Getting through customs and grabbing our bags went fairly quickly and we headed out of the airport to meet our TukTuk driver, Chantri. Here in Cambodia, they use both the Cambodian riel and US dollars. We asked Chantri if we should exchange money and he told us places will accept both riel or dollar and some places would take card. He did say that when we receive change that it may come in both dollars and riel to just verify that the amount is correct. Since we arrived so late, we stopped by one of the markets on the way to grab some food for us to eat.

Our Airbnb was located just outside the city center and was in a private neighborhood. It was pretty cool place with most of it being open air except the bedrooms. Chantri dropped us off and we got the tour from our host, Tim. We asked if sunrise was worth it at Angkor Wat. He told us it is pretty but he didn’t think the early wake up was worth it. But we figured we’d keep it on the table and decide later if we didn’t want to do it. We enjoyed a late night swim in the pool before prepping for the next day exploring the temples.

Chantri came and picked us up at 8 AM to head to the ticket office for Angkor Wat. We ended up purchasing the three day pass just in case we decided to visit every day while we were here (and it worked out great because we did!). 

I had seen pictures of Angkor Wat but didn’t realize how extensive the area was. I honestly thought it would be like the My Son Sanctuary in Vietnam where there was one main one that we visit with other small ones nearby. However, most were spread out to where you had to drive the TukTuk there. We learned the entire complex is about 400 square kilometers filled with 1,000+ temples built in the 11th and 12th centuries! Chantri told us that we came during low season and wasn’t too busy, especially since the crowds still haven’t really picked up to where they were pre-Covid. (We researched Angkor Wat during high season and were thankful we missed the big crowds.) 

Our first day we walked through Angkor Wat, Bayon Temple, and the Royal Palace in the morning. It was nice because after every stop, Chantri welcomed us with an ice cold water and cold towel. By lunchtime, the temperature was already 98 with a feels like temperature of 108. It was hot! We were ready for a nice lunch break in the AC with some cold refreshments. 

One immediately noticeable detail within the Angkor area was that a lot of statues were missing heads. This is because Thai invaders centuries ago ransacked the Khmer civilization and cut many of the heads off the statues. Chantri told us if you tour museums in Thailand they often have statue heads from Angkor but not the bodies, even after all these years!

Angkor Wat (the most famous in the complex and “largest religious structure in the world”), originally built for the Hindu Gods but later converted to a Buddhist temple:

Road to Bayon Temple:

Bayon Temple and Royal Palace (last state temple built in Angkor for Buddhist worship). We learned at the height of the Khmer civilization there were an estimated 700,000 – 900,000 people living in the region making it one of the most populous areas of the world at the time. The Bayon Temple was likely the “downtown” area:

After lunch, we stopped by Ta Prohm Temple which sounded like “taproom” when the locals would say it.  This temple has now become known more colloquially as the “Tomb Raider” temple as it was used in the original film with Angelina Jolie. It was cool to see all the trees that looked like they were growing out of the temple. We’re still not entirely sure how they got like that. We also learned that after filming the movie, the Cambodian government granted Angelina Jolie with citizenship and she still sometimes stops by. She’s definitely popular there. We stopped at a small temple before finally heading back to our place to relax and swim before dinner. 

We grabbed dinner that night in downtown Siem Reap. They had a whole street called Pub Street filled with restaurants and bars catering to Westerners with a mix of local cuisine in the menus. The restaurant we chose ended up not being the best of food but we did enjoy a short conversation with a group of Brits on their last night in Cambodia. Grant also tried the local Cambodian dish called Amok which was probably best described as a green curry soup. He enjoyed his dish better than me and the Brits (we all ordered the same sandwich). After dinner, we grabbed some rolled ice cream which turned out to be Grant’s first time having it. He was enthralled by the process and we ended up getting it two nights in a row.

Before we knew it, it was already time to meet Chantri and head back to the Airbnb to prep for Day 2. We asked about the floating village Tim had mentioned to us, but he said it wasn’t worth it at this time because it was dry season and muddy so we wouldn’t truly get a sense of the floating village with all the flowing water. So we prepped for another day of exploring temples.