29 Dec 2019
I travel quite often and have visited many ancient complexes, including the Egyptian pyramids and Mayan temples in Central America. When my family and I tour these locations we like to book tour guides to elevate the experience and to understand local culture.
Pin Vannak was our guide on this particular trip, taking us through the ancient ruins, temples, and mountains of Siem Reap. He was an excellent and informative guide, ready to answer any questions we had. He accommodated all of our requests and adapted the itinerary according to our needs and what we wanted to see (for example—and I would recommend this—we decided to explore Angkor Wat immediately after seeing the sunrise there as it was much cooler and less crowded, instead of seeing it on the previous day in the afternoon which was in the original plan). Pin was great at pointing out the differences between sites and highlighting their best qualities. For example, Banteay Srei is a beautifully preserved temple using a different type of material from the Angkor Wat complex, and was actually built by the King’s advisor (hence its smaller, humbler size). He also told us about the myth of the monkey and demon war (this war is depicted across the exterior walls of Angkor Wat). We loved hearing all these stories.
My husband and I are both in the art industry so we were interested in repatriation policies and foundational knowledge of local crafts and culture, which we discussed at length with Pin. He also suggested the best places to take photos and to study the ancient engravings and relief markings in the various temples. I am sure he can adapt to any family’s/visitor’s needs and we were very impressed by his depth of knowledge, curiosity and generosity (we learned he also teaches English to underprivileged children and knows a bit of Russian!).