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Angkor national park is HUGE. We had booked a private tuktuk that was recommended by a youtuber to take us on two full day tours through the park.
The first day we did the "big" circuit: Prasat Pre Roup, Eastern Mebon, Prasat Ta Sohm, Prasat Preah Neak Pean, Prasat Preah Khan, and Bantay Sray.
It is difficult to convey the experience of wandering through these ruins. We were immediately struck by the scale of the first temple, but almost more startling was the level of intricate details that were still visible. Small carvings of deities, major and minor, flowers, leaves, and geometric patterns covered the walls. None of the temples on this first day felt particularly crowded, and moments where you found yourself walking around a thousand year old temple with no one in sight were still in a different way.
Pictures do not do it justice, and I cannot recommend enough the experience of visiting the park! Be prepared for the heat, the dust, and a lot of walking though!
(Note: pictures are attributed to temples best I can tell, but may be wrong. Also transliteration is likely inconsistent: some taken from wikipedia, some taken from the map our driver provided)
Prasat Preah Khan: a grid of what felt like hundreds of rooms laid out in one story. It was disorienting to wander and then look in all four directions and see no clue as to which way lead out!
Prasat Pre Roup: our first temple of the day was one of the more vertical, immediately setting the tone of the scale we would be dealing with!
Prasat Preah Neak Pean: the smallest of the temples we saw. Interesting to see it on the water, and with unique lore about the healing properties of the statues and the water around it, it was hard to appreciate the intricacy due to being much further from it than others (because of the water).
There were hundreds of funnel web spiders (we mostly just saw the webs!) around the park. Other wildlife included: pigeons, bats (that scared us as much as we scared them in one room in Prasat Preah Kahn), crows, and monkeys!
Banteay Srei was a good distance further out from the rest of the temples, but well worth the drive. The most intricate temple by far, it seemed impossible to spend enough time appreciating the story told on each lintel (ornate doorway).
Prasat Ta Som: the large heads (often above doorways) were our favorite recurring motif.
Prasat Prea Roup: despite the road, tuktuks, and evidence of reconstruction, the views of the surrounding trees made the temple feel isolated in the forest.
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The second day, the "small" circuit would prove only to be small in amount of driving. The temples were enormous.
We were up at 3:30 for a 4:30 pick up to be at Angkor Wat by 5. We joined a large crowd growing on the bank of a pond in front of that largest of religious buildings and waited for sunrise. We departed from this group early to beat the crowds, and headed in to the temple before the sun had come over the horizon, but after the orange-pick backlighting of sunrise had illuminated the view for a half hour. We spent hours in Angkor Wat. Wandering through the penultimate interior before full sunrise, we lucked upon the entrance to the highest point and were in line before it opened. Even after the large groups began to rush in, the internal grounds were large enough that we often found ourselves isolated. It had the intricate carvings of Bantay Sray and was more domineering than Pre Roup. Any and all expectations we had for the experience were surpassed.
The remainder of the temples that day were marvelous, though mostly overshadowed by the splendor of Angkor Wat. The temple city of Bayon and its eponymous central temple were marvelous, and the tree-riddled Ta Prohm was unique among the temples for how entrenched nature had become in its walls. By the end of the day (1 pm), we were exhausted and Kaia was fairly sick. We crashed hard, with little-to-no expectation of doing anything for the remainder of our time in Siem Reap.
Angkor Wat: each of the 9 constructs in the center is HUGE.
Angkor Wat at sunrise!
Angkor Wat: the lower levels had reliefs depicting various battles and stories from Hindu mythology.
Angkor Wat: we rushed inside before the sun fully rose to beat the crowds waiting for the iconic "sun over Angkor Wat" photos: it was well worth it!
Prasat Ta Prohm: not shown: the long line of people waiting to get a photo with this iconic doorway featured in the Tomb Raider movie (we snuck this as people were swapping in and out).
Bayon: our favorite temple! Our driver told us there were 54, 4 headed pillars. They may have originally been representative of both the Buddha and the king at the time of this temple's creation: signifying that nothing goes on his kingdom without his knowledge.
Bayon: monkey family at Bayon! It was so cute to watch the mom(?) let the baby wander for ~1 minute and explore before snatching them up.
Thomanon: more large heads!
Bayon Gates: surronding the temple city of Bayon, the gates on different sides of the city were reserved for: the army, the king, the commoners, and the priesthood. This was the royal gate!
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