When I left for my trip around the world, I didn’t have a real plan or route. But I had some must-sees and Angkor Wat was one of them!

Sunset Over Angkor

A tuk tuk came to pick me up at 4 PM. The ticket counter didn’t open before 4:45 PM so I had to wait for 30 minutes. But then I got my ticket for the next day, which includes sunset of the previous day, too.

The driver brought me to the hill from where you can watch the sun go down. Unfortunately, a long line was waiting for me when I arrived at the top of the hill. You can see the sunset only from one special temple and only 200 people can enter at a time. Nobody had told me that and I was losing hope to see the sunset, which was at 6:36 PM.

At 6:15 PM I wanted to give up and try to find a spot from where I could see at least a little bit looking through the trees.

But suddenly a lot of people came out of the temple and we started moving. When I was in the temple, I could see that the sun had disappeared behind some clouds. That was probably the reason for the others to leave early.

It was one of the best sunsets of my life!

Sunrise Over Angkor Wat

I booked a half-day-tour for the next day. Pick-up was at 4:30 AM to see the sunrise at 5:30 AM.

It was totally worth getting up so early and watching the sun rise over the beautiful temple of Angkor.

The Temples of Angkor

The tour started in Angkor Wat, the main temple of Angkor, which was built in the 12th Century as a mausoleum for the king.

I recommend you to wait and have breakfast after sunrise. If you go in immediately you will be there with the crowds! We went there 45 minutes later and we were almost alone.

We stayed around 3 hours only at this temple. Although it was very early in the morning, it was super hot. So be prepared to be sweating…

From the other side of Angkor Wat, we took a mini van to the next temple.

The second one was Ta Prohm, which is known from a scene of a Tomb Raider movie.

You probably know the temples that are half destroyed by trees and roots trying to find a way through the stones buildings.

It’s an incredible site, which shows:

Nature will find a way.

The reason why only Ta Prohm is going to be conquered by nature while all the other temples are in great conditions is that archeologists decided to leave one temple unrestored as it was found.

Are next stop was just for quickly taking photos: the Terrace of the Elephants.

And then it was already time to go to the last temple of this tour: Bayon.

This temple is known for its towers that are up to 7 meters high and decorated with faces.

 Have you ever been to Angkor? Hit the reply button and tell me about it in the comments!