We arrived in Siem Reap, Cambodia to find a much nicer room than we initially had during our visit to Chiang Mai. In fact, the check-in process by the host, Mr. Lucky, was the best and most relaxing of any hotel we have ever visited. He asked us to sit on a sofa in the reception area, brought chilled cloths and iced lemon tea to cool us down, and walked through the check-in process. If your travels ever take you to Siem Reap, I can’t recommend the Golden Temple Villa enough.
The next morning we got up early to meet a driver at 4:30 to buy tickets for Angkor Wat. With a little better planning, we could have bought both these tickets and the required tourist visa from home saving a couple hours at both the airport and on the morning of the temple visit.
We arrived at Angkor Wat in time to watch the sunrise. Us and hundreds of others. Many of the online reviews called it magical and a must do. It was neat, but I would have rather avoided the crowd.
After exploring Angkor Wat, we next visited three more temples: Bayon, Ta Prohm and Angkor Thom. Although Angkor Wat and some of the other temples were originally Hindu, Bayon was a Buddhist shrine. It has a couple hundred smiling faces throughout and was one of my favorites.
Angor Thom was my favorite of the temples we visited in Cambodia. It’s a bit deeper in the jungle than the others and still has trees growing up on and around the walls. It was featured in the Tomb Raider movie, so it’s also one of the busiest of the temples.
When we were able to get away from the large group of Chinese on a tour, who all needed their Instagram selfies in all of the photogenic spots, we could enjoy the jungle sounds of insects, monkeys and birds. This particular group of tourists liked to yell at each other across the temple–presumably saying “Where are you? I’m over here…” Nonetheless visiting Bayon temple was a step back in time.
Because we started so early, we finished and were back at the hotel before lunch. Although this was a somewhat hurried visit through a fraction of what’s available in the Angkor Wat complex, it was definitely something I won’t forget.
I didn’t mention it earlier, but we arranged a ride to the temples on a tuk tuk the night before. Our driver, Robear, and I ate breakfast of a rice soup from a stall near the temple. Most of the drivers were eating here while the tourists ate at the nearby cafe. He asked, “Why do you want to eat poor people food? If I had money, I would eat in nice restaurants.” I said it reminded me of growing up without a lot of money and helped me connect with the people. These tuk tuk drivers, who are living on very meager earnings, go a long way to attract business.
They also use some pretty interesting gas stations to fill their scooters. I don’t know about Cambodia, but apparently black market (stolen) gasoline, sold from bottles, is a big problem in some countries.
Although we did eat in a couple very nice restaurants in town, we didn’t join the quite lively pub scene. When leaving the hotel at 4:30 am, there were still a few partiers out and about. The downtown area has exploded with bars and restaurants over the last several years.
We hated to leave Cambodia so soon. Everyone was super friendly and I would have loved to have gotten away from town. All for another visit. In the meantime, we are headed back to Bali.
