The last night I spend in Thailand was my worst until now, I don't really know why but when I went to bed I woke up an hour later, my pillow completly under sweat but seems only my head and neck hd been sweating. The rest of my body did not. My body really felt bad and when I checked my fever it was only 34,6°. The rest of the night I hardly catched any sleep and if I did manage to close an eye I had the most freaky dreams. I started to wonder if it was a good idea to travel to Cambodia the next morning. It became another early morning feeling bad and like a zombie but I had to leave Thailand because of my expering visa. I packed my bag and walked to the streets to catch myself a taxi to the airport. I arrived a few hours early because of the smooth ride to the airport. Good time to get some breakfast, juice and water hoping to feel better soon. In the airport some western tourist was just sleeping in the middle of the hallway with all his belongings around him, locals looked pretty weird towards that.
The flight from Bangkok to Siem Reap was quite bumpy but we arrived about an hour later. The Siem Reap airport is quite small but looked very modern and with my e-visa I passed border control very fast. The original plan was to go from Bangkok to Siem Reap by land and do the border crossing by land, since I felt sick I was pretty happy that I booked a flight a few days ago. I had no idea I would end up feeling sick but I became kind of tired of this endless road travels. At Siem Reap airports a lot of taxis are waiting and transportation to the city goes very easy. There are 3 options, taxi 7 dollar, tuktuk 5 I think and motorbike which I used only 2 dollars. The ride was quite interesting and new. Cambodia is a lot different then any other country I visited before. My hostel was very good, with a shop inside and a very nice rooftop bar. The next door ATM is also very handy. The Luxury Concept hostel. The first hours I decided to rest, catch some sleep and hope I would wake up feeling better, I'm happy to say after this few hours of sleep I felt reborn. This hostel also offers a tour / bus agency and I decided to book some tours for the next 2 days and a bus to my next destination. The 2 full day tours I booked costed 13 and 15 dollars, cheap!
When I sorted out all the bookings I went out to find some food and just across the street there was french bakery. While ordering food I started a conversation with someone sitting there. A guy from the Netherlands who lives in Cambodia now. This became a very interesting conversation about Cambodia, its history and some words in its language, the people,.. Some other foreinge locals joined in from time to time and it was nice to notice how close this community is and how they help each other out. He also gave me some local tips like after 6pm, everything was half price in this place. Since the guy was poor as well I gave him one dollar for his nextt day. Everytime I got things half price in the evening at that place I also gave the other half as tips to the locals working there. Cambodian people don't make much money and even half a dollar makes them feel very happy. This was a great way to close my first day in Cambodia and I went for an early bed to be fresh for the trips the following days.
Rise and shine early in the morning, back to my french bakery for breakfast and waiting for the minivan to pick me and two others up. The Angkor Wat tour was planned today. Since I felt sick the last night and day I didn't want to take any risks with mosquitos and the next 2 days I'm wearing long pants and a sweater, which made a lot of people look strange and make locals laugh. Better sweaty then sick I believe. We drove to the ticket office where, there are a few options I only remember 2, a one day ticket is 20 dollar, a 3 days ticket was 40 dollar. Since I planned 2 days I went for the 3 day ticket. After we got our pass we continued to the entrance of Angkor Wat. This massive temple looked interesting from the outside, even at the birdge towards it, it still looks far away. I didn't enter thru the maingate but to the right side to see an original statue. This temple doesnt only look awesome its also based on astrology. 9 towers for the 9 planets in our solar system (Pluto was still a planet back then), the middle of the temple is the middle of the universe, the whole temple is in very good shape and you can climb the main tower, which was only possible for kings back in those days. The wall are completly decorated, made me think back at the temples in Egypt, both super experiences. When we exit the temple at the back I can see monkeys running on the roof and the trees around us are also full of monkeys, who steal drinks and stuff from tourists. We drove straight to lunch after this first temple visit.
My favourite temple in Angkor Wat was without a doubt the Ta Phrom, this is a ruined temple thats been used in the Tomb Raider movie. The whole place feels mysterious and is super nice to explore. Them trees growing over the ruins, entering the dark openings in the temple, looking at the Buddha face overgrown by trees. Its like playing Tomb Raider in real life but a little less climbing. Every corner I take is just another magical view, this really looks like Uncharted, Tomb Raider or Indiana Jones in reality. I could spend a full day in this temple without getting bored. This defo is another one of those unique places to visit in your lifetime. I wish I had more time to visit this temple but there were more to come.. Really looking forward when I'm back home to look all the movies that were shot on the locations I visited! Our next stop was in Angkor Thom, we only checked out one temple there named: Prasat Bayon. This is another massive old temple but full of towers with smiling Buddha faces, 4 on each tower. Very nice views and an amazing temple, we climb to the top, we descent inside to wander around in those small hallways, another magical experience with great views. I guess we spend about an hour here as well then it was time to end the day at our final destination.
We drove out of Angkor Thom to Phnom Bakheng, a temple on the top of a mountain between Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom. We went there to experience a magical sunset over Angkor Wat from the top of the mountain. They offered us some umbrellas because the thunder started to sound. We walked up quite a long way, not because of the height of the mountain but because it circles around to the top. At the top was the temple, only 300 people are allowed there at the same time but no que for us. This temple was a bit less compared to what we visited before and was in restauration. They told us we could see Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom but the view was blocked with trees. It also became very cloudy and there wasn't a chance of seeing a beautiful sunset from there, so me and girls made our way down to be followed by the rest of the group quite soon. We decided to quit the day but made a final stop at Ankor Wat to spot a rainbow in the sky over Ankor Wat. I felt a lot more lucky with this image then the possibility of that sunset.
I realise this is quite a short review but i can't find the time and motivation right now and there are a lot of new stories waiting. I hope I can keep up with writing stories and find more inspiration because Ankor Wat is a very wonderful place. Theres more to come from Siem Reap and Cambodia!
Until then!
