It took about half an hour from the Sime Reap town to Angkor Wat ticket counter, where it's weird that the ticket counter somehow located pretty far away from the temple. First timer visiting the Angkor Wat will definitely have to take note on this. The tuk-tuk driver will have to drop us off here, queue up to purchase our tickets, and then hop back into our tuk-tuk to make our way to the temple.
It must be kept with us all time, as once in a while we will pass through checkpoint to check on the validity of our tickets. One day pass cost us USD37, 2 years back was USD20, where I think the sudden increase in price is too steep.
After our tuk-tuk driver dropped us off at the parking area, we navigated our way in the dark along with thousands of other visitors, over the river surrounding Angkor Wat (an artificial buoyant bridge has been built to protect the original bridge from thousands of visitor each day).
After the river, we were able to see the silhouette of the famous Angkor Wat Temple. Visitors were lining up along the lake, waiting for the perfect shot of sunrise from behind of Angkor Wat.
While waiting for the sun to rise, we indulged in our breakfast at a corner of the temple area. Suddenly out of nowhere, some local kids rushed over begging for food. Since the breakfast box was a little big portion for me, I took an egg and a banana for myself and gave the remaining to them, pity them. But I saw an adult sitting not far away from them, I guess he is the father but too shy to request food from visitors.
The sun rose but many visitors are still flocking around the lake. So to beat the crowd, we decided to go into the temple first before the others come in.
Walking into the temple of Angkor Wat...
Admiring its beauty...
Sun is shining brightly onto the magnificent architecture.
While leaving Angkor Wat, I realised the most beautiful moment for a photoshoot is not sunrise, it's when the sun is directly above Angkor Wat!
We hopped back to our tuk-tuk and proceeded to the next temple - Angkor Thom.
The gate of Angkor Thom.
Inside Angkor Thom.
We walked quite a long distance under the hot sun, I think for about 15mins to reach this little mobile cafe located somewhere in the middle of an empty land. Surprisingly, the food were quite delicious!
Next and final stop (yes we were in a little temple-fatigue state at that moment) was the famous Ta Prohm, made famous by large trees conquering the temple precinct and Angeline Jolie. She filmed the movie Tomb Raider here and ever since that, tourists have been flocking Ta Prohm to visit the location of the scene.
Feeling lost in the middle of the temple... Yes, I gotta be frank that the temple layout is like a maze!
This is the spot! Photo can't really show how tall the tree is expanding itself into the sky!
A special one, where we have to duck a bit to avoid hitting our heads on the tree bark.
In the end we reached our hotel before noon time, which shocked the hotel receptionists because our temple visit was short. Haha! We were exhausted after waking up at 4am and visited 3 temples under hot sun. What we wanted after the temple run was a quick dive into the pool...
