Over a dozen temples exist in the Angkor Archaeological Park, and there are even more outside of the Park. It was hard to choose which temples to visit. I’ve already gone over our favorite temples – Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Ta Prohm, and Preah Khan. Here are the other temples we visited during our three days at Siem Reap in order of preference: (1) Banteay Srey, (2) Ta Som, (3) Banteay Kdei, (4) Phnom Bakheng, and (5) Neak Pean.

I enjoyed Banteay Srey quite a bit. It is about 38 kilometers outside of the Angkor Archaeological Park and takes about 45 minutes by tuk tuk. Although it is far away, it was nice for us to visit a few temples in the morning and then take the trip out to Banteay Srey. It was breezy in the tuk tuk, and it was interesting to see the less developed countryside. Banteay Srey is different from the other temples we visited since it was made of pink sandstone.

Moreover, the carvings at Banteay Srey were quite intricate and well-preserved. Although it was a little further away, Banteay Srey was worth the visit.

Second, Mr. Selfish and I went to Ta Som, which was like a combination of Bayon and Ta Prohm. It had faces like Bayon and overgrown trees like Ta Prohm. Although it was a small temple, it had the best of both worlds.

Third, we visited Banteay Kdei, which was formerly used as a monastic complex. It is currently undergoing a lot of renovations. Mr. Selfish went up to the top whereas I walked around the perimeter.

Fourth, Mr. Selfish and I tried to go up Phnom Bakheng for sunset. Unfortunately, it was Lunar New Year that day, and the temple was entirely packed with Chinese tourists. We showed up early but the line was just too long for us to make the sunset. Hence, Phnom Bakheng is not high on my list, but that may just be due to our bad timing.

Finally, we made a quick stop at Neak Pean. The walk over the water raised our expectations for this water temple. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to see due to the construction. I would skip this temple.

This concludes my posts on our trip to Siem Reap. Next, we’ll go over our time in Bangkok.