Siem Reap and the Temples of Angkor

Angkor Wat - how many times have you read about it, watched documentaries and just wished to be there yourself.

At least that's how we felt. Now we were actually in Siem Reap, the starting point to visit Angkor Wat.

But first, a few more details. For me personally, there was always only Angkor Wat itself and I didn't really have an idea that Angkor Wat is far from everything.

Angkor is a whole region near Siem Reap, which was the center of the historical Khmer empire of Cambodia from the 9th to the 15th century. Angkor Wat is 'only' the largest temple complex in Angkor and not to forget also the largest temple complex in the whole world. However, besides Angkor Wat, there are many other beautiful temples in Angkor that, despite less attention, are beautiful and impressive.

Since the temple world of Angkor is quite extensive, the best way to visit everything is to ride a tuk-tuk from one temple to another. There are different temple passes as entrance tickets. You can decide for one day, three days or one week. We decided on 3 days and can now say in retrospect that this was the right decision. After 3 days, we visited all the most important and beautiful temples, and most importantly, you eventually have enough of temples after 3 days. As a route, we decided to visit the smaller and lesser-known temples on the first two days and on the last day to go to Angkor Wat for the sunrise and take as much time as we want and need there.

Again, we had a charming tuk-tuk driver named Sarorn, whom we couldn't have wished for better. We had good conversations with him and he always dropped us off at the best times at the best temples.

He also proudly showed us his house, which he is currently building in the countryside. We looked at everything with him, were introduced to the neighborhood, where we were immediately shown how they make palm sugar and rice wine. Sarorn also picked fresh mangoes from his mango tree, which we then ate in his little house. He also suddenly stopped on the roadside here and there if he wanted to show us something urgently. Whether it was in nature, whether he bought crazy fruits for us by the roadside, or whether he wanted to show us how a lady was collecting and washing ants.

About the crazy fruits - Sarorn first said that you can eat them directly with the skin. So Luki took a bite with joy, made a face because the taste was quite bitter, Sarorn quickly realized, oh no, you can't eat this skin yet, as it was not ripe enough:). Without the skin, they were really delicious.

About the ants - a woman collected termites and large red ants in a dirty bucket by the roadside. The whole bucket was filled with water and thousands of ants and termites were floating in it. I felt sick just looking at it, but Sarorn said that they sell and eat this mixture. I politely declined, but Luki actually had the courage to try it. So he took a handful of ants and termites and ate them. Here again, it's a pity that I can't upload videos.

Each individual temple had an incredible charm and we couldn't stop marveling. Especially when you consider at what times they built these incredibly beautiful temple complexes back then and what means they had for it.

We walked through all the temples with a big smile on our faces and couldn't stop saying 'WOW'.

We can only recommend to everyone not to limit themselves to Angkor Wat, but also to visit the other temples.

Early in the morning, to be precise 5:00 am, Sarorn picked us up so that we could admire the sunrise over Angkor Wat. It's a pity that we were not the only ones who wanted to see it;).

Aside from the fact that there was a huge crowd of tourists with us at the temple, the sunrise on this morning was unfortunately very disappointing and it was also raining.

However, only a few of the tourists actually went into the temple afterwards. Many went back to their hotels to have breakfast first. Therefore, the number of tourists in the temple was really not bad and it spreads out wonderfully in such a huge complex.

What can you say, Angkor Wat is incredibly beautiful, breathtaking, fascinating. All the beautiful little details on the temple walls, the immense size, the small passages where you can get wonderfully lost, the monks praying at different places, it is really as beautiful and impressive as you imagine it.

We also received a blessing from a monk, so nothing can happen to us anymore. As a sign of the blessing, you receive a small red bracelet around your wrist, men on the right, women on the left, and you have to wear it until it falls off by itself.

Siem Reap itself is naturally very geared towards tourists. There is a Pub Street, where there is a lot of hustle and bustle every evening and one Western restaurant follows the other. But since our accommodation was a bit away from all that, we had a few small, charming Khmer restaurants around the corner, where we felt more comfortable than in the middle of the tourist hustle and bustle.

After tiring temple visits, we also treated ourselves to a foot massage and I got a pedicure:).