Overnight Preah Vihear Discovery Tour from Siem Reap

Day 1: Siem Reap – Jungle Temple – Hidden Cave – Koh Ker – Preah Vihear (Meal: Lunch)

Pick up from your hotel at 08:00am, we continue to Preah Vihear. Our first stop at Beng Mealea is an overgrown ruin 90mn away from Siem Reap. It is huge, but little known and largely untouched. Besides this temple, we see a small quarry where sandstone was cut to build the temple. The technique used to cut the stones will be explained there. We may take more than an hour to visit the entire Temple.

 

We arrive Svay Leu Village and start trekking into the bamboo forest from the village to Peuong Komnu, is a series of Angkorian reliefs carved into the southern cliff of Phnom Kulen, the quality of the work and their preservation is remarkable and the danger of inevitable of the site makes them all the more precious. It is undiscovered tourist site in Angkor areas.

 

Last but not least for today is Koh Ker group is a group of many temples in the forest, about 150km from Siem Reap. These were built when Cambodia was ruled by two kings (uncle and nephew), and Koh Ker was briefly one of the two capital cities, during the 1st half of the 10th century. Some of the temples are still covered with jungle.

 

Overnight at Preah Vihear.

 

Day 2: Preah Vihear – Siem Reap (Meal: Breakfast, Lunch)

After breakfast, we drive up to Preah Vihear, which sits at the top of the Dangrek Mountains. Preah Vihear is known as the Temple Mountain, which was built at the beginning of the 10th century as a Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva. The temple had further works added to it by the following three kings. The temple today is still a Hindu site, but Buddhist Monks pray at the temple to the Gods. The temple area consists of three stories surronded by two galleries.

We drive toward Anlong Veng, it’s known as Khmer Rouge Cultural Site, the last strong hold of Khmer Rouge leaders. We visit the house that once owned by former Khmer Rouge Commander Ta Mok (1979 – 1997) some remaining statues describe the way the rebels lived and how they arranged their troops during their bloody struggle again the government.

 

Back to your hotel in Siem Reap (hotel not included).