Day 99 – Siem Reap
Today we woke up at 4:30am so we could go to Angkor Wat to see the sunrise. When we were dropped off by our tuk tuk driver and had to walk to the gate. We actually had no idea where to go. Luckily a friendly guide told us to cross the bridge. We then realised that this was exactly where we were yesterday during our group tour. In the dark it looked like a completely different place.
Since our guide yesterday had mentioned one of the pools was beautiful around sunrise, we decided to go there. We found out that everyone else was told this too, with a massive crowd all gathered around the pool.
We sat around watching the sunrise from dark until the sun was out. It was amazing to watch.
We then moved to a building to take some more photos. Here our packaged breakfast was stolen by two little kids around 10 years old. I chased them, and once I caught them, we decided to leave the food with them, under the impression that they wouldn’t steal it unless they were hungry. Lucky for us, there were plenty of food stalls near Angkor Wat to buy breakfast from.
After breakfast we walked back to the tuk tuk for the rest of the tour, which was organised by our hotel and was their standard Day 2 tour. The next destination was Preah Khan. Preah Khan is relatively quiet compared to Angkor Wat. Here were more ruins and a long temple we could walk through.
Next was a cool Island Buddhist Temple called Neak Pean. We had to walk though what looked like a swamp which was pretty cool. The temple itself can only be seen from a distance as there is no way to get to the island
I was so glad to see more friendly Khmer faces at the Buddhist Temple of Ta Som. Similar to Preah Khan, the temple structure was long and essentially falling apart.
The next destination on our tour is the Hindu temple known as Eastern Mebon. One of the unique things about the temple is the elephants on the corners of the temple’s surrounding perimeter. By the time we were here the afternoon sun was burning us. If you go, don’t forget a hat or umbrella.
The final site on the tour was the temple called Pre Rup. It is very similar to the Eastern Mebon with the buildings appearing more white. I suspect it was made with different stones.
After the tour was complete we went to N & K Self Service Laundry. The place is anything but self service, as the young girl working there, weighed, washed and then dried our clothing. All we did was sit there. Recommend this place if you are in Siem Reap.