Siem Reap: Sunrise temples, Some More Temples, and Kitty Cafes.

The journey to Siem Reap felt like it wasn’t to bad, however there were a few hours where I was convinced I was going to be sick… This didn’t occur though and on arrival, me and some pals jumped in a tuk tuk to the hostel. On arrival, it was decided that we would shower and eat and then head to Angkor Wat for the day. It’s a 2 day experience usually, with one day at sunrise and the other whenever you’d like to go. We decided we’d do the second day of temples first and sunrise the next.

The temples were quite amazing actually, built across 500 years, and abandoned due to the king deciding Phnon Phen would be the new capital city. It was rediscovered 100 years ago by a French explorer. It’s a series of multiple temples spanning across a huge volume of land. We saw 5 in total, with the Prasat Preach Khan and Prasat Pre Roup being my favourites. Both run down but with quite amazing architecture! The Prasat Ta Som also stands out to me, with a tree now intertwined into the walls and the face of the gate still showing through, a rather cool sight which was being filmed for a documentary when we arrived to veiw!

The afternoon was spent chilling after lunch, before a night of street markets, local Cambodian food and an early night ready for the sunrise start!

A 4:50am start and we jump back into our tuktuk for another day of temples, this time the sunrise experience. Sunrise was incredibly pretty, and so were so many of the temples. With the two main attractions, Ankor Wat and Ankor Thom standing out, although I still can’t quite understand how the reconstruction took place!

A quick nap on our return home, then myself, Theimo, and Mels head out for some dinner, and a couple of drinks. With us all saying farewell as one will fly home tomorrow, one will go to another city and I will stay to fly to the Philippines on Friday! A joyous few days has been had.

My final day in Siem Reap involved multiple hours chilling in front of the pool, something I feel I really haven’t done on my travels. By the afternoon, an activity was required , so myself and Mathias headed to the Cat Cafe, a truly adorable hour. You pay entry, get a free drink, and get to feed, cuddle, and play with the cats. All the cats belong to the owner, who admits he has an animal obsession and thought he could make some money out of it. They are also rescuing stray kittens off the street, which are brought in! Dinner at the night market, having the local curry for one last time!