Sunrise Over Angkor Wat

We left our yoga retreat feeling rejuvenated and with just two days left in Cambodia it was time for us to visit the star attraction, the temples of Angkor Wat. To save time and hassle we organised a half day tuk tuk tour through our hostel. We really wanted to watch sunrise over the Angkor Wat temple so we set off bleary eyed at 5am but the chilly 30 minute drive soon woke us up and we were ready for action.

There were no queues at the ticket counter and before long we were on foot with hundreds of other earlybirds making our way to the lake opposite the Angkor Wat temple in the dark. We managed to find a spot on the edge of the pond and it was already quite crowded so whilst Steve did a coffee run to the nearby cafes Vicky got her elbows out to nudge any 'space invaders' away. Coffee in hand we waited patiently for the sun to rise and light up the sky whilst more and more people surrounded us.

It was a fairly cloudy morning but we still saw the beautiful yet eerie reflection of the three towers of the Angkor Wat temple in the lake which was really special. As usual we took around 100 photos and then decided to make a break from the crowds early and venture inside this grand and mysterious place. By this point it was quite light and we could appreciate the beauty of the elegant gardens and landscape surrounding the temple. 

Looking back at the lake we estimated that there must have been about 3,000 tourists that had turned out for sunrise, luckily most were on group tours that often head back to their hotels for breakfast rather than heading inside the temples meaning more space for us!

Once inside the Angkor Wat temple we were in awe of its size, from the outside we had no idea how big this place actually was and spent a couple of hours wandering through corridors and courtyards marvelling at the pillars and smaller temples inside.

The detail on the carvings was fantastic and it has survived incredibly well considering it is around 700 years old. Our favourite place was outside of the central ‘temple’ on the grass feeling tiny between the steps up to temple and the 10m high outer wall. 

"Breathe. You're at Angkor Wat."

Once we were by the south wall we caught the remainder of sunrise with a pretty orange and pink sky, its amazing the difference 30 minutes can make. 

There were very few other tourists inside with us so we were often alone, and as its so ancient and other worldly it made us feel like impostors. We left Angkor Wat temple around 8.00am slightly smug to be ahead of the huge crowds and armed with a baguette and some cream cheese to help us make it to lunchtime and keep hanger at bay!

"Beautiful Bayon."

Our next stop within Angkor Wat was Bayon temple which is famous for the huge faces on its many towers and dates back to the early 12th century. Its in a more advanced state of ruin than Angkor Wat and is a fascinating place to wander around and be nosey. 

We climbed up to the central tower for a close up view of the faces, some were very intact but it was impossible to count them all as there are so many. According to Wikipedia there are about 200 faces however, the full meaning and reason for them remains a mystery... 

It soon started to get busier with an eclectic mix of nationalities and we were bemused as we always are by Russian women posing provocatively for pics at every possible opportunity. Unfortunately as we exited this temple and climbed into our tuk tuk there was a very poorly looking elephant being made to give rides to ignorant tourists, it was such a sad sight and totally unnecessary as you could only walk around the car park on the poor thing. 

Steve had done a little research on the various temples within Angkor Wat so we had a list of the ones we wanted to visit, but when we showed these to our driver he refused to take us even though we had booked a ‘half day’ tour, we learned this actually meant the ‘small circuit' tour and we had to stick to that route. We didn’t realise this when we booked so were a bit disappointed at how inflexible it was but we couldn’t do anything about it so continued on to our next temple, the Ta Prohm aka Tomb Raider temple where tree roots have weirdly managed to grow up through the foundations and walls destroying most of them. Lara Croft fans should recognise this one...

The Ta Prohm temple was definitely unique, it was very shaded because of the trees and seeing their roots rolling over crumbling walls like some kind of giant wooden squid was very surreal - we almost expected them to start moving! 

This was easily the busiest temple we visited, it was around 10am so the tour groups were back and out in force with their matching baseball caps, we had to queue at various spots to take a photo and doubt there is ever a quiet time here. You could feel the tension in the air between the tour groups as they got in each others way and grumbled about each other to their friends, especially the Brits who hate a queue jumper!

The last temple on our tour was Banteay Kdei also dating from the mid 12th century, this temple is not so popular on the main tourist circuit so it wasn’t that busy and it had a different layout to the others. It was long and narrow and we felt like we walked about 1km to get from one end to the other. This temple was also in ruins but it had many small rooms and corridors for us to climb our way through and it was nice to go somewhere more tranquil after the Ta Phrom temple. 

As you can probably tell we didn’t learn that much about the history of Angkor Wat as we had no official guide and had hoped our tuk tuk driver would share a little more knowledge but that wasn’t the case. We were back at our hostel by about 11.30am so it was quite a short excursion and we could have easily visited a couple more temples if our driver hadn’t been so rigid about the rules. It was still an interesting and fun tour, our favourite temples were Angkor Wat and Bayon.

In total our half day tour cost $53 dollars: $20 each entry fees and $13 for the tuk tuk. Don’t forget to take water and food with you as its expensive inside the site and not available at every temple. 

We stayed a couple of nights in Siem Reap which was a dirty, noisy and smelly town with everything catered towards tourists. Many restaurants serve overpriced, crap food and the only place we recommend to eat is Sister Srey where they serve tasty food with a quirky twist and support young Khmer students. 

On our last evening we went to Phare The Cambodian Circus which was really good fun with plenty of laughs and edge of the seat moments thanks to the daring acrobatics - we highly recommend it! The project was started 20 years ago by eight young men returning home after a refugee camp during the Khmer Rouge regime. Today there are free music, theatre and circus schools in Battambang where poor, socially deprived and troubled youngsters can learn new skills and build a better life for themselves. 

Have you been to Angkor Wat or Siem Reap? How was your experience?