It was our great pleasure to have Som as our tour guide and Tra as our driver for a 2-day private Angkor tour. Som is a knowledgeable, kind, respectful, honest and hard-working tour guide. We have no regrets and urge anyone reading this to take the leap of faith!
We started off at 4:40am on the first day for the Angkor Wat sunrise. From the get go, we could tell Som is passionate about his country, its culture, and its people. He never failed to surprise us with his knowledge of Cambodia, and particular the history of Angkor Wat and the other temples we visited.
Although it was a bit cloudy in the run-up to sunrise, we were lucky to have a clear view of the sun in the end, and took many pictures. Som is a fantastic photographer himself, and took many beautiful and professional pictures of us. We were very impressed!
For the rest of the first day, we visited temples including Ta Prohm, Angkor Thom, Bayon (Som’s favourite), Baphuon, and after a quick lunch, we returned to Angkor Wat in the afternoon (when it is less crowded).
The experience would not have been the same without Som leading us and telling us stories about the temples, explaining the architecture, and digging into the history of it all.
The benefits of having a private tour is that you can tweak the itinerary as you like. After discussing with the operator, we decided to visit 3 more temples on the next day, after we visited the floating village.
Every time we returned to the air-conditioned car, we were greeted with iced towels and iced water. At the end of the tour, we were also given small gifts made by the operator’s wife, and a very friendly phone call from the operator asking us about our tour. Som even bought us some local jackfruit to try (which I’ve never tried before!).
The private tour is well worth it, and it is highly recommended.
Som, hope you inspire your niece and nephew to become as successful as you, and best of luck in all of your future endeavours! You definitely inspired us :)
