Angkor Wat

If you don't have it on your list of places to go- add Angkor Wat- in big capital letters- and then star it and highlight it.

This place is amazing. An ancient atmosphere and marvel, the area around Siem Reap has more than 147 temples, of which you can actually only visit about a third of them. We spent 3 days wandering through temples, and only saw about a dozen. Which was plenty though, after a while you do get "templed out." I'll try to post these chronologically as we saw them, so there will be a few posts with temples. Some of these temples are built with sandstone- which is what you see the elaborate carvings done in, and then they also used bricks and lava rock as foundations. Some older temples are made entirely of brick. Some of the temples are based on Hindu beliefs and deities, others on Buddhist. We were fortunate to have cloudy skies which made it cooler, though the pics weren't as opportune. I'd rather it be cooler though.

Book a tour called "Angkor Discovery" with the Villa Siem Reap- it's a full day and will take you through most of the Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom complexes- the guide speaks English and gives you a good amount of information in regards to the history of the temples- this is the day I recommend having a guide- it's much more interesting if you do. The tour includes a really good Khmer lunch at the villa as well.