Siem Reap

ជំរាបសួរ you fluffy readers.

We whiled away the day of our departure as best we could in our favorite coffee shop in Kampot, since our night bus didn't leave until the evening. Night buses are something very funny. The seats are narrow beds divided into two floors. Julian and I were downstairs, which at first felt like we were sleeping on the floor. After about 8 hours of more or less good sleep, we arrived in Siem Reap at 4:45. Unfortunately we couldn't check in at our hostel earlier, so we had to wait until 2 p.m. until our beds were ready. We found a cute cafe where we could have breakfast. With the schnitzel ready, we made our beds in a dormitory at lunchtime, which was really very nice.

The next day we went to the largest temple complex in the world - Angkor Wat.

Quick fact check:

In the 10th century, under the reign of King Yasovarman I, numerous reservoirs and irrigation systems were built, which resulted in the country being able to harvest rice all year round. This successful agriculture brought great wealth to the Khymer Empire. Angkor Wat was built in the early 12th century in the city of Angkor, Cambodia, under the reign of King Suryavarman II. The construction period is roughly estimated at 1113 to 1150 AD. The temple was originally dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu, but was later converted into a Buddhist sanctuary.

By the way, Angkor stands for city. What a monastery. What we also realized after the tour. The entire facility is spread over an area of 163 hectares.

On our first tour, we saw 5 temples in the complex, which were truly breathtaking.

From wonderful statues to magical black and yellow dragonflies to huge decorations in the sandstone, there was really everything that a temple that is over 800 years old could offer.

Very exhausted by what felt like 40 degrees on the complex, we ended the evening with a sunset in one of the temples.

Unfortunately, it was a very busy attraction, which is why there were around 200 people there.

The next morning we rented two scooters and drove with Lena to a temple called Banteay Srei - better known as the Ladies Temple.

As we later found out, the name had nothing to do with women, but was only called that because of the sandstone used. In contrast to the gray sandstones, this was a reddish color. Which is probably why it was associated with ladies.

Well no matter, the temple was our personal highlight to date.

We were thrilled to look at beautifully preserved sculptures, inscriptions, etc.

On the third and final day of our 3 day pass, we headed to the main temple of Angkor Wat at 4:30 in the morning to watch the completely overrun sunrise.

Tired and exhausted from the previous two days, we climbed up and down the hundreds of stairs to see everything about the temple. Once again it's breathtaking how huge the whole thing is. The highlight of this day for us personally was the smaller temple called Ta Prohm. Despite the aching feet and slight circulatory problems, it was just amazing to see how huge trees had grown over the roofs and walls of the temple for hundreds of years. Roots that were exposed and sometimes stretched 20 meters above the ground. You must have seen that!

Ready to eat, we drove back to our hostel at around 2 p.m. and briefly planned our onward journey to Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam, which would take place the next day. Nothing more was really possible that day anyway.

លាហើយ