Bucket-list Cambodia in 3 days: Angkor Wat and hero rats

SIEM REAP, Cambodia – Our guide led us through the dark, in silence, to a small pagoda where Buddhist monks had gathered before sunrise to perform their early morning meditations.

It was an intimate and ethereal start to the day. But it didn’t last.

A few minutes later, we crowded together with hundreds of others at the entrance to Angkor Wat, the magnificent ancient temple complex in northwest Cambodia.

I stood on my tiptoes hoping to see the iconic image of the temple in the reflection pond as the sun was rising, but the hoisted cell phones in front of me blocked the view.

One of those phones was held aloft by my husband, who is 6 inches taller than me and had a considerably better view of the scene.

But no regrets. I maneuvered around and found a viewing spot, away from the crowds, all my own.

Yes, the experience was quite touristy, but also transcendent. This place is a bucket-list destination for a reason.

Touring the temples

At 400 acres, Angkor Wat (“temple city” or “temple that is a city” in Khmer, the language of Cambodia) is considered the largest religious structure in the world. Yet despite its size, it feels surprisingly intimate when you’re walking around inside it.

Seeing the temple at sunrise was one highlight among many during a three-day trip to Cambodia, sandwiched between two weeks in neighboring Vietnam. It was brutally hot during our visit – with temperatures above 100 degrees all three days – but we sweated through it, touring more than a half-dozen temples.

Read more: Vietnam in 2 weeks: A first-timer’s guide to Hanoi, Halong Bay and Hoi An

Dodging traffic and diving into history: Five days in northern Vietnam, from Hanoi to Halong Bay

Exploring the central coast of Vietnam: Hoi An, Hue and Danang

Angkor Wat is the best known, but there are more than 300 temples in the Siem Reap area, and more than 1,000 in Cambodia, many of them still entangled by the jungle.

Many of the temples were abandoned when the Khmer empire collapsed in the 15th century. The sites were at risk again in the 1970s, during Cambodia’s civil war.

Every global citizen on this earth should be grateful for the ongoing efforts to reclaim and restore these exquisite structures, a testament to human ingenuity, lasting beauty and enduring faith.

Angkor Wat was built starting in 1113 by Khmer King Suryavarman II to honor the Hindu god Vishnu. After the king’s death in 1150, the complex transitioned to a Buddhist site under new King Jayavarman VII, who also built his own extravagant temple city, Angkor Thom, nearby.

Angkor Wat continues to be an active place of worship today, with numerous Buddhist monks on site during the morning of our visit.

Among its best-known features: five signature towers, shaped like lotus buds, which represent the five peaks of Mount Meru, the home of the gods according to Hindu mythology.

Visitors can ascend a set of steep stairs toward the towers – “toward heaven” – for more serene artwork and terrific views.

Many of the Buddha statues up here, and elsewhere throughout the temple (and throughout the region), have their heads removed, the result of looting during the Cambodian Civil War in the 1970s, as well as earlier efforts by the French and others to “protect” the works.

Some of that artwork has been returned to Cambodia in recent years, including at least one piece from the Cleveland Museum of Art (Hanuman, the Hindu monkey god, was sent back in 2015). Some of the repatriated artwork is on display at the Angkor National Museum in Siem Reap.

There’s still plenty here to stretch the creative mind, including 2,000 stone apsaras (those heavenly maidens with elaborate headdresses), each one slightly different than the last; and the 160-foot-long bas-relief, the Churning of the Sea of Milk, carved into sandstone along the temple’s east gallery, depicting the tug of war between demons and gods.

“This is the most beautiful carving in the world,” according to our guide, Dit Khun. And who was I to argue?

About a mile north of Angkor Wat is Angkor Thom (“Great city”), built shortly after Angkor Wat by Jayavarman VII, who “wanted to build his own city,” according to our guide.

Angkor Thom is a sprawling complex of structures, with dozens of temples and other relics to tour.

At its center: the exquisite Bayon temple, with nine towers, each outfitted with massive, carved serene faces – smiling Buddhas, according to our guide – watching over us as we explored.

Access to Angkor Thom is via one of several elaborate bridges with massive statuary on either side, demons on the right and gods on the left.

At one time, the city was home to as many as 1 million residents.

Also nearby: Ta Prohm, a smaller site, a former school and monastery, built in the late 1100s and dedicated to the king’s mother.

Of note here are the sprawling, massive spung trees (also known as silk cotton trees), with elaborate root systems that seemingly grow from the ruins.

Ta Prohm is sometimes called the “Tomb Raider Temple” because it was featured in “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider,” the 2001 film starring Angelina Jolie that forged a lifelong connection between Cambodia and the American actress.

Explosive-sniffing rats

For a break from Cambodia’s ancient history, and a break from the oppressive heat, my husband and I spent part of one morning in Siem Reap exploring a more recent chapter of Cambodian history -- learning about efforts to deactivate land mines throughout the country.

Despite years of work, experts estimate that there are still millions of unexploded mines located throughout the country, a deadly legacy of decades of guerilla warfare in the second half of the 20th century. Every year, dozens of Cambodians are killed by accidentally setting off the explosives, primarily in rural areas

One organization that works to deactivate the mines is called APOPO, a nongovernmental organization headquartered in Belgium that uses trained African pouched rats to help detect explosives out in the field.

A small museum and visitors center in Siem Reap offers an overview of the process:

• Because of their light weight, the rats can succeed where humans cannot – detecting landmines without setting them off. African pouched rats were chosen for the job because of their relatively long lifespan of about 10 years. The rats are trained for a year, put into service for 5 to 6 years, and then retire for a year or two, our guide told us.
• Rats are harnessed to a rope, between two human guides, and travel back and forth over a given area, smelling for explosives. If they smell something, they either sit down or spin around.
• The landmines are then marked for detonation or dismantling.

APOPO estimates that the rats are partially responsible for the removal of more than 6,000 explosives cleared since 2016. The rats can also be trained to detect tuberculosis through sputum samples, assist in search and rescue efforts and help combat the illegal wildlife trade.

At the end of the tour, visitors can hold and pose for photos with the animals, dubbed Hero Rats.

More temple tours

After the rodent diversion, it was back to the ancient temples.

On our second full day in Cambodia, we traveled about 20 miles north of Siem Reap to perhaps the region’s most exquisite temple, Banteay Srei, also known as the lady temple. Constructed out of pink sandstone, the complex features some of the finest stone carvings anywhere, including elaborately decorated lintels and archways.

It’s a small space, easily explored in an hour or so, with the best signage at any site, including multiple panels in both Khmer and English explaining the history of the complex, how it was “discovered” in the mid-1800s by French explorers, and then restored, starting in the early 20th century.

For our final temple stop, we headed east to Beng Mealea, the “wildest” temple we toured, with tumbled blocks of sandstone strew amid the timeworn structures, entangled by foliage. Built during the same period as Angkor Wat, Beng Mealea is accessed primarily via a wooden boardwalk that winds through the complex.

A sign at the entrance, “Minefield Cleared by CMAC (the Cambodian Mine Action Center),” reinforced the difficulty of the task.

Work is ongoing here, and at other sites, part of the long-standing global effort to restore and rebuild these exquisite sites.

As that work continues, I’ve decided to keep Cambodia on my bucket list, in part to give me a reason to go back and explore these extraordinary sites again, to see how they continue to inspire and evolve.

If you go: Angkor Wat and Siem Reap, Cambodia

Siem Reap: With a population of about 250,000, Siem Reap (translated: “defeat of Siam”) is the second largest city in Cambodia, after capital Phnom Penh, and serves as the gateway to the ancient temples, with hundreds of places to stay, dine and shop.

Getting there: We flew from Hanoi, Vietnam, to Siem Reap on Vietnam Airlines, and then from Siem Reap to Danang, Vietnam, on Air Cambodia.

Flying from Cleveland to Siem Reap requires at least two stops – first on the West Coast and again in Asia.

In 2023, Siem Reap opened a new airport, Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport, located about 30 miles northeast of town.

Accessing the temples: Visitors are required to purchase a ticket to tour the temples, with proceeds helping to preserve the sites. A one-day ticket is $37; a three-day ticket (which is what we got) is $62 and includes access to dozens of sites within Angkor Archaeological Park. Information: angkorenterprise.gov.kh

Where we stayed: We stayed at the lovely Rambutan Siem Reap, a five-minute walk from downtown’s Night Market and lively Pub Street. The salt-water pool here was the perfect antidote to hours of touring in 100-plus degree weather. We paid about $80 a night in early March.

Getting around: The choice about how to travel around Siem Reap generated the most spirited debate of the trip between me and my travel companions. They insisted on air-conditioned car, while I felt strongly about traveling via for tuk-tuk (which here feature open-air golf-cart-type vehicles pulled by motorcycles). Given the extreme heat during our stay, I relented and enjoyed my air-conditioned ride. I did take a tuk-tuk tour of town, however, and recommend it to all. The driver for both, Mann Khin (+855 17 522 496 on WhatsApp), was terrific.

Currency: Cambodia uses two currencies: the Cambodian riel and U.S. dollar. We didn’t exchange money here, using credit cards and American cash throughout.

Visa: U.S. travelers need a visa to travel to Cambodia. The online application is easy – requiring passport information, photo and travel details – and should be approved within a couple of days. It costs $30. See evisa.gov.kh