Schlossini Voyage ~ Story Time- An Experiment Part Two

27th of December, 2015

I had known about Angkor Wat for a while, but the thought really resurfaced upon arrival in Cambodia. We started with two temples outside of Angkor Wat, instead of Angkor Wat itself. We reserved our Angkor Wat experience for the next day. When touring Preah Khan (pray - a kan) and Ta Phrom (ta prom), I found it gorgeous. The temples were overgrown with massive trees and roots that simultaneously destroyed and preserved the temples. The trees grew on the roofs and through the walls of the old stone temples. While they kept the temple together, over time, it would become the downfall of the temple.

the family standing underneath the tree

I liked the idea of keeping the old stones that had fallen down. The reason they did it was for someone in the future might want to reconstruct it. The fact that everything was untouched was mindblowing. Everything looked like it had been constructed in maybe the 1900s and then torn down a little bit. Almost everything was in great condition. It was absolutely crazy. The weird thing about it was not how it looked. I found that I was eagerly awaiting the ride back to the hotel. I wondered why I felt like this because this place is amazing and I didn’t understand why I felt the need to be back at the hotel. I started checking the time a lot even though I had nowhere to be. I was relieved when we climbed back into the car after touring Preah Khan and Ta Phrom. I hated that I was relieved.

The next day, we got up at 4:30 am and set out for our sunrise tour. For those of you who don’t know what a sunrise tour is, it is kind of self-explanatory, but I do have some explaining.

Angkor Wat at sunrise

Sunrise Tour

A sunrise tour is when you wake up at the “butt-crack of dawn,” as Da says. You wake up as early as 4 am and head out into wherever you are touring. We have done many of these sunrise tours since South Africa. I feel like no one has really blogged about the fact of how early we wake up. At Kirkman’s Camp, we had to be out for a early morning snack at 5 am. After two of those early morning nuisances, we were ready for a break. After a long break, our next sunrise tour was in Mumbai. We toured the city by dawn and explored the world of morning people. The final sunrise tour since then was the Angkor Wat tour.

Angkor was beautiful and amazing by dawn, but it was still jam packed with people. Even though this sounds unpleasant, I was glad to have a guide. Most tourists don’t have tour guides, and we got some special benefits from having one. He showed us all the good photo stops, and nice places to sit and amazing views. IF YOU ARE TRAVELING TO INDIA OR SOUTHEAST ASIA GET A TOUR GUIDE! That is my travel recommendation for this blogpost.

I thoroughly enjoyed Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples. I highly recommend going to tour them. You will find yourself blown away and astounded by the amazingness they present. I loved Siem Reap and the surrounding area.