28th – Temples galore

The first day at Siem Reap started with exactly what I had come here for: sunrise over Angkor Wat. So at 0430 we left the hotel to firstly get our 3-day passes at the ticket office before heading to the temple. We lined up outside the front and saw it go from almost complete darkness to light when the sun came up. It was relatively cloudy near the horizon so the view ended up being so-so.

Following this we did a 2-hour tour inside the large temple and temple grounds where we had a guide who walked us through parts of the compound. Some of us ended up lingering around nearby instead photographing instead of giving him our full attention.

Inside Angkor Wat.

So many carvings on the walls, and some of them very detailed, too!

After this we continued to the next temple on the list; Ta Phrom temple, also known as the Tomb Raider temple as it was featured in the movie of the same name from 2001. It was far more compact than Angkor Wat and had multiple trees growing and encasing parts of the ruins. Due to the popularity, likely mainly due to it being referenced in modern pop-culture, combined with the tight conditions, it was at times hard to get around. Walking around photographing the group got split up but with a quick search & rescue mission later by the guide we were all gathered again and returned to the bus.

Ta Phrom temple.

The third temple of the day was Bayon temple, a small temple (relatively) with 20 small remaining towers with faces carved on all sides. It was by far my favourite of the ones we had seen so far, and while it was crowded it never felt as bad as at Ta Phrom. And our guide on arrival said a few words followed by “we meet in 15 minutes by the bus”, apparently having learnt that it was impossible to keep track of us all.

Bayon temple.

Returning to the hotel at 1330 we went out for a late lunch before meeting in the afternoon to do a quadbike sunset drive. It was a fun and dusty drive, and we got to see a nice sunset over rice fields. Coming back to the hotel before 1900 some of us went to a fancy restaurant called The Sugar Palm where we all had multiple dishes and drinks, and we only ended up having to pay 15USD each. We continued on to grab a couple of drinks before I left a bit before the rest to return to the hotel

Sunset.