Cambodia - Day Two

One motto I adopted on this trip was “sleep…who needs it?”. There’s definitely no rest for the weary when tackling 3 cities spanning an entire country in only 7 days. To begin our second day in Cambodia, we embarked on a sunrise tour of Angkor Wat. Before a quick Google search prior to this trip, I was completely ignorant to this 7^th Wonder of the World. Angkor Wat is a temple complex, making up the largest religious monument in the world. While originally constructed as a Hindu temple of god Vishnu for the Khmer Empire, it gradually transformed into a Buddhist temple by the end of the 12^th century. Angkor Wat was built in traditional Khmer architectural style and has been praised for its harmonious design. The complex consists of an outer wall, northern library, and 5 centrally located towers. Out of all the temples in Cambodia, Angkor Wat is by far the most famous and frequently visited.

We decided to view the sunrise directly outside the grounds of Angkor Wat instead of battling the crowds for a closer look. Such a good decision!! Witnessing daylight slowly radiate from behind the outline of the temple ruins was absolutely wonderful. Clouds dotted the sky, creating a mystical, fairytale-like ambiance. Pictures hardly capture the true colors and energy of the sunrise (but I will include them, of course).

After such an inspiring start to the day, we headed into the grounds of Angkor Wat to explore. Since this temple is the largest of them all (and of the world), it took quite a bit of time to meander through the ruins. We had the opportunity to climb to the top of one of the central towers which offered wonderful views of the entire temple complex. While the whole Angkor Wat experience was incredible, the sunrise was definitely the highlight.

After touring Angkor Wat, we made our way through the rest of the small circuit temples, including Bayon, Takeo, Ta Prohm, and Banteay Kdei. Ta Prohm is known for being the backdrop of the Tomb Raiders movie and Bayon is another very famous temple in Cambodia, and my personal favorite. Ever since I learned it was common for monkeys to congregate near the temples, I was not so patiently waiting to witness them monkeying around at one of our stops. I finally got to have my Jungle Book moment at Bayon! There was a whole clan of monkeys climbing around. Younger monkeys swung from each other’s tails as the older ones supervised from atop the ruins.  Bayon was awesome on its own, but the monkeys shot it to the top of my list!

Since we began our day at 5 am, by lunch time we had completed our tour and were ready to head back to the hostel to eat and rest. Later in the afternoon, we took a nice stroll around the small city, experiencing the unique flavor and dynamics of the area. We passed shrines in the middle of traffic circles and saw offerings being given to a Buddha surrounded by flashing LED lights (I really find the modernization of Eastern religions interesting, but that’s a separate topic). Based on a friend’s recommendations, we walked to a nearby restaurant for dinner. Unfortunately, they were out of tofu and a torrential downpour had begun, so we opted to seek refuge back at our hostel and wait out the rest of the storm. Once the sky cleared, we meandered through the night market again before catching our night bus to Phnom Penh.