Angkor Wat

This huge complex of temples, remnants of the ancient Khmer Empire, sprawls over an impressive area. When you think of the outlandish jungle ruins straight out of a movie, you are really thinking of Angkor Wat. They are, simply put, amazing. There are intact carvings everywhere, impressive architecture, and you get to climb over almost all of it. The whole complex takes it name from the largest and most famous temple, Angkor Wat, though there are some that are just as, if not more, spectacular. On our first day there, we explored the "Little Circuit" temples with our tuk-tuk driver, Wan:

Angkor Thom, an entire walled city of ruins including the temple Bayon, picture below (top and bottom left) with other temples in Angkor Thom (top and bottom right),

two small, unmarked temples that were empty except for us (quite a change from the more famous ones),

Ta Keo, the temple left unfinished after it was struck by lightning and the king who commissioned it took it as a sign from above,

pictured below, probably my favorite, Ta Phrom, ruins being taken over by jungle (so cool!), pictures below,

and we finished our day at the famous Angkor Wat, a grandiose temple arranged in a giant square with four towers at each corner and a central tower, giving it its characteristic appearance of the three towers, pictured below.

I have to say though, this is one of the few places I've been that looks better in a photo than in real life. Either way it is impressive, it's just that the photos look cooler. For the second day, we woke up for the fabled sunrise at Angkor Wat. It rained. But luckily for us the rain blew over before we got to our second stop, one of the outlying temples, Banteay Srei, a smaller but more colorful temple, pictured below.

We then we to the "Big Circuit" route, which includes some of the bigger temples in the areas just outside of the ones yesterday. They included: first Pre Rup, a large sandstone temple that struck me as looking like a mini Angkor Wat, pictured below,

then East Meron (left) and Ta Som (right).

Just as we were beginning to think they temples were all blending together, we were hit with the biggest temple on the Big Circuit, which reminded me of Roman or Greek Architecture for all its columns but with the distinct mark of the mixed Hindu/Buddhist architectural themes prevalent in Angkor Wat.

And to cap it all off, we hiked up a hill-temple, Phnom Bakheng, just as it was starting to rain again. We reached the top, where there is thankfully still a little ruin with a partially closed stone roof, just as the downpours started with the thunder booming all around. It was quite a cool experience and when the rain stopped, we saw panoramic views of the area, including a glimpse of the temples, such as Angkor Wat, and rainforest shrouded with mists and that concluded our Cambodian ruin exploration.

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Details:
The tickets to the ruins cost $20 for one day, $40 for three days, and $60 for a week. We did two days and while it isn't the most economical option, it worked the best for us. You could do the Little Circuit and the Big Circuit in one day, though it would be tiring. If ruins are really your thing, just do the one day, Little Circuit, though try to go in the afternoon or some time when there aren't many tour groups around. While we didn't see everything in two days (you would need three to see it all), we saw all that we wanted to and it was enough. To get around, hire a tuk-tuk driver, they are around in abundance, but don't pay more than $10 a day for the Little Circuit or $15 a day for the longer-distance days. Think about doing an afternoon rather than a morning if you are going at a slower pace; less people and good lighting for photos. Here is a map of the area with most of the temples labelled: