Friday 14th October 2022
It was an early start this morning (4.30am!) as we were going to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat, which we were very excited about. Unfortunately it was a bit of a cloudy day, and so it ended up being a little disappointing – it basically just went from being dark to being light with no pretty colours. So definitely not worth the very early start – it’d have looked just as beautiful if we’d got there at a more reasonable time of day!
Despite the sunrise letting us down, the temple itself very impressive – I didn’t realise just how huge it was! There were some very detailed and ornate carvings in the galleries which our tuk tuk driver bought to life with his stories about the history (involving lots of fights between monkeys and demons!)
The next temple on our tour was Banteay Kdei, which was opposite the Srah Srang lake. It was very peaceful so we spent a bit of time just relaxing and watching the world go by.
We then went to Ta Prohm, which apparently featured in the Tomb Raider film. I’ve never watched the film, but loved this temple as it had quite a lot of trees growing throughout it, which looked pretty cool.
We stopped off at two quite small temples opposite each other – Chau Say Tevoda Temple and Thommanon. We got a bit lost on our way out as the direction of visit signs seemed to direct us straight through the middle of Takeo Temple Nursery, and then past a huge water wheel. It was a pretty cool detour though!
Our final temple stop was Bayon temple, which is big with lots of towers (and four faces on each one of the towers).
We got dropped back at our hotel, where we chilled for a little while, whilst we planned some of our future travels (at this stage, we’ve nothing booked beyond Siem Reap). We then walked into town, where we saw a couple of tuk tuks transporting trees!
We crossed the river, then had dinner at lovely restaurant called Sambo. I love a good spring roll, but often find them very disappointing. This place, however, did awesome pork spring rolls – very crispy and flavoursome, and not at all oily. The Khmer sweet and sour and chicken with holy basil and lemongrass were also pretty good.
Emma and Pete’s Asian Adventure 