Angelina Jolie’s Tomb Raider temple a close second to Cambodia’s Angkor Wat

The ancient Hindu-Buddhist temple of Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Jane Phare reflects on the highlights of a 16-day trip to Cambodia and Vietnam, including eight days drifting down the Mekong River on a luxury Viking river cruiser

If there was one attraction on everyone’s bucket list on our Viking tour it was Cambodia’s ancient Hindu-Buddhist temple complex of Angkor Wat in Siem Reap.

If that had been missed off the itinerary there could well have been a riot, although quite a muted one because most of us weren’t spring chickens.

Photos in travel ads don’t quite do Angkor Wat justice. Its scale, its history and its age make it quite breathtaking. Some of our group were so taken with it they arranged private transport early the next morning to watch the sun rise.

The guardian deities on the bridge leading to Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Built between the 9th and 13th centuries, it was once the splendid dynasty of the Khmer kings. Now it’s a Unesco World Heritage site, slowly crumbling in the heat and humidity - faster than time, money and resources can preserve it.

Surrounded by a 5km long moat, the stillness of the water adds a serenity to the vast site as visitors cross the long entry bridge. Locals come to pay their respects, and young people pose for photographs wearing beautiful, rented costumes watched on by forest monkeys.

The huge sandstone blocks were not only used to create the temples, they were tablets on which to carve stories about great battles, everyday life, mythical creatures and deities. They are carvings you could examine for hours.

Figures carved into a wall at Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Photo / 123RF

The scale of Angkor Wat aside, it was the nearby 12th century Ta Prohm Temple that I found the most fascinating. A long pathway through woods takes visitors past a group of musicians playing traditional Cambodian instruments. They are bound together by missing limbs, blown off by landmines laid during years of war.

Victims of landmines form musical groups to peform to tourists in Cambodia.

Ta Prohm lies ahead in all its decaying glory. It lay abandoned for hundreds of years hidden by dense jungle which had slowly encroached, huge vines and trees pushing their way into structures.

Ta Prohm Temple makes visitors feel as though they have just stumbled across the ruins in the forest. Photo / Getty Images

After 19th century French explorers came across Ta Prohm, the forest was cleared away but little has been restored. As a result, visitors too feel like they have stumbled across something magical. It was here that scenes from the 2001 movie Tomb Raider were filmed, showing Angelina Jolie’s Lara Croft following a mythical child through the ruins.

Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider.

Here are some more highlights:

• Cruising down the Mekong River from Cambodia to Vietnam on the luxurious Viking Saigon, watching the countryside, towns and cities slide by in an exotic mix of river traffic, fish farms, rice factories, rows of shanty houses, remnants of colonial architecture, golden temples and statues. There is never any shortage of something to see.

Houses on the Mekong River.

• The dazzling potpourri of sights, sounds and smells that is Phnom Penh. Walk the streets or catch a cyclo or tuk tuk to soak up the residents of this vibrant city weaving their way through life on scooters, in cars, or bicycles – often laden with impossible loads – hemmed in by a mixture of new buildings and the faded remnants of French colonial splendour, locals squatting on child-sized stools to eat their lunch at a street stall, and the bewildering tangle of black power lines attached to buildings that look like a playful kitten has got into someone’s knitting. Don’t miss the splendid Royal Palace, lit up like Disneyland at night, and the National Museum while you’re out and about.

A tangle of electrical wires above shops in Phnom Penh.

• The startling contrasts: you might see a coffin transported on the back of a motor scooter; bullocks and cows living under stilt houses a short distance from skyscrapers; an old woman on a bicycle transporting vegetables through hundreds of scooters and cars; and an ATM that greets you by name at a market.

A woman pushes a load of watermelons to market in Tan Chau, Vietnam.

• The Cu Chi network of tunnels 70km from Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City centre (Saigon) enabling the Viet Cong to remain undetected by American and US-backed South Vietnam soldiers during the war. Non-claustrophobic visitors can creep through the tunnels – the tiny entrance holes have been made wider for western-sized tourists – and marvel at the ingenuity of a hidden army. The “tunnel rats” lived below ground in a series of zig-zagging tunnels that were easily booby-trapped to slow down any pursuing enemy. The Viet Cong disguised the air holes in trees or man-made anthills, and filtered out cooking smoke through a long series of vents that emerged well away from the underground bunker.

Travel tips

• The heat and humidity can sap your energy so take a wide-brimmed hat or umbrella; buy a traditional fan from a street stall
• Keep drinking water. The toilet stops are plentiful and well timed
• Drape a wet scarf around your neck or under your sunhat to help you cool down
• Pack cool clothes, including an option that covers your knees, shoulders and cleavage, a requirement when visiting some sites.
• Wear flat shoes and take a few sticking plasters. There are plenty of loose cobblestones, steps and unexpected ridges to trip over
• Be cautious about street food. Ask your guide for a recommendation. It might smell delicious but could mean you spend the afternoon in the bathroom rather than sightseeing. (I did eat a crunchy dried cricket which the Cambodians jokingly call KFC - Khymer Fried Cricket)

Be careful when sampling street food in Cambodia and Vietnam.

• When crossing a busy road in the larger cities, put your hand high in the air, step out and keep going. Don’t hesitate or change direction. The scores of scooters and cars will veer around you. Well, that’s the theory anyway.

Checklist

VIETNAM and CAMBODIA

GETTING THERE

Fly from Auckland to Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City (both Vietnam) as well as Phnom Penh International Airport in Cambodia with one stopover with several airlines, including Air New Zealand, China Eastern, China Southern and Singapore Airlines.

DETAILS

For more information about Viking River Cruises, visit vikingrivercruises.com.au.

Jane Phare travelled to Cambodia and Vietnam as a guest of Viking.