Siem Reap - Day 4 Quad Adventure

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Day 4 - Quad Adventure

One thing you must not missed when in Siem Reap is to go for a ride on the Quads. I would highly recommend that you go for a relaxing sunset tour where they will bring you for a 1.5 to 2 hour tour to the paddy fields, see the villagers and watch the beautiful sun set.

You can book in advance via the site here: Quad Adventure.

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There are many different kinds of tours available tailored according to your budget and the time you have. The staff are very friendly and if you stay in a hotel around the town centre, they will come and pick you up in a tuk-tuk. Also, I like their safety culture and they take it seriously.

A Quad adventure staff came on a tuk tuk and picked us up from our hotel. And it was just a 10 minute ride to the Quad Adventure base.

And along the way riding on the tuk tuk, we passed by old shops and villages through unpaved, dusty roads and the sense of adventure filled the air.

Here is the Quad station where you pick up the quads. Before the actual tour, the staff there who is very courteous and friendly will teach you how to handle the quad, they will let you try and you go for a short practise run first in the vicinity. Then you are ready to go out into the village tours.

And these are some of the scenes we experienced and enjoyed riding the quads.

And finally, we stopped by the road side for a good half hour to enjoy the scene. There are many cows and buffaloes being herded back to the farms after their day out grazing. Then the beautiful sun set - from a pinky setting into one golden orangey sky.

Cheers! So when you are in Siem Reap, don't forget to mark this as one of the 'must do' activities. You'll enjoy it throughly just as we did. Happy Holidays ...

Siem Reap - Day 3

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Day 3

Set off at 8am to visit 2 places, a half day tour.

Angkor War Museum.

This is an open air museum located in the outskirts west of Siem Reap. You can hire a guide who is usually one of the victims of the Khmer Rouge reign of terror. The museum shows the weapons used when Cambodia was in a state of war for about 29 years -- from 1970 until 1999. 

Many of you would have seen the movie "The Killing Fields". It shows the sheer hell that innocent Cambodians suffered during that period. Pol Pot was the one behind this regime of terror and he was supported by the Chinese military. 

The population of Cambodia was 7 million at the beginning of the Pol Pot regime of terror; the population was less than 4 million when the war finally ended. Most of those 3 million people were either bludgeoned to death (bullets cost too much), or they were literally worked to death or starved. 

Pol Pot separated families -- when his army takes over a village or town, they would send the women to one camp, men to another and children to another. Pol Pot's army placed tens of thousands of land mines throughout the Cambodian countryside, especially heavily near the borders with neighboring Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. They also would put mines in the city streets for children to pick up and detonate. In retaliation for these mines, the regular Cambodian troops also set land mines. 

Today, most of these land mines have been removed except in the northern part of Cambodia near Thailand. Tourists are warned not to venture off well-traveled paths or roads anywhere in Cambodia. With good reason. The war ended only after Pol Pot died of a heart attack in 1998 and his army no longer wished to fight, although even today there are still a few remnants of the Khmer Rouge out in the jungle of northern Cambodia. In 1999 peace was finally declared.

Pouk Silk Farm

Next we adjourn to the Silk Farm, about 16 km west of Siem Reap in the Pouk district. After a 20 minute drive, we reached an eight hectare farm give a unique insight into the different stages involved in silk production, from the mulberry tree orchards, silkworm breeding, the spinning mills and the dying and weaving processes.

Artisans D Angkor has presented the art of silk making and weaving in a very professional manner and they really make one understand the hard labour and many hours behind the stunning silks óne find in Cambodia. 

Our guide was very interesting and well informed explaining not only the process of making the silk but about the workers etc too. Also nice to have a wee ice-cream outside after too :-)

Day 4 Here

Siem Reap - Day 2 ( Angkor Wat & Temples)

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Day 2

Our Siem Reap tour today is temple day. We set off at about 8am. We made use of the services of cambodiantaxidriver and booked the taxi for the day for US$50. It includes a guide as well. Taxi driver and guide were punctual as they were already waiting for us outside the hotel Steung Siem Reap.

Map of Angkor Wat Temples

Google Aerial view below

Map of the Angkor Wat Temples

View The Angkor Wat Temples Cityin a larger map

Along the way to the temples, we stopped by the ticket booths area to purchased a day pass which cost US$20 per person to visit the various Angkor Wat temples.

1) The first temple is Angkor Wat, 6km north of the city. It is the largest religious monument in the world. The 200 metres wide moat and causeway with the 350 meters entrance portico is impressive enough, but the grandeur within its square mile of walls is truly stunning. Over 1 kilometer of spectacular carvings lie within its outer galleries and a vast labyrinth of passages, courtyards and the five lotus flower towers at its centre.

Tired tourists taking a rest

2) The second temple was Bayon Temple. Dating from the 12th century, Bayon Temple is the spectacular central temple of the ancient city of Angkor Thom. The complex is located just to the north of the famous Angkor Wat.

Bayon is known for its huge stone faces of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, with one facing outward and keeping watch at each compass point. The curious smiling image, thought by many to be a portrait of Jayavarman himself, has been dubbed by some the "Mona Lisa of Southeast Asia." There are 51 smaller towers surrounding Bayon, each with four faces of its own.

3) The third temple we visited is the infamous Ta Prohm Temple and its root systems. This huge temple complex looks much the same as when it was first discovered. Many centuries of history lie twisted and broken with the monstrous root systems of huge trees enveloping doors and windows in a stranglehold. 

Ta Prohm is extensively ruined, but you can still explore numerous towers, close courtyards and narrow corridors, discovering hidden gems of stone reliefs beneath the encroaching foliage. Many of the corridors are impassible, thanks to the jumbled piles of carved stone blocks that clog their interiors.

There are 39 towers at Ta Prohm, which are connected by numerous galleries. Visitors are no longer permitted to climb onto the crumbling galleries, due to the potential damage to both temple and visitor.

These are the 3 main temples that one needs to visit in Siem Reap. Each has its own unique architecture and design.. Of course there are many more temples in the vicinity but to us this is more than enough as far as temple hopping goes.

One tip for visitors: The weather in Siem Reap can be hot and humid. There is not much shade at the temples. So don't forget to splash plenty of sunblock, and have an umbrella and a hat or cap always at hand. Of course, don't forget to protect your eyes with a good pair of sunglasses.

Enjoy !!