Sunrise, Temple Fatigue, and Street Food
Our hostel offers two main tours of the Angkor Wat temple complex. We already did the sunset tour on Tuesday and did the sunrise tour today. The sunrise tour includes going to the real jewel of the temple complex, the actual Angkor Wat temple, to watch the sunrise then go to 4 other temples. After that, we would pack up and go back to Bangkok.
The tour started at 4:30am and we got to Angkor Wat at around 5am. It was a 10-minute walk in the complete dark to the spot where everyone was gathering. Even at 5am, there were a lot of people there already. We had to stand for the next hour plus while the sun rose. I would guess there were 500+ people there by the time the sun truly rose. It was kind of annoying standing there and having all these salespeople constantly ask if we wanted breakfast or coffee but it was worth it for the sunrise. We were very lucky and there were a few wispy clouds that turned very pink. The pictures are gorgeous and was worth the early start.
Angkor Wat was built around 1200 AD, just like most of the other temples. It is the best-reconstructed temple we saw the entire time in Cambodia. It goes without saying that this was our favorite temple. We left the sunrise a little early so we could explore the temple itself with some breathing room (this was a good decision). The 5 towers are incredible. We walked around the flat ground between the outer wall and inner wall and most of the time felt like we had the whole place to ourselves. It's hard to explain the grandeur and beauty of it really. Just know that it was very cool and we were very happy.
We left Angkor Wat at 7:30am to find our tuk-tuk driver but couldn't find him. Eventually, we walked a long ways away and did find him. It was an ordeal.
We ventured to the next temple called Bayon. This temple is also called "the temple of 1,000 faces" because of all the faces carved literally everywhere. A lot of the tours follow the same route so this was area was kind of crowded but overall not too bad. The faces are beautiful and I can't even imagine what it must have looked like when it was fully together 800 years ago.
The tuk-tuk driver stopped at a restaurant on the side of the road (across from a temple under renovation). He said we could get some food but we weren't hungry. Apparently, he was hungry because he sat and ate for at least 45 minutes.
The next stop was Ta Prohm, also called "The Tomb Raider Temple". This is the temple with all the tree roots growing everywhere. It's the 2nd most famous temple after Angkor Wat. We enjoyed walking around this one and the weather could not have been better. By this time, Lacey and I were starting to get "templed out" and each one kind of began blending together. We reminded ourselves of our lucky we were to be there and tried to come up with characteristics about each temple so we could remember them (water temple, face temple, etc.).
Our last stop was ....... temple. I honestly don't remember much about this one other than walking across the road and checking out a man-made lake. We got back to the hostel just in time to check out of our room. We hung out at the hostel for the rest of the time until our tuk-tuk to the airport. The Siem Reap airport is the smallest terminal I think I've ever sat around. It's really nice but small. It was funny seeing Dairy Queen, KFC, and Burger King in Cambodia.
Our flight (the 6th of the trip) was uneventful and extremely short. It was only 45 minutes in the air.
We got an uber from the airport in Bangkok to our hostel. Unlike the last Uber that was actually a taxi and ripped us off, this Uber was fantastic. The guy drove a normal car and he picked us up pretty easily. He drove very quickly and it was nice to not stress about getting to the hostel at all. He dropped us off right at the curb. Before leaving the airport, Lacey got another sim card for her phone. It might seem like a waste for just 2 days but we love having the GPS directions and being able to look stuff up on the fly.
The hostel was, uh, different… It’s called Minimis Hostel and it’s in the downtown area of Bangkok. Earlier in the trip, we stayed in the “old town” and during this second visit we wanted to see a new area. The hostel is extremely modern. Like it has concrete and metal everything everywhere. When we were booking it, we liked that aspect of it. Unfortunately, we did not know just how small the rooms are. I’ve stayed in a fair number of hostels in my traveling and I’ve never, ever been in a room this small. We didn’t have room to put our backpacks on the ground and still be able to open the door! The bed was also the stiffest bed we’ve slept on yet. Oh, and the shower was in the same exact area as the toilet so that was weird.
After resting for a bit, we headed out to the Patpong Night Market which was only a few blocks away. Patpong Night Market is one of the more seedy night markets in Bangkok. It’s totally safe but there are “shows” and “strip clubs” and lots of people ask if you want to go to them. Ask me or Lacey about that if you’re interested. And no, we did not go to any of them haha.
Our reason for going was finding some street food and we absolutely found some. We walked along the road and had some pork on sticks which was delicious. We debated going to a restaurant but found a street cart area with a few different booths. It was so cool to just eat outside and at plastic tables with the locals. I had Tom Yum Soup which is a Thailand national dish (spicy soup). Lacey had Thai fried chicken and rice which was really good. We also got some watermelon for dessert.
We headed back to the hostel and made ourselves at home as best we could. I wrote a blog post while Lacey fell asleep.
Tomorrow exploring the biggest market in Southeast Asia and our last night in Thailand.
We were completely exhausted from the motorbike tour yesterday so we went to bed pretty early (like 9pm or something) so we could sleep enough before our very early wake-up call of 4am. For the sunset tour a few days ago, we did a private tour where it was just us and a driver in a tuk-tuk. This tour, we decided to do the super cheap ($12 total) sharing tour for sunrise. We thought we would be getting into a white van with a bunch of other people and driving around to everything. Turns out the sharing tour just means sharing a small tuk-tuk with 2 other people. Needless to say, we wish we would have just done the private tour again. The 2 people we shared a tuk-tuk with were Tim and Kevin. Tim was from the UK originally and was kind of old and moved pretty slow. Kevin was a biggggg dude who had been traveling around Southeast Asia for about 2 months already. They were nice enough to talk to but honestly, we just wanted to be to ourselves.
The tour started at 4:30am and we got to Angkor Wat at around 5am. It was a 10-minute walk in the complete dark to the spot where everyone was gathering. Even at 5am, there were a lot of people there already. We had to stand for the next hour plus while the sun rose. I would guess there were 500+ people there by the time the sun truly rose. It was kind of annoying standing there and having all these salespeople constantly ask if we wanted breakfast or coffee but it was worth it for the sunrise. We were very lucky and there were a few wispy clouds that turned very pink. The pictures are gorgeous and was worth the early start.
Angkor Wat was built around 1200 AD, just like most of the other temples. It is the best-reconstructed temple we saw the entire time in Cambodia. It goes without saying that this was our favorite temple. We left the sunrise a little early so we could explore the temple itself with some breathing room (this was a good decision). The 5 towers are incredible. We walked around the flat ground between the outer wall and inner wall and most of the time felt like we had the whole place to ourselves. It's hard to explain the grandeur and beauty of it really. Just know that it was very cool and we were very happy.
We left Angkor Wat at 7:30am to find our tuk-tuk driver but couldn't find him. Eventually, we walked a long ways away and did find him. It was an ordeal.
We ventured to the next temple called Bayon. This temple is also called "the temple of 1,000 faces" because of all the faces carved literally everywhere. A lot of the tours follow the same route so this was area was kind of crowded but overall not too bad. The faces are beautiful and I can't even imagine what it must have looked like when it was fully together 800 years ago.
The tuk-tuk driver stopped at a restaurant on the side of the road (across from a temple under renovation). He said we could get some food but we weren't hungry. Apparently, he was hungry because he sat and ate for at least 45 minutes.
The next stop was Ta Prohm, also called "The Tomb Raider Temple". This is the temple with all the tree roots growing everywhere. It's the 2nd most famous temple after Angkor Wat. We enjoyed walking around this one and the weather could not have been better. By this time, Lacey and I were starting to get "templed out" and each one kind of began blending together. We reminded ourselves of our lucky we were to be there and tried to come up with characteristics about each temple so we could remember them (water temple, face temple, etc.).
Our last stop was ....... temple. I honestly don't remember much about this one other than walking across the road and checking out a man-made lake. We got back to the hostel just in time to check out of our room. We hung out at the hostel for the rest of the time until our tuk-tuk to the airport. The Siem Reap airport is the smallest terminal I think I've ever sat around. It's really nice but small. It was funny seeing Dairy Queen, KFC, and Burger King in Cambodia.
We got an uber from the airport in Bangkok to our hostel. Unlike the last Uber that was actually a taxi and ripped us off, this Uber was fantastic. The guy drove a normal car and he picked us up pretty easily. He drove very quickly and it was nice to not stress about getting to the hostel at all. He dropped us off right at the curb. Before leaving the airport, Lacey got another sim card for her phone. It might seem like a waste for just 2 days but we love having the GPS directions and being able to look stuff up on the fly.
The hostel was, uh, different… It’s called Minimis Hostel and it’s in the downtown area of Bangkok. Earlier in the trip, we stayed in the “old town” and during this second visit we wanted to see a new area. The hostel is extremely modern. Like it has concrete and metal everything everywhere. When we were booking it, we liked that aspect of it. Unfortunately, we did not know just how small the rooms are. I’ve stayed in a fair number of hostels in my traveling and I’ve never, ever been in a room this small. We didn’t have room to put our backpacks on the ground and still be able to open the door! The bed was also the stiffest bed we’ve slept on yet. Oh, and the shower was in the same exact area as the toilet so that was weird.
After resting for a bit, we headed out to the Patpong Night Market which was only a few blocks away. Patpong Night Market is one of the more seedy night markets in Bangkok. It’s totally safe but there are “shows” and “strip clubs” and lots of people ask if you want to go to them. Ask me or Lacey about that if you’re interested. And no, we did not go to any of them haha.
Our reason for going was finding some street food and we absolutely found some. We walked along the road and had some pork on sticks which was delicious. We debated going to a restaurant but found a street cart area with a few different booths. It was so cool to just eat outside and at plastic tables with the locals. I had Tom Yum Soup which is a Thailand national dish (spicy soup). Lacey had Thai fried chicken and rice which was really good. We also got some watermelon for dessert.
We headed back to the hostel and made ourselves at home as best we could. I wrote a blog post while Lacey fell asleep.
Tomorrow exploring the biggest market in Southeast Asia and our last night in Thailand.
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