Angkor Small Circuit with Tuk Tuk Bean

I’ve recounted before how I found and coordinated trips with Tuk Tuk Bean and ended up choosing to do the Small Circuit with him. The tour guide he provided for was Nak (Chap Vachanak) who was waiting for us in our hotel lobby well before the appointed 6:30 am start. Nak was also in a tour guide uniform but he was far younger than Somondy. He’s still in school studying International Relations with hopes to become a diplomat. Mama asked him if he studied anything about Ghana and he was well informed of politics and geography of West Africa. M’sa let him know that our father was a retired diplomat for Ghana and that we applauded his ambitions. Nak was very informative, in a school-boy kind of way. He too waited patiently for Tuk Tuk Bean to give his spiel and to take amazing photographs of us at each site before taking over as official guide accompanying us to sights that should not be missed.

After introductions upon picking us up at our hotel for the Small Circuit, Tuk Tuk Bean rode to a roadside kiosk where he filled his ice chest with water, soft drinks, beer, and wet wipes for our convenience during the day. He also had surgical masks to share though I’m not sure if this was routine for the dust/fumes or because of the coronavirus. I was surprised to find tuk-tuk riding to be fun and not hot at all. I had feared it would be a bone-shaker experience and therefore awful for Mama but it was not at all.

This is the order in which we visited the temples of Angkor Small Circuit on our second full day in Siem Reap. The Small Circuit covers the majority of the “must-see” temples so if one only has one day for temples, this is the circuit to do, perhaps starting with Angkor Wat sunrise.

Angkor Thom

Not a temple in itself, this was the moated capital city of the Khmer empire in the late 12th century. The state temple is the Bayon which sits in the centre of the city. The Royal Palace no longer exists except its terraces, the Elephant Terrace and the Leper King Terrace. The city is known to have been highly developed with extensive roads, hospitals, and water systems. It was highly fortified. The gates including the Victory Gate still stands. We entered through Tonle Om, the South Fate. Here there is a sculpture of Airavata, the three-headed mythological elephant. The causeway crossing the moat also depicts the story of the Samudra Manthan (The Churning of the Ocean of Milk). On one side are the Devas (gods) and on the other side are the Asuras (demons) each pulling a giant snake, Vasuki, King of the Nagas.

Ta Prohm

The famous “Tomb Raider” temple that is overgrown by centuries-old banyan trees. I had wanted to start with this so as to avoid crowds. But it opens a little later (7 am), so that’s why Tuk Tuk Bean gave us his history lesson at Angkor Thom instead.

Ta Prohm was built by Jayavarman VII as a Buddhist temple and dedicated it to his mother. Here our official guide Nak took us over to a crumbling wall to show as the carving of a stegosaurus. What?!

We were distracted debating the authenticity of the carving when an Asian woman tapped Mama on the shoulder. We thought she wanted to pass us by but no, she wanted to take a picture with Mama and ended up doing so…in our confusion. In my travels around the world, I have long ago become disenamoured by those who want to take a picture of me or with me and I’m especially on guard around Asians who are the main offenders. I figure my woolly-headed, big-lipped, dark-skinned negress-self is in enough Chinese and Korean photo albums that my public service to the world in this matter is done.

Ta Keo

This is an unfinished sandstone mountain-temple, one of the tallest in Angkor. A very steep staircase leads to the upper level. We had to crawl up this one, I on all fours like a baby climbing stairs for the first time.

Understandably Mama waited for us on the middle level. At the top-most level, it felt as if I was on top of the world, nothing but the top of green trees in all directions. There was a sense of power in that. But then I imagined missing my step and falling up here and realised that would not be pleasant for any of us. Skittish I soon wanted to get down to less lofty ground sooner than later. Each block of sandstone used to build this temple was massive. I was fearful of the descent, but one foot before the next and we made it safely up and down.

Ta Nei

This late 12th-century temple built by King Jayavarman VII as well was added on to our itinerary by Tuk Tuk Bean. It’s not exactly part of the Small Circuit. It’s a secluded jungle temple and we had it all to ourselves at the time of our visit to enjoy its sereneness and to have fun taking clever pictures.

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Angkor Wat

The iconic temple that is shown on the national flag of Cambodia. I continue the blogpost here.