Early to rise
The pair of us had a 6:30am get up today. We’re going to visit and explore Angkor Wat, Cambodia’s most famous attraction, hands down. Both of us got ready, had breakfast, I had muesli and fruit, (I had to!) and waited outside for our tuk tuk driver. At around 7:30am, Mr Dam picked us up in his tuk tuk, and whisked us away to the Angkor Wat ticket office.
Mr Dam was a very friendly and cheerful local chap. I’m guessing quite a lot are just taxis, but sometimes get booked for Angkor Wat visits. Mat and I weighed up the decision to visit Angkor Wat via bikes. However, knowing how far it is, and how hot it gets, we thought differently. So, after around 20 minutes, we rocked up to the ticket office, whilst Mr Dam waited for us. It was a fairly quick process. You stand in the correct line, get a photo taken, pay the fee, get your tickets, and you’re on your way.
Tip!
There are several different passes you can get, for varying lengths. There’s a 1-day pass ($37), 3-day pass ($62), and a 7-day pass ($72). The ticket office is open from 4:30am until 5:30pm. You can’t book the tickets online, or through an agent/hostel, your ticket MUST be bought from the ticket office. Tickets issued after 5pm are valid for the next day. 3-day tickets are valid for 10 days after issue, and 7-day tickets are valid for 1 month after issue. Most of the temples can be visited from 7:30am – 5:30pm. However, Angkor Wat and Srah Srang can be visited from 5am (for the sunrise). Phnom Bakheng and Pre Rup can be visited from 5am – 7pm (for the sunrise and sunset).
To the temple
After we’d got our tickets, we returned to the tuk tuk, and headed onwards to Angkor Wat itself. Of course, it was extremely busy and crowded, with an abundance of tour groups. Mr Dam parked up and waited with the tuk tuk, whilst Mat and I went temple exploring like Indian Jones (not quite). I’d seen plenty of photos of Angkor Wat, so to see it in person was quite exciting to be honest. From a distance, it looked exactly like the pictures you see on TV and online.
There were plenty of folks trying to get us to go on an English group tour with them. Mat and I prefer to go at our own pace, so we declined a million offers. As I’ve said before, I’ve already visited several temples throughout my journey in China and Vietnam, so they don’t get me very excited. However, Angkor Wat was on another level, both because of reputation, and magnificence. We began by walking up the long stretch of land that came before the gargantuan temple itself. Once we entered the inner walls, we were gobsmacked.
For more info on Angkor Wat, check this out here.
Angkor Wat
I expected it to be quite big, but it was a lot larger than I thought. It loomed over us, like a towering giant, wherever you were, you were in its shadow. The architecture of the walls and the temple itself is absolutely astounding. There’s so much to take in, it takes a while! Around the backside of the temple, there’s a steep staircase that you can ascend to view the inside of the temple. Once we were up there, we could see for miles as it was a clear day. It’s mostly forests, but you can see the odd temple here and there. It really was cool to explore the inner rooms and courtyard of Angkor Wat. I didn’t expect this to be honest.
We descended the temple, and exited the walls. After we were out, we explored some of the exterior buildings. When we looked behind us, we had the perfect photo opportunities of Angkor Wat. Despite being so close, we could get epic photos. After admiring the temple from near and far, we decided to make our way back to the tuk tuk…this still took quite some time as the outer walls were really far. To be honest, I did think the actual temple would be larger, sprawling across a lot more land. However, I didn’t expect to be able to go to the top floor of it.
For another major temple adventure check out the Forbidden City, Beijing!
Onwards, to more temples
We returned to Mr Dam at the tuk tuk, where he proceeded to take us to the next temples. There were 3 more temples we were able to visit after Angkor Wat. The first one (I can’t remember the names) was pretty intriguing; it was like a maze. So many stairways, twists, and turns. It’d be the best place for hide-and-seek! I don’t want to seem ungrateful, but the time we spent at each temple became less, and less. The awe began to wear off, I suppose starting with the ‘best’ makes the rest not as exciting. There was also the heat and physical exhaustion that was being inflicted upon us.
I suppose a tour guide would be useful for these other temples. As there aren’t any signs or plaques with information, all we could do was look around for a bit, and then leave for the next one. After a pretty full-on day, we’d had enough after seeing the last temple (got our money’s worth). Mr Dam dropped us off at the hostel, we said our goodbyes, and then departed. As we were knackered, we had our dinner at the hostel. We also got talking to another guest, an American called Nick. The 3 of us were talking for quite some time, mostly about travels and other related topics.
Treating myself
After we’d had dinner and finished speaking with Nick, we went to our room, and flopped on our beds. Both of us were really exhausted so we decided to chill for a while in our respective bunks. I don’t know about Mat, but I had a pretty nice nap whilst I chilled. Later on in the evening, after dark, we decided to go out for some dinner (or tea, but not a cup of tea).
For food, we decided to check out pub street. We found a nice-looking place, and not too pricey, and sat down upstairs. Every pub and bar was absolutely rammed. I had some delicious burritos. It felt a little bit like home, eating food in a pub, whilst watching football on the TV. For dessert, I treated myself to a crème brûlée. The food here was divine.
After our bountiful meal, we called it a day and headed back to the hostel. Once we’d got back, I called Elva, my Indonesian friend, for a few hours until the early morning. I was well and truly ready for bed after such a long day!
