As we landed in Siem Reap, we could not believe there were only two countries left in our adventure (plus an intermittent stop back in Thailand for one day). We were excited to come to Cambodia and see all that Siem Reap had to offer. Although it was a just a short visit to Cambodia, it was a great way to get a taste of the culture and the country, one that we did not know so much about.

We landed in Siem Reap in the evening and met our driver at the airport exit. Our hotel offered a complementary airport pick up and for the 20 minute drive into the city they made sure we would be traveling in true Cambodian fashion and had sent a tuk tuk. A tuk tuk is essentially a motorized rickshaw which can take a few different forms – sometimes just a small little vehicle that fits two people, and at other times, as was common in Cambodia, it was a cart attached to the back of a motor bike. They are all over the city, are very affordable means of transport, and if you are clearly a visitor you will get asked 100 times a day walking down the street… “tuk tuk?”. And so we loaded our luggage (including the newly purchased suitcase which survived the flight) and climbed in. The night air was warm as we made our way into the busy center of Siem Reap, passing tuk tuk by tuk tuk and markets galore. It was certainly not a quiet town.

Our driver Iam asked us what our plans were for the next day and if we needed transportation to Angkor, the massive temple complex which houses the famous temple of Angkor Wat and is one of the main attractions of and reasons for visiting Siem Reap. The entire Angkor complex was the former capital of the Khmer empire from the 9th to the 14th century and there are over 1000 temples in the area. We had planned to go there the next day, and had read that hiring a tuk tuk for the day to take you around was one of the best ways to explore the temple grounds, which is located about 6-7km from Siem Reap. He showed us a map with the route he would take us and which temples we would visit. We also discussed getting there for the Angkor Wat sunrise, which is considered by many to be one of the most beautiful in the world. It would require being picked up at 4:45 the next morning, but we thought it would be worth it, and agreed with him on the early morning pick up and full day guiding at a price of $23. We said goodbye until the morning and checked into the hotel. We went for a quick dinner near to the hotel after checking in, trying a delicious Cambodian dish, fish amok, a type of curried fish in a light coconut sauce with many herbs and species. The fish is steamed in a banana leaf bowl with the sauce poured over it and served with rice. Shortly after finishing, it was bedtime to get refreshed for the early pickup.

The alarms went off early and we went to meet Iam and his tuk tuk at 4:45 am. Despite it being so hot in Cambodia during the day and expected to be much hotter exploring the temples as the day went on, the morning air was quite cool, especially as we drove in the open vehicle with the wind blowing around us – so jackets were a necessity. First stop was at the ticket office which opened at 5 am. Our 4:45 pick up was perfectly timed and we reached the ticket office as soon as it was opening. Iam took us inside and helped us find a short line to buy our tickets, since we were of course not the only ones interested in seeing the sunrise that morning. Despite everything else in Cambodia being inexpensive, a ticket for Angkor is not and costs $37 per person for a one day visit. The ticket has your picture on it and is checked entering most temples in the Angkor complex. (The picture is likely to discourage and prevent reselling to someone as you exit).

We were back on the dark road after about ten minutes and along with many other tuk tuks and a few tour busses we made our way to Angkor Wat. We pulled up to the parking lot in the dark and Iam told us where he would meet us in a few hours and pointed us in the direction of Angkor Wat. We grabbed a quick coffee from one of the vendors (after all it was 5:15 am at this point) and used our little flash light (thanks to our Kilimanjaro trek we were prepared) to lead the way to the entrance to Angkor Wat.

As we got closer to the temple the sky started to lighten as the sun was getting ready to come up and we could start to see the outline of this magnificent temple. It truly was amazing and stood gigantic in front of us. As the sky got lighter and lighter we could start to see more and more how intricate the stone carvings were and how spectacular of a sight it really was. All of the people want to not only see the magnificent sunrise behind the temple but also to get the classic picture of Angkor Wat reflected in the “reflection ponds” in front of the temple. As we approached the temple, we saw hundreds of people with loads of photography equipment lining up to get the perfect spot and get that perfect shot. For being only 5am, it was still completely packed. We took a position in front of the reflection pools to the far left, which had a magnificent view even if not the perfect reflection, and stood and watched as the sunrise unfolded behind Angkor Wat.

The sight of the sunrise behind Angkor Wat was as magical and beautiful as we read it would be and we stood there for almost 45 minutes as the sky continued to change colors and give different patterns in the sky. It was a little cloudy and the sun never fully came out but was still spectacular peeking through the clouds. We decided after some time to leave our spot and find a place to sit to have the breakfast that our hotel had packed for us before heading inside the temple.

Going inside let us experience even more the magnificence of Angkor Wat, one of the largest religious monuments in the world. As we got closer we could see the architecture of the towers and all of the symbols carved along the walls of the massive structure. Nearly all of the surfaces were carved with many intricate designs. At the center of Angkor Wat, the main temple is raised and surrounded by more towers. We had to climb up (and then back down) very steep stairs to reach this part. We spent some time exploring the main temple and the rest of Angkor Wat before returning to our tuk tuk.

It was around 8:30 when we finished at Angkor Wat and we drove for a bit until we reached the next part on our tour, Angkor Thom. This was the last capital city of the Khmer regime. The main temple here is called Bayon and the unique feature of this temple was the faces that adorned the many towers of the temple. It was really impressive to see how these towers were built with stone blocks and the various parts of the faces carved into them. We spent some time exploring the area and the different parts of the temple, even seeing some monkeys along the way.

After close to an hour wandering around Angkor Thom and watching the monkeys, we went to Baphoun Temple. This temple was rectangular shaped and tall. We had to once again climb very steep steps to reach the top level. The walls and stones in this temple were especially cool, because they were made of layers of stones of different colors which blended together in a mix of browns, greens, and beige. As we were leaving the temple we were looking at the backside and didn’t realize it until we saw a sign explaining it that there was a giant Buddha head laying sideways on the side of the temple. It was one of those things that you didn’t necessarily notice at first but once you saw it you couldn’t not see it. After climbing through the temple we wandered around the complex where Baphoun Temple is located, which is very jungly. We saw a few of the other smaller temples in the area before returning to Iam and the tuk tuk.

Ta Prohm temple was our next stop. It is most well known for two things: the way it is integrated into the trees in the jungle, and the temple where parts of Tomb Raider and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom were filmed. Aside from the Hollywood fame, this temple was really interesting and one of the more unique ones of the day. The trees here were humongous! You could really tell how big they were when standing next to the trunk. The roots of the trees were also really incredible. Not only were they all twisting and turning in different directions, they wrapped around the stones of the temple and became part of the structure. At Ta Phrom it was really cool to see how the temple was integrated in the jungle and the environment around it.

Our final stop on our tour was the Banteay Kdei temple. It was getting hot at this point, but luckily the temple was mostly shaded. We even had a little surprise as as we walked up the tree lined path leading to the temple and a snake fell from the tree right in front of us. The Cambodian women selling trinkets on the side of the road laughed as we jumped out of the way, startled by the snake, but we were just happy that it had not fallen on our heads. Before leaving for the day, we sat at Srah Sang, a beautiful scenic spot on a small lake, looking out and talking about all we had seen today.

Angkor Wat and the entire Angkor complex was a truly impressive area and well worth the stop in Cambodia. While we saw many temples, it was really only a small part of the complex and there were so many more to explore that we missed. The architecture was really spectacular to see and to think about how much time and effort went into creating these magnificent structures. We returned to Siem Reap that afternoon feeling that we had seen and experienced something really incredible.

Over the next day and a half, we spent time exploring the town and relaxing. There were so many markets in Siem Reap, both day and night markets, a few of which we wandered through and tried our hand at bargaining to see what kind of deals we could get. We also (like everywhere else we had been) made sure to taste some of the local cuisine. We had many delicious meals, from the $7 (for both of us) lunch to the more ‘upscale’ meal at a restaurant that we ate outside in what seemed like a tree house.

The people were friendly, the food was great, the sights were incredible, and we really enjoyed our short time in Cambodia. We headed back to the airport by a tuk tuk we requested using Grab for another flight. From there it was off to Bangkok for a 24 hour layover as we were making our way to Japan.

We arrived to Bangkok on Monday evening and decided to have dinner at one of the night markets near to where we were staying. Like all of the other night markets we had tried in our Southeast Asia journeys, this one also did not disappoint. We had lots of fresh seafood including splitting an entire grilled octopus between the two of us. This market even had live music with the crowd getting into it and joining in on the singing at times. After our feast we walked around the stalls and saw many of the familiar clothes for sale – the elephant pants, flowy skirts, and the ‘designer’ goods. We spent the next day in Bangkok as well, finishing off with one last delicious Thai meal before heading to the airport for our flight that evening. We were headed for our last country of our world tour – Japan.