Author: iAn L.

The Phimeanakas (or Prasat Phimean Akas) is a Khmer pyramid-like structure, which name translates to celestial temple. It was built in the later part of 10th century and was situated at the heart of Angkor Thom‘s Royal Palace. The royal palace seats in the north of the Baphuon temple. Since the Royal Palace is pretty close to Baphuon, we visited it next. We followed a trail in a highly vegetated area at the back of Baphuon and entered the south gopura of the palace. We spent some moments reading the information placards of trees we met along the way, which ... Read more

The Elephants Terrace is part of the walled city within Angkor Thom. This 300-meter long terrace serves as the viewing stand for public ceremonies and as base of the king’s grand audience hall. Elephant carvings decorate the southern sections while garuda and lion designs can be found in the central section. The terrace of the elephants

Immediately after exiting Bayon temple, we moved to the Baphuon temple. It is only few hundreds of meters (350+) away from Bayon, including the 150-meter walkway from the main road. The surrounding of the temple is a swamp, which gets deeper on wet season. That was probably why its builders created an elevated pathway. The walkway to Baphuon Temple Pyramid-like Temple Baphuon temple is also located within the Angkor Thom complex like the Bayon. It is a three-tiered pyramidal or mountain-like temple that was built in the mid-11th century. This 150-meter by 100-meter monument has a height of roughly 50 meters, including ... Read more

After witnessing the breathtaking view of Angkor Wat’s sunrise and wondering around its bewildering structure, our guide lead us to Angkor Thom. We entered the Angkor Thom complex via the south gopura (or an arched gate), and what welcomed us were stone figures seemingly pulling a log (a scene in a classical movie wherein the soldiers had to pull the big ropes to lift the bridge that leads to the castle). Sadly, most of these statues had been decapitated. Reasons? – Barang, our guide, did not tell us. Roderick, Aaron, and myself in our hired Tuktuk. Photo is taken at ... Read more

I never thought that I would be crossing out one great entry in my bucket list this year. This 12th-century temple was always a dream and then, just this December, I finally laid a hand to the world’s largest religious- and well-preserved monument – the Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat forms part of Angkor, the seat of the Khmer Empire (9th – 14th century AD) and was built during the reign of King Suryavarman II. We arranged with our tour guide the day before to pick us up in our hotel at 5:00AM for us to witness the sunrise. Due to excitement, ... Read more

It was already late afternoon when we arrived in Siem Reap. We’d been on the road for almost the entire day since we only took a public land transport from Bangkok. After a short rest in Angkor Wonder Hotel, we went out to the entertainment or tourist triangle, an area within Sivatha Road, 2 Thnou Street, and Pokambor Avenue. Here’s a list of some things to do in Siem Reap at night. Taste the Local Delicacies The first thing we had in mind was to eat. We’d been skipping our lunch because of that land trip, thus we really had ... Read more

I did not ask for peer recommendations when I booked our accommodations for our Indochina tour. The only criteria I had in mind is – as long as I can afford it. We will be spending 7 days in foreign lands, so I have to make sure that we won’t run out of funds. I had to keep our hotel expenses at minimum. Hostels are the cheapest, hence, I looked for a website that offers a great list of this accommodation type with easy booking procedures – then I found HostelWorld. I booked all our rooms in HostelWold including Lud ... Read more

We checked out early on our 4th day in Bangkok to catch the 05:55AM train to Aranyaprathet, the closest Thai town to the Cambodian border at Poipet. There are buses that ply directly from Bangkok to Siem Reap but we chose the train because we wanted the tour to be more indulging. We wanted to blend closely with the locals and try every public transport available. Taxi to Hua Lamphong station From Lub d Hostel in Siam Square, we took a taxi to the Hua Lamphong station of the State Railway of Thailand (SRT). The taxi was our last resort since ... Read more

Ayutthaya Kingdom [1351 to 1767 AD] was once considered as Southeast Asia’s most formidable. But not until 1767 when it fell to Burma’s fury. At the present, all that remained were ruins and the reinforced chedis. These ruins were under the protectorate of Ayutthaya Historical Park and were listed to the UNESCO World Heritage Site. We visited the Wat Phra Si Sanphet and the Grand Palace ruins after our tour inside the nearby Wihan Phra Mongkhon Bophit, making it the second stop of our “temple run” in Ayutthaya – part of the day 2 of our Indochina Tour. The three main chedis of ... Read more