Also I stayed in Siem Reap for 3 days, I didn’t visit the city once. I used all the time to explore the Angkor temple complex, which is big, really big! I’m not gonna write anything about the history (which is massive), anyone who’s interested can probably easily find a source to read that up…

On the first day I hired a tuk tuk driver to do the “big tour” in Angkor, which is basically all the “smaller” temples outside of the main area with all the famous temples like Angkor Vat. He gave me a book which explained the history of each temple and the layout. He then patiently waited at each site till I was finished. The history of each temple didn’t really interest me, so most of the time I just overflew the pages and explored the temples on my own. Some of these buildings definitely were impressive, especially the detail work. It was off season, so the place wasn’t too packed (there were still a lot of tourists, but as the area is massive, they didn’t run into each others feet) and it was possible to take some nice pictures without too many tourists in it…

At about half past three he dropped me off at this temple, which is quiet high, and said: “Watch sunset, watch sunset!” I was a bit surprised, as it was still very early and the sun didn’t set until half past five, but what can you do (expect paying him more to drive somewhere else). So I got some food, had a beer and relaxed around the temple area. When I finally walked up the temple (again), who sat there waiting for the sunset: Richard and Angie (they were walking around in the temples all day long). We exchanged some stories, which temples were good, which were bad etc. and then enjoyed the sunset. It wasn’t that spectacular…

On the next day I rented a bicycle, which, hands down, had the most uncomfortable seat I ever sat on! The ride to entrance of Angkor took me about 40 minutes (that’s about all I saw from the city). On that day I did all the major (famous) temples. It was a really nice day, but boy was it HOT. I ran through 6l of water that day. On every temple entrance there are tons of women selling cold drinks and other stuff, so the minute you arrive it’s like: “Hey mister, cold drink?”. Most of the time I still had a 3/4 full 1,5l water bottle, so I said: “No, thank you. I’m still good” and pointed to my full bottle. Then they said:”Maybe on the way back?” So I said “maybe”, just to get ‘em off my back, thinking to myself “yeah…no”, but once I came back out of a temple, I was so lucky to find a stand with water! A 3/4 full bottle of water is just a drop on a hot stone, if you’re visiting a temple in Angkor… At one time I had to lay down in the shadow of one of the temples, because I just couldn’t ride my bicycle in the heat anymore, and it felt really cool and refreshing, even so it was at least 40+ °C degrees in the shadow!

When I got home I was so exhausted, that I just got some dinner and fell into my bed right afterwards. On the next day I got up at 4 am and got back on my super comfy bicycle to ride to Angkor Vat again to see the sunrise. It was quiet the experience, as it was pitch black dark and my bike didn’t have a light (nor where the streets in Angkor lighted). The sunrise was really nice, but not as good as I hoped. I hoped the sun would rise in between the towers, but at this time it rises a bit to the left. Still pretty cool and some fantastic colors. But you’re not alone watching it; next to that small lake are at least a couple of dozens other people with lots of camera equipment, waiting for the star to appear. Interestingly, many of the tour groups arrive just after the color-play (which is the best part for me) and just see the final part, when the sun is actually rising (not sooo good anymore).

Afterwards I decided that I had seen enough temples (probably for the rest of my life) and went home and relaxed the rest of the day. For the next day I had booked a ticket to Battambang. I thought I could take the train from there to Phnom Phen (the capital). I heard it was a cool experience, as the train wasn’t going much faster than 20 km/h, because of the bad rails, so you were able to sit on the roof and watch the nice scenery. But as it turned out, all rail traffic had been suspended two years ago, because the railway conditions were just too bad…

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