Wandering Angkor, Motorbike Trip to Angkor, Cambodia

Wandering Angkor Illustrated Book

In 1999, I first visited Cambodia.

Was it treading on ages-old stone steps and causeways in Angkor Wat? Or gazing into the many faces of the Bayon? It might have been mix of market smells in the morning air or the gentle lapping of the Tonle Sap’s waves on the wooden boat. It might also have been the people’s smiles and the sense of a country coming back from far. Whatever it was, I chose to return.

In the mid 00s, when Cambodia was still a “Wild Wild East”, I worked as a Landscape Architect on Built Heritage Preservation Projects in Cambodia. I fell in love with Phnom Penh’s old houses, green neighborhoods and charismatic heritage buildings. And in Siem Reap, of course, I had all the time to fall in love again with the magical temples of Angkor and the friendly town of Siem Reap.

What better way to honor my work in Cambodia than by writing and illustrating a book?

Here is Wandering Angkor, a fully-illustrated book on Siem Reap and Angkor. It is light-hearted, colorful, fun and brimming with facts about Cambodia and the temples. Perfect light travel reading and great souvenir.

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Wandering Angkor, extracts from the Book

Follow me, on my purple motorbike,  and I’ll show and explain the many wonders of Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor.

Hop on! Let’s wander around Siem Reap’s Old Market, River and streets, and ride through the countryside to the temples of Angkor! We’ll visit Angkor Thom -the Great City, the Bayon -the Mountain Temple with a thousand mysterious faces-, and of course the majestic Angkor Wat.

Follow the Guide on the Purple Motorbike!

Through the Bustling Town of Siem Reap…

Although I often visited the standard gas pumps, I always loved filling up at the road-side stalls. Get a call card for my cellphone, a cold drink AND gas at the same time? Perfect. The fuel is poured via a funnel-cum-strainer directly into the tank under the motorbike seat. Gloob gloob gloob! Full tank? We’re off!

… And the Peaceful Countryside

Because Angkor is much more than the temples. Angkor is a living landscape, where people (ahem, and animals) carve out their lives and livelihoods.

Biking around the villages, fields and forests that dot the area always brought me great joy. I’d return to Siem Reap, my hair full of dust and dirt, with a big smile on my face. Shower please.

Stumbling Upon the Angkor Temples

And of course, HO! to the temples of Angkor. The majestic, well-known ones like Angkor Wat, the Bayon, Ta Prohm and others, as well as the pocket-size ones that you stumble upon as you turn off a dirt road. Here off the well-trodden path, is also where beats the heart of Angkor. There is often nearly nobody here. Just the temple, the buzzing bugs, and the sacredness of place.

Are a thousand sunsets enough to “know” the magic of Angkor? Perhaps yes, perhaps no – I haven’t clocked it that many. Each one is magical and different from the next. May many more suns rise and set over Angkor.

Re-live the magic of Angkor and Siem Reap again and again, with Wandering Angkor!

Over 30 full-colour illustrations and informative texts on Siem Reap and the Temples.

More cartoons on Life in Cambodia? Check out Fisso’s World in Cambodia! These cartoons on living in Cambodia were published in the Phnom Penh Post.

Wandering Angkor in the Phnom Penh Post

And on Amazon!