Siem Reap/Ankor Wat - Day 2

We had planned to wake up at 6 am and go to Angkor Wat to watch the sunrise come up over the monuments. However, after our alarm went off, we turned it off, rolled over, and slept some more, so we didn't get out until 9:30 am. We took a tuk-tuk, which had a nice fluffy roof, to one of the many temples in the Angkor Wat site and explored the paths and complexes on foot. For those who don't know, the area is HUGE and is basically a city with buildings spread out across many miles. The iconic site is just one of many, located in the center.

When we arrived at one of the temples, we were initially stopped because I was wearing shorts (supposedly too short, even though they're quite long). However, after saying we had no way of changing my clothes, they let us through begrudgingly. We wandered around the maze of rooms, admiring the details still obvious in the stones and the steepness of the steps.

We wandered around another temple that allowed us to climb to the top. A side note: it was INCREDIBLY hot and humid, so much so that very quickly our shirts were soaked through. When we got to the top of the structure, we noticed the sun had a rainbow encircling it, which we found out later was a rare sun halo, caused by the extreme amount of moisture in the air.

After 1.5 hours of looking around, we stopped off to have a cold drink by the side of the road and sat with the food and drink stall ladies while we cooled off. We then did a bit more sightseeing, exploring a 'guest house' and 'guard houses' before letting the heat win and deciding to head back to our AC room. In the guard house, we were joined by a local family whose children stared and stared at us. One girl seemed to take a liking to James, kept performing for us, and saying "hello" to get our attention, and tried to follow us when we left.

We ordered a tuk-tuk with the Grab app and were picked up by a 12-14 year-old boy. We checked our driver's profile and concluded that it was probably his dad's profile and he couldn't be bothered, so sent his son out instead. It was very weird to have someone so young drive us on such chaotic roads. However, he drove very cautiously and smoothly, better than some adult drivers we've had, and overall did an excellent job.

We spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool and in the evening went out to a grill restaurant, where you grill your own food. We ordered slices of beef, chicken, shrimp, and veggies and cooked up a tasty dinner. After not having cooked for ourselves since we left London, it was nice to be cooking again but still not having to do the washing up.Read more