What a day we had yesterday! We had an early start and met down for breakfast in the hostel at 7am to try and plan our day at the famous Angkor Wat Temples. The tuk tuk driver whom dropped us off the day before from the bus stop left his cell phone number for us to call him when we wanted to arrange our day at the temples with him as our chauffer. I tried to apologize to him on his arrival for being so tired and grumpy the day before to him after arriving in from our bus trip out of Phnom Penh. He ended up planning a great route for us to see which started with Angkor Wat and ended with Angkor Thom. We spent the whole day walking, climbing, and exploring the hugeeeeeeee site of temples.
Firstly, the temples are located about 8 km out of Siem Reap town and many people hire out a tuk tuk driver for the day at about $5 for each person and they take you to the temples you want to see and just chill while you explore and then move onto the next and the next. Our driver had a sweet little hammock set up in our tuk tuk which let him enjoy nice naps throughout the day.
You can buy a $20 for one day or $40 for three day pass at the front gate where they take a photo of you on the ticket which you must present at each major site to the officials. $20 is a steep amount but when you go to the site, you realize how big and extensive the upkeep and maintenance of the grounds and temples are. There was scaffolding and restoration work being done all over the place and I guess it is for good reason and I tried to take photos of the temples without such equipment in the background. By about 9am, it was steaming hot and we rested in shady areas wherever we couldJ.
It was hard to sometimes realize that the picture I had seen so many times in books, magazines, videos etc. was now right in front of me in real life! Everything inside the complex is a little more expensive such as food, and souvenirs, but you can bargain for everything and got our lunch of delicious fried rice with chicken and vegetables to $3 instead of $4!
Angkor Thom was probably my favorite temple site and we finished our day with them which was great. It is the temples with over 217 faces embedded into the stones and I am sure everybody has seen them one time or another. It was cool to see where ‘Tomb Raider’ movie was made too. There were many people of course but the complex is so big that you don’t realize that much. Also, I have noticed the large number of Japanese and Korean tourists and tour buses. So much so that sushi restaurants around town are quite popular.
Its impressive to see many of the Cambodian looking guides also speaking Japanese and Korean so I wonder how that all came about?
We got back to our hostel around 4pm and cleaned up a bit before heading out to the markets for dinner and shopping. Tonight we tried the famous BBQ dinner where you cooked in “tepenyaki” style like in Japan with noodles, rice, vegetables, meats and seafood. We also had some banana and chocolate crepes for dessert and a fresh watermelon juice. All for $3.
After dinner, I headed straight for the $1 foot massage parlor (there are many of them) and literally nearly fell asleep. I nearly tripped over 3 times walking back home from being so tired and dragging my feet.
Sleeping in was super nice this morning as we plan to explore the city on the free bikes our hostel offers us. We are also excited to try and find a pool to jump in and cool off at! Then I’m thinking some more great food, market shopping and another foot massage! J
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