Cambodia.

Hello my dear Readers. As you might have noticed, I haven't been active on my blog since last year. Every now and then I had an idea for a post, but never really had time to sit down and start writing. These past few months were quite eventful, but there's one particular thing I'd like to share with you guys. Last weekend my husband and I visited Cambodia. It was the first country we visited together that was new for both of us. We arrived in Siem Reap on a Friday morning and were greeted by a tuk tuk driver, Mr Bean. On the way to our hotel we had a chance to see what Siem Reap is like, and honestly, it didn't seem much at first. However, we were still looking forward to exploring the place and visiting the famous temples complex the next day. This article is largely dedicated to our experiences at the temples of Angkor, however I'd like to say that we had an amazing time at Siem Reap overall, and this trip turned out to be one of the best for us so far. If you ever get a chance to visit Cambodia, definitely do! Now, to the main part of this post.

Angkor Wat

We woke up at 4 a.m. and had a tuk tuk arranged to pick us up for 5 a.m. It took us about 15 minutes to get to Angkor Wat, probably the largest Khmer monument as well as the most well-known one. We arrived at the temple about an hour before sunrise, leaving us an hour to find a spot to sit down for breakfast, which was considerately packed for us at our hotel. 

Before sunrise.

Angkor Whaaaaaaaat

After the sunrise we proceeded to enter the temple, although we obviously had to stop for a mini photoshoot at the stairs.

We were instantly amazed by outstanding architecture, bas reliefs depicting scenes from various historical events, as well as apsaras and mythical stories.

The temple is built in three levels, the second one is constructed as a courtyard from which you can go up the stairs of the central tower. 

At the courtyard.

Before going up to the top.

View from the top.

Bayon

After Angkor Wat we drove to Angkor Thom, which was the last capital city of the Khmer empire back in the days. Entering through the South gate, our first stop was Bayon. The temple is quite distinctive due to the 216 faces that adorn the towers of Bayon. 

Bathuon

We were up for at least 7 hours when we left Bayon for another temple, so naturally Iskandar and I were quite tired. Once we arrived at Bathuon, I decided to stay at the bottom level, while Iskandar went up to the top. He also cheekily took photos of me from high up.

Can you spot me?

Ta Prohm

Last stop on that day was Ta Prohm, the temple famous for trees intertwined with the stonework, as well as the set for Angelina Jolie's Tomb Raider. We spent quite some time walking around and admiring the beautiful balance between trees and stone. I don't think I've ever seen anything like that in my entire life.

Iskandar next to the exact spot which was shown in Tomb Raider.

Sorry for my finger in the picture.

We were exhausted at the end of the day but at the same time incredibly happy to have witnessed something so beautiful and extraordinary. Cambodia turned out to be one of our greatest traveling adventures. I'm sure that photos aren't able to capture the whole magnificence of the places we've been to, but nonetheless, I hope you enjoyed this post and it might inspire some of you to put Cambodia on your future journey list. :)

Thank you for reading,

A