Day 11: Why You Should Start Your Angkor Experience at the National Museum

On our last full day in Siem Reap, I checked out the Angkor National Museum. I kind of felt guilty we just breezed through the Angkor Archaeological Park the day before and I thought a trip to the museum would be a good recap to the whole Cambodian journey. And it was.  But if I were to decide, I’d start my Angkor experience in this museum.

Elegant facade of the museum

First, I’d like to say the museum is beautifully and elegantly built – fit for an empire indeed. The interiors are clean and well-kept. But what is most fascinating about the museum is the treasure it holds. Yesterday during the Angkor tour, I was admiring some of the carvings on the walls. What I didn’t realize is that these temples with their intricate carvings beautifully etched on the temple walls have a lot of stories to tell about the history of the Khmer empire. My trip to the museum made me understand (although belatedly) the bigger historical perspective – who were the Kings of the Empire, who built what temple, etcetera. I was awe-struck by the exhibits too, especially the gallery of the 1,000 Buddha images in all shapes, sizes, positions, and materials. It was also kind of creepy with all those Buddha eyes on you but a good kind of creepy.

 

Audio tour materials

An audio tour is available for an additional fee but it was worth the extra dollars. They will provide you with a headset and a small machine that plays the audio. You can go at your own pace, even repeat some explanations you didn’t get the first time. If you don’t opt for the audio tour, each gallery of the museum is equipped with short video introductions that will provide a preview of the entire section. So no worries, everybody goes home happy. I’ve never quite enjoyed a museum tour as this one.

One of the museum artifacts in the lobby. Look at those details in the carvings!

The Museum Shop sells a lot of cool items from soaps to books to clothes.

That night, we rode the Sleeper Bus back to Saigon, Vietnam. In this trip, we have ridden almost every known vehicle to man – airplane, taxi, motorcycle, tuktuk, seating section of the train, sleeping section of the train, bus, sleeper bus. Yes, we are living up to the backpacker’s lifestyle. And I love it.

Next: Day 12: Getting into a Little Trouble at Ben Thanh Market

Day 10: Visiting Angkor and Presenting… The Happy Pizza

Chasing the break of dawn in Cambodia.

By 5AM, we were on our toes and ready to kick start the day with a healthy dose of sunshine at the famous Angkor Wat. Unfortunately, our tuktuk driver forgot to fetch us. Or simply made other plans with customers who were willing to pay more. Damn. By the time we booked with an alternate tuktuk driver, it was nearly sunrise and we tried to chase it – to no avail. Sad to say, the sunrise was not for us to see that day. :(

Didn't catch the sunrise but I can still take a photo with it!

One of the more important realizations I had that day was that the Angkor Archaeological Park is HUUUGE. Angkor Wat is just one of the temples you can visit. Thus, they are selling 1-day pass, 2-day pass, and 3-day passes for tourists. Yup, that’s a lot of temple-hopping right there. And because we didn’t have 3 days, we got the 1-day pass. I only wanted really nice pictures of myself in a background of awesome-looking temples, especially that temple where Angelina Jolie shot Tomb Raider. Yeah, sometimes I can be that shallow. It’s just impossible to see all temples in one day at a normal pace. We’ve already rented the tuktuk for a day and didn’t want to splurge a couple more dollars to hire a tour guide so we looked at the map of the entire park and marked the temples we wanted to go visit. It was sort of a wise decision though. Our first stop was in Angkor Wat and within 30 minutes of walking around and taking pictures, I was already templed out. So we told our tuktuk driver of the plan, made a route around the temples we wanted to visit, took short strolls around each temple, snapped several photos, and then went back to our guest house. 

At the entrance to Bayon Temple

Face etched on the temple entrance

Ta Prohm, where AJ shot Tomb Raider.

Later that evening, we headed to Happy Angkor Pizza to check the second item off my travel bucket list: eat happy pizza. If you don’t know what that is, google it. *wink* Some sources on the internet say there’s been a crackdown on happy pizza in Cambodia but from the looks of it, there isn’t. Stalls are flaunting their dishes happily, pun intended.

Happy Pizza with melted cheese

There are levels of “happiness” in the pizza you can order. I chose the mildest of course. I just wanted to taste it, not get addicted to it. My travel buddy didn’t want to try it so I had five slices all to myself. The pizza was goooooood. I didn’t like the taste of the happy toppings though. I could taste the herb and it’s a bitter contrast to the cheese and sauce. Thankfully, no hallucinations of any sort occurred that night. 

Next: Day 11: Why You Should Start Your Angkor Experience at the National Museum 

Day 9: Apsara Dancing and Shopping at the Angkor Night Market

We’ve had quite enough of travel lately so we decided to rest through most of the day. Did I mention my travel buddy and I are introverts? We needed to recharge so we took advantage of the guesthouse’s free wifi and cable TV. Perfect. Just what we needed.

We can’t sleep in the whole day of course, so our guesthouse booked us to a buffet dinner with an Apsara performance in Amazon Angkor Restaurant (for $10) for the evening.

Apsara dancers taking the stage at Amazon Angkor Restaurant

Our guesthouse, Bou Savy, is quite popular with Filipino tourists so when the tuktuk driver came to pick us up for the dinner buffet, we found out there was a lovely, older Filipino couple who booked for the same dinner. It turned out the older gentleman was a former employee of the National Power Corporation. One of the industries of my former employer is power so we launched into a lighthearted discussion about coal, power plants, and sustainability. While partaking of the food and watching the Apsara performance, we also noted how Asian dances in general have overlapping similarities in costume and dance styles. Hmm. This was turning into an intellectual, cultural, and culinary evening.

Welcome to the Angkor Night Market!

When the Apsara performance ended, we went back to the guesthouse. The couple called it a day and went in to retire for the night. It was quite early so we took off to Angkor Night Market.

I would love to have this is my garden!

Angkor Night Market sells a wide range of items from jewelry, souvenirs, shirts, pants, books, and decorative items. They even have a bar in the middle of the market! I had fun looking at the stuff and strolling around. There weren’t a lot of people so we had plenty of room to move around. After a few purchases, we were good and we headed back to the guesthouse. We needed to be up early the next day for the Angkor Wat tour.

Next: Day 10: Visiting Angkor and Presenting... The Happy Pizza