Siem Reap
Siem Reap is a bigger city in the north-west of Cambodia, at Tonle Sap Lake, near the ancient ruins of Angkor Wat.
Visiting this city right after Bangkok, it feels like a small cosey place where we felt at home immediately. We stayed at the Diamond D’Angkor Boutique Hotel, a little off the main roads. We got a welcome drink and a wet towel to refresh ourselfs, while a nice little Khmer carried our heavy backpacks for us 🙂
There is a spectacular market – Central Market – in the city, with everything your heart desires: fruits, vegetables, handmade figurines, clothes, dry fruits, nuts, a lot of fish and meat.
our hotel 
central market 
central market 
central market 
central market
We were also regular visitors on „Pub Street“ 🙂 Really really good food and bars as far as the eye could see. And we would recommend a visit to the night market as well. Again, a lot of different food to taste and souvenirs to buy.
buns with lotusfilling 
Königspalast 
cambodian barbecue 🙂
Angkor Wat
Angkor Wat means „City of temples“ and is located in the north-west of Cambodia. It was originally built as a worshipping place for the god Vishnu during the Khmer empire, in the end of the 12th century it was transformed into a buddhist worshipping place.
We got picked up at around 7 am by Rin, our Tuk Tuk driver for the day. Our first stop was at the ticket desk where a foto was taken for the entrance pass. You can choose between three types of tickets: 1 day pass, 3 day pass and 7 day pass. For more infos on opening hours, prices and good-to-know-stuff look here.
Because we had a tight schedule, we visited Angkor only for a day. As mentioned above, we had a driver for the whole day. He droped us off at the sights we wanted to see, gave us enough time to look around and picked us up again. You can also explore the complex by bike, car or motorbike.
We visited the main temples: Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Bayon, Ta Phrom and the terrace of the elepants.
Our driver wanted us to see the sunset of Angkor from Phnom Bakheng, but it was really crowded, we had to wait in line for an hour and in the end we didn´t get in. But all in all it was a really magical day, walking in the footsteps of the Khmer peolpe, seeing all those architectural masterpieces in the middle of the jungle. We also saw a lot of those big trees growing out of the buildings we all saw in Tomb Raider 😀 They look amazing.
I would definitly recommend a visit! It´s a great experience, especially with a tuk tuk 🙂
PS regarding clothes and footwear: we advise long pants and a t-shirt. We saw a few people in dresses and shorts, so I guess that´s alright too. But after all, it is still one of the biggest religious sites in the world. So dressing accordingly won´t be wrong.
To the topic of footwear. I hate wearing boots or sneakers while the temperatur is around 38° degrees celsius. Wearing sandals would have worked for me either, but if you are a bit clumsy on your feet, stick with working boots or sneakers, cause you have to „climb“ over a few rocks on the way 🙂
travelistas 