Asia

Angkor Wat Temples

Yesterday morning we slept in, and boy did it feel great, because this morning we were up at 4:30am to head to Angkor Wat.

Siem Reap Market

Yesterday we had a pretty chill day around Siem Reap. We woke up and had breakfast at our hostel then headed out to a park nearby that has a mass amount of fruit bats. They just chill, hanging from the trees during the day and make loud squeaking noises, there were hundreds of them, it was crazy! Afterwards we just walked around Siem Reap, and through a bunch of markets. There are so many markets here, we literally are standing looking at a stall on the side of the road and then look back and realize there’s a maze of a market behind them. From food markets, to selling the regular souvenirs. Although they’re all the same after awhile, we can’t seem to get enough of them. We also stopped for a full body massage for $6 US (they only take US money here mainly). The massages here are amazing! Not like the massages at home, it is more stretching you out then trying to completely relax you.

Last night we had dinner at a restaurant along Pub Street that served Cambodian food. I had yellow noodles, that were delicious. Plus we had their fresh spring rolls, we can’t seem to get enough of the spring rolls here! We’re kind of addicted. After dinner we headed back to the hostel and once again were avoiding the hostel bar because we needed to be up at 4:30am this morning.

Yellow Noodles Cambodia

Today we woke up and boarded our tuk tuk that we booked through our hostel ($15 US total for both of us) and headed to Angkor Wat. It was funny to see all the tourists on tuk tuks and in vans headed towards the temples when it was so early this morning and dark. It almost looked like a cult as we all walked with the flashlights from our phones to gather to an area where we could watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat. There was surprisingly an insane amount of people there for 5:00am, we managed to score a spot along the side of the area and snap a few pictures but it was cloudy this morning so we didn’t get the best ones.

Angkor Wat

After the sun had risen we headed in to explore Angkor Wat which is the world’s largest religious building and then headed back to our tuk tuk to head to Bayon, which is another Angkor temple. Bayon has all the faces etched into the building/stone, there are about 216 faces within this temple. This was probably my favourite of the temples we saw. After Bayon, we went to Ta Prohm, which was a temple that was much more destroyed than the others and is currently in the stages of slowly getting restored by the help of India. This temple is the one made famous by Tomb Raider, and has been taken over by nature as trees and roots grow from places you would never know was possible. Our last stop was a temple that I’m unsure of the name but it was much smaller, this temple was not as impressive but each was still neat and different to see.

Bayon Temple

Once we saw some of the temples we wanted to see, we headed back to our hostel for lunch. I tried the Papaya Salad which has been recommended to try in Laos and here as it’s supposed to be one of the signature dishes. It was very different, but good. After lunch we just hung out by the pool in the awesome, massive bean bag chairs as we were pretty exhausted from being up so early and trekking around the temples.

Angkor Wat

Tonight we had dinner at a random restaurant on Pub Street. I had Amok since it is our last night to have a traditional meal. We’re living life on a minimal budget as we don’t want to take out money again till I’m in Thailand tomorrow.

Bye bye for now.

withlovexo

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2 Comments

  • Reply
    Mackenzie
    January 9, 2015 at 5:19 am

    Hi Lauren! I saw you posted your blog on the WITS FB page, I’m going too! Oh my gosh… I just visited Siem Reap and Angkor Wat and I’m missing it already! I thought pub street was awesome as well, so many places to eat and endless markets.

    • Reply
      Lauren
      January 9, 2015 at 2:43 pm

      Ugh I’m dreaming about the day I can go back! I wish I could live there 🙁

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