The end of our trip is really where it all started, since the one place I really wanted to visit during my year here in Korea was the Angkor temples. And now in Siem Reap we were just minutes away.
Having booked our tuk tuk driver for the night before we got an early start on our first full day in Siem Reap. Up at 4:50 and soon after on the road, we made it to the most famous of the temples, Angkor Wat, before sunrise. It was quite a crowded scene, but I'm glad we made it there for a sunrise, and it was probably a good decision to do so on day number one.
Day one was like a visiting the temple Hall of Fame. Starting with Angkor we continued on to the most grandiose and must-see temples, including my favorite temple, Bayon, with its signature four-sided faces.
The nice thing about starting your day early is the day seems so much longer. We were back at the hotel early in the afternoon and had time for an afternoon swim and just pure relaxation time. Later we walked across the river toward downtown checked out some of the markets and had Cambodian barbecue for dinner, which included some new meat choices in crocodile and snake. All in all it was a great meal.
We slept in the next day (if you can call 6 a.m. on vacation sleeping in!), before getting picked up by our driver at 6:30 to head a little further out to hit the rest of the major temples in the area. After the majesty of day one, it was a little hard to be impressed by the sights of day two, but if you take each temple as its own, they all are still pretty cool. But needless to say by the end of our rotation on day two I was ready for a break. We rested for a little bit and then hit the downtown again for a couple of drinks and relaxation before dinner. It was nice to just sit with nowhere to be and nothing to do.
Unfortunately our last day of temples we had to skip as Gina wasn't feeling so hot. But really it was nice to just be lazy on the final day. Plus I don't think missing the temples we were scheduled to hit was anything worth crying about. At day's end it was back to the cold of Korea. What a trip!
Having booked our tuk tuk driver for the night before we got an early start on our first full day in Siem Reap. Up at 4:50 and soon after on the road, we made it to the most famous of the temples, Angkor Wat, before sunrise. It was quite a crowded scene, but I'm glad we made it there for a sunrise, and it was probably a good decision to do so on day number one.
Day one was like a visiting the temple Hall of Fame. Starting with Angkor we continued on to the most grandiose and must-see temples, including my favorite temple, Bayon, with its signature four-sided faces.
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| Gina loved the elephants. Unfortunately we missed her chance to ride one. |
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| Ta Prom, aka the Tomb Raider temple. |
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| Buddhas without heads. |
The nice thing about starting your day early is the day seems so much longer. We were back at the hotel early in the afternoon and had time for an afternoon swim and just pure relaxation time. Later we walked across the river toward downtown checked out some of the markets and had Cambodian barbecue for dinner, which included some new meat choices in crocodile and snake. All in all it was a great meal.
We slept in the next day (if you can call 6 a.m. on vacation sleeping in!), before getting picked up by our driver at 6:30 to head a little further out to hit the rest of the major temples in the area. After the majesty of day one, it was a little hard to be impressed by the sights of day two, but if you take each temple as its own, they all are still pretty cool. But needless to say by the end of our rotation on day two I was ready for a break. We rested for a little bit and then hit the downtown again for a couple of drinks and relaxation before dinner. It was nice to just sit with nowhere to be and nothing to do.
Unfortunately our last day of temples we had to skip as Gina wasn't feeling so hot. But really it was nice to just be lazy on the final day. Plus I don't think missing the temples we were scheduled to hit was anything worth crying about. At day's end it was back to the cold of Korea. What a trip!
enjoyed reading about your trip Brent! It's been awhile...we'll have to catch up sometime this week! :)
ReplyDeleteYour blog posts didn't show up in my feed until today, so I had lots of catching up to do! :) It sounds like it was an amazing trip!
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