We woke up around 5:30am hungry because we hadn’t had supper the night before, as our hotel kitchen closed at 9:30pm and we arrived at 10:30, too tired to journey out. Jives seemed to be showing signs of having the cold I had had in Singapore, even though I have been better for days and we had been pretty careful. I whats-app-video-chatted my mom and slowed her our room, which was pretty cool. I remember doing the same thing with my grandfather when I was in Spain alone many years ago. We then went down to breakfast. I ordered the porridge rice and Jives got toast, eggs and some sort of meat. My rice porridge was delicious, it was like a comfort food to me. There was fish in it and bean sprouts, hot thai chilies, lime, lemon grass and green onions. 

We then arranged with the hotel to call a tuk tuk to take us on the small loop of Angkor Wat. It would be $18 to do and would take about six hours. Our tuk tuk driver arrived a while later, his name was Mr.Kim, and we started off towards the ticketing office for Angkor Wat. The tickets aren’t cheap, but the money goes to conservation so it’s important. The price is $37 for one day or $63 for three days. We wanted two days, so it made sense for us to buy the three day pass for less then two -one day passes. The pass office is HUGE now! When I went back in 2011, it was like a tiny roadside building. They take your photo and it takes a few minutes to process and print the pass. 

First we headed to Angkor Wat, the “main” temple. Angkor Wat is massive, the largest temple in the world actually. We were dropped off at the long procession walkway by our driver, and made the walk in. The walk took about fifteen minutes. The main “rainbow bridge” is being preserved, so there is a weird bouncy floating bridge installed beside it to walk on.

The main approach is exactly like I remembered it. You can see Angkor Wat reflected in the pools of water on either side of the symmetrical temple. We spent some time looking at the murals and carvings on the south side of the temple, which depict both Hindu and Buddhist stories. In total we spent one hour exploring Angkor Wat.

Next we headed to Bayon Temple via the South Gate where we stopped to see the bridge with demons and gods. The gateway was super narrow, a small van could hardly pass through. On top of the gate there was a four headed Buddha, each head pointing in a direction ie. north, south, east, west.

A smiling happy Buddha!

We then stopped at Bayon Temple, the many faced temple or as Jives would call it “M. Bison’s House” (a character from street fighter that has a lair in a very similar looking temple). This temple is super cool and unique, with faces hidden around every corner. We spent maybe twenty minutes here before going to the next temple….