Best of Angkor Temples

Ota Angkor Photo Tour starts at 5:00 am with a great sunrise in the amazing temple of Angkor Wat. The tour will lead us through the ancient temples like Ta Prohm, Ta Nei, Preah Khan, and others, and finish with the golden hour in Bayon.

I don’t recommend to go inside of Angkor Wat as it is too dark at this time and the light comes from a wrong direction. We can have a breakfast directly in front of Angkor and then continue to famous Ta Prohm temple. The photography in Angkor Wat can last until 7 am.

Note: The best time for photography inside of Angkor Wat is afternoon from 3 pm until closing hour.

Ta Prohm with Ota

It is quite advisable to be in Ta Prohm soon before buses with people come and the temple starts to be crowded with tourists. This temple is very popular thanks to movie Tomb Rider and its giant trees and roots, which overgrow temple roofs and walls.

But, not a lot of people know that this beautiful temple is so-called “ancestors temple” dedicated to the king’s mother and Prajnaparamita, the Mother of all Buddhas or Perfection of Wisdom. The temple was also a University of Education with more than 3000 monks – students. We usually stay in this temple for about two hours.

Let’s continue to the smaller temple of Ta Nei. It is a magic place hidden in the jungle, which is often just for you and your camera. It probably takes about half an hour.

Next, we go to the Terrace of Elephants and Leper King after we leave Ta Nei temple. Both of them are well known because of its deep reliefs of different deities, demons, devatas, and apsaras, so we can stay there for about one hour to get some great pictures.

Then we have lunchtime. We can eat in a local restaurant opposite to Leper King Terrace. The food is very tasty, but there is no aircon. They use fans instead and if it is good enough for you, you will have your lunch in the middle of many ancient temples. Of course, if you like to, we can go to the restaurant with air-con or we can go for lunch back to your hotel. The choice is up to you.

Note: Please expect that lunch break is roughly from 11:00 am until 1:00 pm. That’s because the heat and the daylight at this time are contrary to the photography.

Preah Khan with Ota

Afternoon, we will enter the second largest temple of Preah Khan in Angkor Archaeological Park. There, you can find huge trees similar to Ta Prohm and many corridors with amazing light and shadows as well as fabulous carvings of different deities and reliefs on the walls. There are also giant Garudas carved on surrounding walls, which guards the temple.

Preah Khan was also an ancestors temple and the King Jayavarman VII. has dedicated it to his father and Bodhisattva Lokeśvara. It also was a University of Medicine with 5000 monks – students. The same as Ta Prohm It is easy to stay there for half a day, but we usually spend about 2-3 hours shooting pictures and talking about the interesting history of the temple.

Bayon with Ota

Finally, the last temple of the day and the cherry on the top – fantastic Bayon temple with its giant faces of Bodhisattva Lokeśvara on its remaining towers and beautiful bas-relief in the surrounding gallery. The measurements of Bayon temple is based on the magical Hindu number of 108 as well as Angkor Wat. This one is the must, except Angkor Wat and Ta Prohm temple.

We will be back in your hotel about 5:00 pm.