Car & Tuk Tuk service

Tuk Tuk tours cost 25$ in one day for special tours
Such as: Angkor wat ( sunrise ),Angkor Thom (Bayon), Preh Khan, Banteay Srey ,Ta Phrom and Phnom Bakeng ( sunset )
(Free cool water or looking around in the city)

Car tours cost 45$ in one day for special tours
Such as: Angkor wat ( sunrise ), Angkor Thom (Bayon), Preh Khan, Banteay Srey ,Ta Phrom and Phnom Bakeng ( sunset )
(Free cool water or looking around in the city tours)

Car tours cost 65$ for National Park ( Phnom Kulen or Kulen mountain )
  (Free cool water or looking around in the city tours)

Car tours cost 110$ for Kho Ker and Beng Melea
 (Free cool water or looking around in the city tours)

Contact us

If you have any questions, please contact me by email at: samnangdona@gmail.com
or phone number is (+855) 17984689 or (+855) 885181777.

Koh Ker

Koh ker (Northeast of Siem Reap, 127km)
Abandoned to the forests of the north, Koh Ker (admission US$10), capital of the Angkorian empire from AD 928 to AD 944, was long one of Cambodia’s most remote and inaccessible temple complexes. However, this has now changed thanks to recent de-mining and the opening of a new toll road from Dam Dek (via Beng Mealea) that puts Koh Ker (pronounced kah-kei) within day-trip distance of Siem Reap. But to really appreciate the temples – the area has 42 major structures in an area that measures 9km by 4km – it’s necessary to spend the night.

Several of the most impressive pieces in the National Museum in Phnom Penh come from Koh Ker, including the huge garuda (mythical half-man, half-bird creature) that greets visitors in the entrance hall and a unique carving depicting a pair or wrestling monkey-kings.

Most visitors start at Prasat Krahom (Red Temple), the second-largest structure at Koh Ker, which is named for the red bricks from which it is constructed. Sadly, none of the carved lions for which this temple was once known remain, though there’s still plenty to see – stone archways and galleries lean hither and thither and impressive stone carvings grace lintels, doorposts and slender window columns. A naga-flanked causeway and series of sanctuaries, libraries and gates lead past trees and vegetation-covered ponds. Just west of Prasat Krahom, at the far end of a half-fallen colonnade, are the remains of an impressive statue of Nandin.

The principal monument at Koh Ker is Prasat Thom (Prasat Kompeng), a 55m-wide, 40m-high sandstone-faced pyramid with seven tiers that’s just west of Prasat Krahom. This striking structure, which looks like it could almost be a Mayan site somewhere on the Yucatan Peninsula, offers some spectacular views across the forest from its summit. Look out for the giant garuda under the collapsed chamber at the top of the vertigo-inducing stairs. Some 40 inscriptions, dating from 932 to 1010, have been found at Prasat Thom. South of this central group is a 1185m-by-548m baray (reservoir) known as the Rahal. It is fed by Stung Sen, which supplied water to irrigate the land in this arid area.

Some of the largest Shiva linga (phallic symbols) in Cambodia can still be seen in four temples about 1km northeast of Prasat Thom. The largest is in Prasat Thneng, and Prasat Leung (Prasat Balang) is similarly well endowed.

Other interesting temples: Prasat Bram (Prasat Pram), the first you come to after passing the toll booths (it’ll be on your left), which is named in honour of its five towers, two of which are smothered by strangler figs; Prasat Neang Khmau (Prasat Nean Khmau), a bit further north and on your right, with some fine lintels decorating its otherwise bland exterior; and Prasat Chen (Prasat Chhin), about halfway from the toll booths to Prasat Krahom, where the statue of the wrestling monkeys was discovered.

Koh Ker is one of the least-studied temple areas from the Angkorian period. Louis Delaporte visited in 1880 during his extensive investigations into Angkorian temples. It was surveyed in 1921 by the great Henri Parmentier for an article in the Bulletin de l’École d’Extrême Orient, but no restoration work was ever undertaken here. Archaeological surveys were carried out by Cambodian teams in the 1950s and 1960s, but all records vanished during the destruction of the 1970s, helping to preserve this complex as something of an enigma.

BENG Mealea

Date: Middle of the 12th century, with later
additions
Style: Angkor Wat
Reign: Suryavarman II

Though unrestored, and in a fairly ruinous state, the large temple of Beng Mealea (‘Lotus Pond’) some 40 km due east of Angkor on the ancient royal way to the ‘great Preah Khan’ of Kompong Svay (another 60 km further on), is one of the major monuments of the classical period, in the style of Angkor Wat and roughly contemporary with it. Whoever built it must have been a figure of some importance, but he remains unknown, as no inscriptions have been found here, and no other that mentions it. Its position was strategic, where the royal way to Koh Ker in the NE forks from the road E to the ‘great Preah Khan’, and also at the head of a canal that leads directly to the Great Lake, down which sandstone blocks from the nearby quarries could have been floated on their way to Angkor.

Its chaotic state, with collapsed galleries and towers (the central sanctuary is virtually a pit, with no superstructure whatsoever) may be due to a variety of causes. The most important is simply the wear and tear of eight and a half centuries in a tropical climate, with the spread of vegetation, including the silk-cotton tree and strangler fig, going to work on some ambitious vaulting which was being tried out here and at Angkor Wat for the first time. It is not known whether there was any iconoclasm, a possibility whenever there is evidence of different faiths practiced, as here. Happily, there is no evidence of recent looting. There is a considerable disorder, but very romantic for all that.

Many of the early French scholars thought highly of this temple for both its architecture and its decoration. Coedès made a special study of its carving, and Groslier considered it to be a prototype, with a “harmony, powerful sober”. Its history is completely unknown, and it can be dated only by its style, which is of the mid-12th century. Beng Mealea was built of blue sandstone from local quarries, and while there are no narrative bas-relief panels as at Angkor Wat, there is a fair amount of decoration on walls and pilasters, all of a high standard, as well as apsaras, lintels and a few pediments. The religious history is also unknown, with carvings showing legends of Vishnu, Shiva and the Buddha.

KBAL SPEAN

Date: Possibly 11th to 12th centuries
Style: Bapuon
Reign: Udayadityavarman II

Location: 50 km northeast of Siem Reap The Siem Reap river (Stung Siem Reap in Khmer), which flows through the main Angkor group and the town of Siem Reap to drain into the Tonle Sap, rises in the western part of the Kulen Mountains north of Banteay Srei. One of its tributaries, the Stung Kbal Spean, flows into it from an outlying hill, the Phnom Kbal Spean. In these upper reaches, it tumbles down the steep hillside, cutting through sandstone strata, and here, just above a fine waterfall, images of the gods have been carved directly into the river bed along a 150-metre stretch that was discovered only in 1968 by Jean Boulbet. Among these are groups of many stubby lingas arranged in rows, and these gave it its Sanskrit name, Sahasralinga, ‘River of a Thousand Lingas’.
The fields of lingas are indeed striking, but of greater sculptural interest are the several carvings of Vishnu Reclining in the stream bed. The other two members of the Hindu trinity, Shiva and Brahma, are also represented. Whether the carvings are dry or submerged depends on the water level and so the season, and they are probably at their most evocative at the end of the rainy season, when the fast-flowing water courses around but does not completely submerge the majority. Ever since the first Khmer ruler, Jayavarman II, proclaimed himself emperor ot the world in 802, these hills have been regarded as having deep historical and religious significance.
Fortunately, there are several inscriptions carved into the rock, and these date everything to the reign of Udayadityavarman II. With the exception of the one that refers to ‘a thousand lingas’, authored by an elder minister of Suryavarman I in 1054, these inscriptions, carved by hermits, do not refer directly to the sculptures. However, they are of the same period, clearly Bapuon style in 1059 King Udayadityavarman came here to consecrate a golden linga.

Phreah Vihear

Prasat Preah Vihear (North of Siem Reap, about 200km)

The most dramatically situated of all the Angkorian monuments, 800m-long Prasat Preah Vihear (elevation 730m; admission 10,000r) perches high atop the south-facing cliff face of the Dangkrek Mountains. The views are breathtaking: lowland Cambodia 550m below, stretching as far as the eye can see, with the holy mountain of Phnom Kulen looming in the distance.

Prasat Preah Vihear, an important place of pilgrimage during the Angkorian period, was built by a succession of seven Khmer monarchs, beginning with Yasovarman I (r 889-910) and ending with Suryavarman II (r 1112-1152), builder of Angkor Wat. Like other temple-mountains from this period, it was designed to represent Mt Meru and was dedicated to the Hindu deity Shiva.

Start a visit at the monumental stairway, if possible from the bottom (near the market and the crossing from Thailand). As you walk south, you come to four cruciform gopuras (sanctuaries), decorated with a profusion of exquisite carvings and separated by esplanades up to 350m long. At the entrance to the Gopura of the Third Level, look for an early rendition of the Churning of the Ocean of Milk, a theme later depicted awesomely at Angkor Wat. The Central Sanctuary and its associated structures and galleries, in a remarkably good state of repair, are right at the edge of the cliff, which affords stupendous views of Cambodia’s northern plains – this is a fantastic spot for a picnic.

For more on the carvings of Prasat Preah Vihear and the temple’s history, look out for market vendors selling Preah Vihear by Vittorio Roveda, a readable souvenir book accompanied by some attractive photographs.

Ta Phrom

Date: Late 12th to 13th century
Style: Bayon
Reign:JayavarmanVII, enlarged by IndravarmanII

One of the major temples of Jayavarman VII -in fact, a temple-monastery-Ta Prohm features a set of concentric galleries with corner towers and gopuras, but with many other additional buildings and enclosures. The complex city of its lay out is increased by its partly collapsed state, with trees interlaced among the ruins. According to its steel, which until recently was In situ, the principle divinities of Ta Phrom were installed 1186 to transfer merit the king's mother the principle deity, prajnaparamita, the (perfection of wisdom) was carved in her likeness (similarly, the Principe deity of Preah Khan, Lokesvara, was carved in the likeness of - The king's father). This was only five years after Jayavarman's accession, making it clear that much of the building work took place throughout and after his reign.
Ta prohm's original name was Rajavihara the royal monastery). In the initial plan for Ta Prohm, 260 divinities were called for; many more were added later, this was the temple chosen by the Ecol Francaise d'extreme- Oreint to be left in its "Natural state" as an example of how most of Angkor looked on its discovery in the 19th Century. This was an inspired decision, and involved a significant amount of work to prevent further collapse and enough clearing of vegetation to allow entry. It has been maintained in this Condition of apparent neglect. : Partly overgrown and gently declining. The trees that have grown intertwined among the ruins are especially responsible for Ta Prohm's atmosphere, and have prompted more writers to descriptive excess than any others.