Temple Sunrise – Benteay Srei – Benteay Samre Temples – Preah Kahn- Prei Rup – Neak Poan – Kravan Temple

• Angkor Wat

  2 hoursAdmission Ticket Included

  For those that want to fully experience Angkor Wat then a sunrise visit is a must. Choose your location as each Temple provides its own special qualities at this time of the day. Follow on from this with a picnic breakfast before we head out to continue our exploration.

• Banteay Srei

  2 hoursAdmission Ticket Free

  The temple of Banteay Srei or the Citadel of the Women, boasts superbly well-preserved and highly intricate stone carvings that adorn the pink-hued sandstone of the delightfully small and intimate site. Banteay Srei which was never a royal temple, is thought to have been built by a guru of the king and it is believed that this lack of a royal go-ahead is one of the reasons why it is so small. While small it is still beautiful and it is also worth exploring the surrounding natural landscapes. Some have suggested that the temple was built by women as no man could have created something so beautiful and with so fine a hand. The intricate stone carvings adourn much of the temple’s surface.

• Banteay Samre

  2 hoursAdmission Ticket Included

  We stop along the way to enjoy a local snack for morning tea before heading to another of the smaller Angkor temples, the Banteay Samre takes its name from the Samre people that inhabited the area. The temples pediments and lintels are decorated with very intricate and well preserved carvings of Hindu mythological stories and Buddhist depictions. With little historical records giving information about the founding of the temple it is not known what year the temple was build. Judging from its style and ornamentation, it is likely that the Banteay Samre was build around halfway through the 12th century during the reign of King Suryavarman II. At the start of the 20th century the Banteay Samre was overgrown with jungle. It was restored during the 1930’s using the anastylosis method, that aims to lovingly restore the monument as close as possible to the original.

• Preah Khan

  2 hoursAdmission Ticket Included

  After relaxing over lunch we continue to explore the greater Kingdom starting with Preah Khan temple located just outside the capital city Angkor Thom which was built in 1191 with its name translating to “the Sacred Sword”. The temple was built by Jayavarman VII, a Buddhist King who liberated Angkor by driving out the occupying forces of the Cham. The King who earlier dedicated Ta Prohm temple to his mother, dedicated the Preah Khan to his father. The statue of Lokeshvara was carved to resemble the King’s father.

• Pre Rup

  2 hoursAdmission Ticket Included

  we then explore Pre Rup, built by Rajendravarman II, the temple consists of a pyramid-shaped temple-mountain with the uppermost of the three tiers carrying five majestic lotus towers. Pre Rup means ‘Turning the Body’ and refers to a traditional method of cremation in which a corpse’s outline is traced in the cinders which suggests that the temple may have served as an early royal crematorium.

• Neak Pean

  2 hoursAdmission Ticket Included

  We take in the Buddhist temple of Preah Neak Poan which is an intimate yet perfect temple constructed by Jayavarman VII in the late 12th century. It has a large square pool surrounded by four smaller square pools. In the middle of the central pool is a circular ‘island’ encircled by the two nagas whose intertwined tails give the temple its name.

• Prasat Kravan

  2 hoursAdmission Ticket Included

  We finsh our time in Angkor Wat visiting the Prasat Kravan which is a fbeautiful example of a early 10th century Hindu monument. It consists of a line of five brick towers built closely together set atop a low platform oriented towards the East.The monument was dedicated to Vishnu, the Supreme God of Hinduism. The Prasat Kravan is one of the few Angkor temples that was not built by a King, but by a high ranking Hindu priest. The towers are of slightly different size, the central tower being the largest, the towers on either side of it somewhat smaller, the outer towers being the smallest. In the interior of the central and Northern tower is a number of beautiful sculptures made directly in the brickwork of the towers, a unique feature in Angkor, which is often found in the Cham temples of Vietnam.
• Food And Drinks

  Lunch