Angkor Wat

There are so many ways to see Angkor Wat. By bicycle. In a tour bus. On foot (more on that later). By tuk tuk. And there’s so many timeframes for a visit. The small tour. The grand tour. One day. Two days. Three days. The options are endless. Fortunately, Keith and Paul from the Golden Gecko have all the right contacts so for $US13 we have a tuk tuk driver for the small tour starting at 8am (we’re not getting up for the sunrise on our holiday).

The ticket office is a grand building midway between town and the temple complex. Each person needs to purchase their own ticket because it has a photo on it. This means tour groups line up at the ticket office along with independent travelers. Don’t follow the crowds here; we found three empty counters by walking past the crowds. $US20 buys a one day pass.

The temples are amazing!!!! I don’t know the name of the specific ones we went to. I could look up a map but it doesn’t matter. This is a place to experience. Our tuk tuk driver tells us the names and some indie but I don’t hold it in my head. I just walk, look, experience and feel the place.

It’s relatively quiet at the first temples we visit. But by the time we’re at Angkor Wat proper the sunrise tour buses have arrived and it’s hectic. So we call it a day without going too far into the Angkor Wat temple. We’ve enjoyed the rest and the people in large tour groups are a bit obnoxious – they crowd whole passages and scowl if you dare excuse yourself to walk through. They’ve obviously paid small fortunes for their race through the key sites of South East Asia so don’t have time for riff raff.Read more