The Grand Temple Tour
One of the nights in Siem Reap, Mariah and I decided to get to bed “early” because we knew we had a big day ahead of us. The main reason we came to Cambodia: to check out Angkor Wat. We had to be up and ready in the hostel lobby by 4:30 AM for the sunrise grand temple tour. We bought a multipass so that we’d have access to see four other temples in addition to Angkor Wat: Angkor Thom, Takeo, Ta Prohm & Banteay Kdei. This early wake up call was pretty brutal without coffee but we ended up finding some before we headed in to the temples. Thank God because it was a long day. First up: Angkor Wat!
We sat and outside the entrance, far enough away to catch a great glimpse of the sunrise light the sky behind the ancient structure. The Buddhist temple was built between 1113 and 1150 and is the largest religious monument in the world. Half of all tourism to Cambodia is due to foreigners wanting to visit this temple. Angkor is the capital of an empire that at one point controlled most of Southeast Asia; it’s people being the Khmer. The Khmer abandoned their city but they left behind beautiful temples and buildings that would be left for centuries to “oh and ah” over.
Angkor Wat was ridiculously breath taking and just so surreal. A close runner up to it’s beauty, in my opinion, is Ta Prohm. This particular temple is famed for being the set of the 2001 movie, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. It merged with nature once humans left it and there’s so much character to it. I mean there’s literally a tree growing on top of the structure with it’s roots showing, wrapping around the old stones. Green moss stuck to the stone buildings that are lined with intricate carvings.
If I were to do it again or give advice to someone who plans on visiting, I’d suggest pacing yourself with touring the temples. Because of time restrictions, we chose to do all the temples in one day and it was exhausting! By 2 PM, we had already been there for 8 hours and I felt I couldn’t bare to see another temple. If we had more time and stretched out our temple visit to 2 or 3 days, we could have just sat on the grass for an hour with a journal and let our minds go - really soak it all in. Though these temples are always packed with tourists, they really are a sight to see! I understand why Angkor Wat is considered one of the Ancient Seven Wonders of the World and I’m grateful I got to witness it!
