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angkor wat alone
I have read rec.travel.asia when going to SEAsia for ten years. For
the first time this year I went to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat. A few observations about visiting that vast park: - It's easy, and safe, to get around the Ankgor Wat monuments alone because apparently any hotel or guest house will arrange a driver and/ or guide for you. I prefer a tuk-tuk to a taxi; they're cool to ride in and give the best views along the way. In Feb. 2007 they were going for $12/day (dawn to dusk); the driver takes you to one entrance to a monument and picks you up at the other. IN any event, you don't need to go on a package tour if you can simply make a hotel reservation yourself through the usual web resources like tripadvisor or virtual tourist, and a plane reservation for yourself through Bangkok Air (pricey but the only fairly hassle-free way.) - At my age (71) having a walking stick at hand was great (though I never use one at home). The steps, even when just a few, are steep in every monument, and you won't necessarily find a helping hand to step you up the stones. Many of the innermost monuments are "mountains" of stone. I didn't attempt to climb them (Angkor Wat included) but even just going in and out of the enclosures can be daunting if you don't have a brace of some sort. - It is extremely hot, apparently throughout the year. Be sure to wear a hat (buy one there!) and carry water all the time. - Be prepared for a great many tourists, as in package tours of Asians who love to take pictures of one another repeatedly. Unlike at some other highly-touristy places, you can't beat this by going early or late since "sunrise" and "sunset" are favorite times to visit the monuments. It helps if you go between noon and three, but of course that's always the hottest time of the day. - Don't bother to haul a heavy guidebook. They're for sale, cheap, at any monument, and if you want the definitive one, for free, it can be downloaded as a pdf from www.theangkorguide.com/; I downloaded that to my palm pilot for handy reference. If you download the short version from there before you leave, and print it out, you'll have a handy one- pager and a good map. That's all you really need most of the time. |
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