Angkor What?!

The hostel boomed with music and crowds of people chatting away. It was like this almost every night. My niece was filled with excitement to see this party place full of likeminded thinkers. Our age difference is about 10 years. With her at 18, and me at 28. Having that huge age gap, we actually didn’t run into too many problems.

Traveling together went smoother than I had expected. We chose Mad Monkey as our hostel once we reached Siem Reap. I thought it would be nice for my niece to experience a place brimming with other travelers that were about partying.

I was fine with the drinking till you’re hammered for a while. Then a trapped feeling began to pull at me. I wanted to explore, not stay cooped up in the hostel or only go out when it is the bar crawl. So I took it into my own hands and planned a trip to Angkor Wat.

When we roamed the streets, I asked a few tuk tuk drivers separately how much it would be for a day to Angkor Wat with him as our driver. The first one that was asked was outside of the hostel and he wouldn’t budge on his price. Farther down the street, we talked to another guy. This guy I was able to talk down the price. It finally felt like a reasonable price for the two of us. He insisted that we must be there for sunrise. I was baffled, but finally we agreed. This guy must know what he’s talking about.

The night before, my party-loving niece and I drank. I switched to just oj as the nightlife began to come around. After a glass, I went to bed, 4:30 will be coming soon. That little girl, I think she finally passed out only a couple of hours before we were planning on leaving. The time had come, and in the darkness I got ready for our new adventure. I even was able to wake up Ahna (my niece) with no problem! We both walked out of the hostel feeling a bit groggy. Ahna was way out of it still. Maybe she was still drunk. Our tuk tuk was around the corner waiting for us.

It felt strange to be up and about at 4:30am. But as we looked around, we saw there were other vehicles and tuk tuks buzzing by. First thing we had to do was stop and get tickets at an office. Since it was so early, I thought, no problem. Boy, was I wrong! When we made it to the place, there were cars and tuk tuks everywhere!

Once we walked inside, we saw lines sprawled out, filled with tourists. There was even a digital counter on the wall. It was up to one million visitors! It was unbelievable! I guess sunrise at Angkor Wat is kind of a big deal. Or maybe, this is what it looks like NOT crowded. The windows for the clerks had not opened yet. Finally, in an abrupt movement, I hear the windows one by one, slam open. When this happened, it went relatively quick and easy. Now, onward to Angkor Wat!

As my drowsiness was subsiding I was starting to wake up. My heart began to hammer with an urge for the new adventure. The day was beginning to warm up. So it felt nice riding in a tuktuk with the cold breeze whipping against our faces. There was a gate up ahead. Time to check our tickets!

Then we were in with our driver at the wheel. The place was huge! It felt like our driver had driven for a while before we made it to the beginning of the ancient structures. The first one I saw, left me in awe-struck. It was amazing! When you see something in person, it is so much better than photos.

Our tuk tuk driver parked and explained where we can start to see the sunrise. It would be hard to get lost with all the toursits going in the same direction.

We found a nice place to sit that wasn’t so crowded next to the water as we waited. As we looked at Angkor Wat, we could see the sun’s rays peaking through some clouds as it came up. It was beautiful and no photo could do it justice! Since we were there during rainy season it had those wandering clouds. I could imagine that it would be even more spectacular during a clear morning. But what we had was enough for me, I was pleased!

 

 

 

 

We began our journey through the temples. It became temple, after temple, after temple. They were amazing, but I was beginning to feel rather burnt out when we reached the last temple for the day. We hadn’t even seen all of it! There was still much more to see. But we both felt we had seen our fair share of temples. Each temple had its own story and personality. It was worth the visit!