5 August
7:30am - We have an early start to catch our flight at the smaller Don Mueang airport. We wait at the bus “stop” (there is no sign) a few minutes from the hostel but no bus arrives.
7:45am - It’s getting too late to wait so we call a grab.
7:50am - Right as we’re getting in, a police officer on a motorcycle drives to us and talks to the driver in Thai. After some back and forth the driver takes their license etc. and walks to the police station, which we then realize is right across the street.
8:00am - The driver comes out of the station with a fine in their hand and we’re on our way. I guess grab really is illegal
8:50am - We make it to the airport and rush in as we’re now running a bit late.
9:10am - After checking in our luggage, we go through the foreigners’ passport control and security. The officer asks for my departure card and remembering that I filled this in upon arrival, I dig through my folder of travel documents and find it, phew.
9:20am - Turns out my friends don’t have their departure cards and after being turned around for a while, we find out there’s a station in the back of the area where you can fill it in and it’s all fine.
10:45am - After a slight delay, we say bye to Thailand as our plane takes off.
11:40am - A short flight later, we land in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
12pm - Upon arrival in the very new and spacious airport, we head to the visa upon arrival station. I wait in the long line and I discover my travel mates had done it in advance, which I did not know was possible. Cambodia uses US dollars in addition to the riel (4000 riel for every USD) and it’s $30 for a visa. I get dollars at the ATM with my American card and for once am not worried about exchange rates.
12:50pm – Everything took a lot longer than expected and the airport has cleared with everyone on our one flight by the time we get our bags. We head to the exit where you tell the staff member at the taxi desk which hostel you’re going to and they find a taxi driver for you. Bangkok had some public transport but there is none to be found in Siem Reap.
1:20pm - We get to our hostel after our taxi driver has offered to drive us to a floating village that night as one of the many paid trips he organizes. We are unsure and offer to call him but he definitively says he’ll meeting us at the hostel at 4pm. We say yes for now and head inside. We have a spacious air-conditioned 4-person room for the three of us and flop on our beds for a rest after our early morning and hiccupy travels.
3pm - I, as I’m wont to do, do extensive research into the floating villages. I read about one close by that costs $20 to see on top of the $15 drive and is a big tourist trap with scams using children and a voyeuristic tour. The ones further away seem somewhat better but are 1 to 2 hour drives away and cost more than you expect. I let my friends know and we decide not to go. We consider going to the sunset at Angkor Wat but end up being too late before the ticket office closed at 5:30.
5:45pm - We head to a “steakhouse” right across from our hotel. It’s very enticing as it has huge comfy chairs and things like fries and pasta on the menu. I briefly feel bad for not being more active and adventurous but all three of us have been travelling in very foreign places for a while and we’re all pretty weary and looking for home comforts. Plus, we have a very early start tomorrow so I feel less guilty.
7:15pm - After a very satisfying and relaxing dinner, we walk down “pub street” with lots of neon signs, bars, and restaurants.
8pm - We hang out on our hostel rooftop for a bit and enjoy the sights/sounds of Siem Reap.
6 August
4am - The alarm goes off. We have scheduled a non-guided tour of the reason that most people come to Siem Reap - Angkor Wat and the Angkor complex. It’s known for its sunrise so we get ready for the early start.
4:30am - We meet our tuk tuk driver for the morning in the lobby and he drives us to the ticket office. All the other people on the road are tuk tuk drivers with tourists to see the massive temple complex.
4:45am - We get to the massive ticket office, get our pictures taken and pay the $37 for the Angkor Wat day pass. Now that it’s in my local currency I can concretely understand how much money this is. However, it’s $37 for 24 hours (starting at 5pm the night before) to see the largest religious monument in the world. Angkor was the capital city of the Khmer empire, a Hindu-Buddhist empire that was the predecessor to modern-day Cambodia. Today, the ruins of the city make up the UNESCO World Heritage site of Angkor, with the temple Angkor Wat being the main attraction. Angkor Wat itself is 1.62 km2 and 0.63 miles2 and is on the flag of Cambodia. It’s an important part of the country’s history and with tourism making up about 20% of its GDP,
5:15am - The tuk tuk driver drops us off at the Angkor Wat temple. It’s already getting busy and lighter by the minute so we rush to the water to the left of the bridge, making sure to get a spot with a good, straight view of the temple with few lily pads in the water.
5:40am - I wasn’t very impressed with the sunrise at first, I think mostly because I was a bit grumpy that early in the morning and while the sky was getting lighter, Angkor Wat was dark making the details not show up in my pictures.
6am - Now I was impressed. As it got lighter and less cloudy, light and colors were coming through the sky and Angkor Wat became more defined. The reflection started really coming though in the reflection in the water and the colors were gorgeous.
6:10am - it’s fully light now and we head across the bridge into the temple. We look back to where we came from and a rainbow came through the clouds!
6:20am - We pass through the first entrance wall and come to a huge open space with a long walkway leading to the center of the temple. We explore the temple, following signs with “way of visit” or “possibility of visit” to different hidden nooks or squares and up and down steep steps in the huge square complex. It probably would have been nice to have a tour guide for some background but we hear plenty of other tours and the size and grandeur of Angkor wat is enough to keep you occupied if you don’t have a tour guide.
7:10am - We come into the center tower where you can go up. There’s a very long line and we have to meet our driver soon so we skip it and head back to the parking lot.
7:20am - We’re back in the tuk tuk on the way to the next temple or part of the greater Angkor complex.
7:35am - We get to Angkor Thom which is much smaller than Angkor Wat but similar in size to the temples I’d seen previously. There were many stone slabs in and around the temple and it had a maze-like interior which we explored. This temple is particular as it has lots of huge faces on its many towers.
8:15am - We’re back in the tuk tuk
8:25am - We’re dropped off at a restaurant which is clearly the Angkor tour spot as there are only other tourists and tuk tuk drivers. There’s more traditional rice dishes on the menu (though clearly for tourists) but I need my breakfast foods for my first meal of the day and I have some pretty incredible pineapple pancakes.
9:15am - We’re off again and our tuk tuk driver enthusiastically tells us that we’re going the tomb raider temple. He’s very clearly disappointed with our blank stares and lack of enthusiasm. I know marginally more than my travel mates and explain that I think it’s where tomb raider aka the Lara croft movie was filmed, which was met with recognition but unfortunately, no uptick in enthusiasm. I suddenly remember seeing an “Angelina Jolie” restaurant at Angkor Wat, which now makes a lot more sense.
9:25am - We get to the “tomb raider” temple, aka the Ta Prohm temple. The facades are similar to the Bayon temple but it’s more secluded and has a lot of hidden courtyards. What really sets it apart is the large trees with roots growing in and over the temple. The roots are so high up and large that you can stand in them and they are all over the walls, making the temple feel like a part of the forest.
10:30am - We visit the last temple Banteay Kdei, which is small and pretty similar to the previous temples. The short walk straight through the complex is a nice bookend to our temple tour.
10:40am - We leave our last temple and head back to the hostel. We can’t believe it’s 10:40am and we’ve been already up for over 6 hours.
11:15am - We’re back at our hostel and we spend the next few hours hanging out and recouping on the lost sleep from our early morning. There’s not much else to do in Siem Reap town itself and we were all templed out.
4:45pm - We have a late lunch/early dinner back at the same place we had had dinner the night before.
5pm - We’re waiting for our food in the empty terrace when a tuk tuk driver stops on the side of the road, a normal occurrence as they wait for passengers. However, unusually, he turns to us and after some random talk starts serenading us with Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect.” He sings for a while and then as the restaurant staff start to come to see what was happening, he drives away. Probably one of the weirder travel experiences, if not life experiences.
6:30pm - We spend the evening hanging out and talking over our travel experiences.
7 August
10:30am - We’re having brunch at - big surprise - our favorite restaurant across from the hotel. No serenaders this time and we enjoy a hearty brunch before we get ready to leave Siem Reap.
11am - We take a grab (which is also in Cambodia) with our luggage to the Giant Ibis main terminal (which is different from the Siem Reap bus station) to take our Giant Ibis bus to Cambodia’s capital of Phnom Penh.
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