65pp, you can buy a 3 day pass to Angkor Wat plus 50 more temples around the area. It's easy to buy the passes online and then just show them on your phone when going through any pass control areas.

We parked and started walking in to Angkor Wat, but soon realized that the sun was positioned right in front of our view and it was hard to see or take pictures, so decided to return there closer to sunset, when the light would be coming from behind us. We eplored many more temples and stopped for lunch at the Khmer Angkor Kitchen restaurant where we had a red curry and chicken satay. Back at the hotel, we had a little time to cool off in the pool before our free massages perfectly timed for the afternoon rain from 4-5pm. The rain kept coming and the massages made us too tired to go out, so we ate some snacks and fruit in our room before going to bed early.

Visiting temples around Angkor Wat

There are dozens is not more temples in the area to explore, each of them a little bit different. Built mostly in the 10th-12th centuries, these temples were orignially constructed during the height of the Khmer Empire, to demonstrate royal power and devotion to the gods. They started out as temples with Hindu influcences and gradually transitioned to Bhuddist sites over the years. Many were not known to western civilization until relatively recently. The day was hot and very humid, in the mid to upper 80's, but not quite as bad as it would be in the summer season. Our brief rides on the motorbike provided us with a little wind as we rode from temple to temple. Inside the temples, you could usually find cooler spaces, away from the heat.

Some of the temples we visited included the Bayon temple, known for its large well preserved faces, the Elephant terrace, Suor Proat (a small grouping of more run down temples), Thommanon Temple, Angkor Thom (the capital city of the Kmer Empire) with its surrounding walls and 5 large gates to enter the city. We saved one of the best for last, which was Ta Prohm, famous for its appearance in Tomb Raider, was a treat to explore, with many surprises around each corner. The temple has been left in a crumbling state with many blocks covered in green moss and trees that have taken root in the temple walls, growing to enormous heights right out of the wall. This provided many photo opportunities and we took our time exploring every corner.

Banteay Srei Temple

About 50 minutes from Siem Reap, Banteay Srei temple is worth a quick visit, and is included in the Angkor Pass as well. Dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva and Parvati, this temple is home to many intricate carvings due to the use of softer red sandstone to build it. We enjoyed walking around the small temple buildings, and admiring the view over the small pond with water lillies. There is a mix of restored parts with other parts left to their natural desruction over time, leaving some to your imagination. If you're planning to be nearby, as we were, give this temple a visit, but you probably wouldn't want to make the round trip drive just for this.

Cambodia Elephant Sanctuary

Elephants have historically played an important role in Cambodian culture, where they were highly prized by royalty and used for transportation, helped in the building of the temples during the Khmer Empire, and were even used in battle. Today, the elephant numbers have decreased and there are several elephant sanctuaries that are dedicated to helping these majestic animals. The goal is to ensure that the elephants have proper nutrition, care, and a safe place to roam, keeping them away from those who have chained and abused them in the past, forcing them into labor and underfeeding them.

The Cambodia Elephant Sanctuary currently takes care of 3 elephants, ranging in ages from 27 to 65, all females. They now live a great life, and are pampered and watched over. There is a guy whose job is to follow the elephants all day long, and he even sleeps near them at night! The cost to visit was a bit pricey, at $65pp but it goes to a good cause. We contacted them the night before and inquired if we could show up there with our own transportation (they usually pick up and return you from Siem Reap), and so we took the motorbike there for the 9am visit.

The visit includes creating rice and banana balls, feeding them, giving a lot of extra banana treats, watching the elephants eat their sugar cane and banana trees, and a lot of time in the river with them. The elephants are quite used to humans and so you can get very close to them. The highlight is helping them get wet from the river and scrubbing them with brushes. In the process, you will also get very wet, but that was part of the fun! We loved our time with the elephants and would highly recommend supporting one of these sanctuaries with a visit or donation!

Phnom Kulen National Park

About a half hour further, we drove to the Phnom Kulen National Park. There are many day trips offered to the park where you can take a mini bus for the round trip from Siem Reap. We found out that they only let people enter up until noon, and then the road is for cars coming back down. We saw very few other visitors as we made our way up the hill into the park. The road turned from paved to muddy red dirt, and was not a fun challenge on the motorbike. We had to go very slow through some of the sticky and slippery muddy sections. Finally, we made it to the first stop, which is the overlook. You can look out over the granite cliffs to the jungle below with some dramatic views. We continuted on, for what seemed like a very long time. Along the dirt road, there were many security guards just standing around and we are not sure why they needed so many. There also seemed to be a lot of trails out into the jungle and we're not sure where the led, perhaps to people's houses. There were also women and children sitting around the edge of the road with some people appearing to be working on the road.

When we reached the next stop, where you can walk down to the waterfall, all of a sudden we found the rest of the tourists, including a lot of locals as well. People had all come prepared to swim at the waterfall, but when we saw it, it was quite powerful due to being the end of the rainy season. The water was raging down and swimming didn't seem very appealing. We enjoyed a cold beer by the waterfall and then decided to have a small lumch of chicken curry and rice at the one restaurant that was there. It ended up being very good for only a few dollars. We wanted to see another sight nearby where there are carvings under the water of the river, but the river was too high to see much. It's probably best to see this park a little further into the dry season! We tackled the long drive back to Siem Reap, taking several breaks, once stopping at a locals restaurant where they have little platforms with hammocks to sit in. These style of places can be found all over and seem popular but not crowded. We had some smoked pork and cold beer over ice. By the way, ice is safe here, as it's made at the bottled water factory.

Angkor Wat

We had planned to see Angkor Wat near sunset, and it ended up being even better than we would have thought. Most of the people were headed out of the temple, not in. Those that were in were mostly individuals or small groups of locals, and we did not see any larger tour groups at all! As we walked in to Angkor Wat, the sun cam out from behind the clouds and cast a glowing light on the temple. Right as we got inside, it started to rain briefly, which made even more people leave. We found ourselves in this magical place almost completely alone, as we explored the inner parts of the temple. We were in awe!

Built in the early 12th century, Angkor Wat was again constucted as a Hindu temple, said to represent Mount Meru from Hindu mythology. Like many of the other temples, it was later used as a Buddhist temple before falling into disrepair and then being restored in the 20th century. Many tour groups will have you show up for the sunrise at Angkor Wat, but we really loved our time at sunset, as the light is behind you, not directly in front, and there were very few tourists. Plus of course you get to sleep in and enjoy your hotel's breakfast! Angkor Wat is sometimes referred to as the 8th Wonder of the World, and we would agree it is a spectacular place.