TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2016
Approximately six years ago I was given the option to go see sunrise over Angkor Wat. Well, that’s what my mom told me. I actually chose to skip the sunrise so I could get a few extra snoozes in. Back then, I guess I felt like I didn’t really need to see it? I’m not sure. My mom thought it wasn’t really anything special, but I guess it depends on the day you go.
So, I’m in Cambodia again at the same temple and Tracy wants to go see the sunrise. Few people get the opportunity to go to Cambodia and see Angkor Wat. Even fewer get the opportunity twice. So, I felt like God was giving me a second chance and decided I can’t leave Angkor Wat without seeing the sunrise. I’ve never seen a sunrise, unless you count staying up all night and into the morning studying in college, which is not pleasant.
With nothing to compare it to, I thought the sunrise was pretty cool. I loved the way colors kind of seep into the sky. What’s special about the sunrise over Angkor Wat is thinking that we are watching the same sun that rose 900 years ago. Same place, but things are so different. It’s also a great sight to see the temple shadow in the midst of the colorful sky.
I would say it’s definitely worth the 4:30am wake up time, and you won’t be the only person there. There were tons of people when we went. We stood on the right side of the large path, but a larger number of people were on the left. Which one has the better view? I have no idea, but it either one can’t be bad.
There are two common routes for the tuk tuk drivers. They have a map that tells you which temples they hit on which route. Our first day there, we did the “inner circle.” These were the temples that are most famous and relatively close to each other. This time we asked the driver to take us to the outer circle where the temples are a little farther apart from one another. The driver may not have wanted to drive out that far, but he did and he was very nice. I honestly don’t remember what the names are of the temples. There’s over 300! But, according to Tracy’s blog, we visited Preah Khan, Neat Pean, and Prerup.
The following two pictures is also really interesting. Tracy is really good at connecting with people and was able to get information from them. This English speaking person told us that this place used to be a place where people came to wash their bodies before going to the hospital. There’s 4 different pools, each one represented by an animal. You can kind of see the one on the left is a horse. Essentially, people who were sick would come here and wash off the “bad” things. Once they were “clean,” they would go to the hospital.
It should be noted (for the picture above) that back then, people had to row boats and it was difficult to get to this place. Now a days, they built a wooden bridge like path so it was very easy to walk on. On both sides of the bath, it looked like everglades, which was a nice surprise among all the temple ruins.
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| 6 years ago…. |
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| …..Now |
Then we were dropped off at 11am at our hostel which gave us an hour to nap. YAY! Then we spent the rest of the day just walking around pub street, and looking for souvenirs at the night market.
After dinner, we went back to our hostel and shared a tuk tuk to the airport with another traveler. It was a tight squeeze, but we made it work. The ride was fine until our tuk tuk ran over something and crashed onto the side of the road. That was kind of scary. I was sitting so that I was facing the back and all I can see over my suitcase is our tuk tuk moving left and onto a curb. For a second I thought we were going to tip over, but we didn’t. Everyone was fine, The scooter was lying on it’s side and I turned to see the driver jump out of the just in time so that the scooter didn’t fall on him.
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| Lunch |
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| Dinner |
Apparently, one of the bags had fell and our tuk tuk ran over it. The driver was super apologetic and I felt so bad. He didn’t need to say sorry. It wasn’t his fault and if anyone us had gotten hurt, it looked like it would have been him. We asked if he was okay and he said he was. Getting off at the airport he apologized again.
Aside from the long lines, check in went smoothly and we flew Air Asia back to Bangkok. With all the flying we did, you’d think we’d know the airport super well. However, we arrived in Bangkok at BKK and then we went to DOM international terminal going to and back from Cambodia. Tomorrow, we fly to Chiang Mai from DOM (in country flights), so different terminal.
We took a taxi and stayed at a hotel near the airport. It was a little bit more expensive than our other lodgings, but we wanted to be close to the airport.
Total Steps For the Day: 23,771
For more on my Thailand and Cambodia adventures, see Blog Archive on the right side. –>
