Siem Reap - Days 233-235
Though Ben and I had been to Siem Reap with the Milwaukee (+Aaron) crew a few months earlier, we were excited to go back and re-explore the ruins with Becca. We lunched at a co-op lunch spot where Becca came out of nowhere to win at cut throat billiards. Then we set out on a mission to rent bikes for temple exploration the next day (per Taylor and Aaron's recommendation). After scoping out our options and a bit of haggling, we got ourselves some nifty bright red mountain bikes! While traipsing around town, we find a neat rooftop bar to enjoy sunset then stumble upon a craft beer garden - Moringa Bar. We enjoy some beer flights and chat with the expat owner for a bit but then head back to The Siem Reap Hostel for a super early bedtime.
We wanted to give B the full Angkor experience, which includes watching the sunrise over the main Angkor temple. But as this is a very popular activity, the good viewing spots go fast. So you need to get there right when the gate opens at 4:30am. And since we are riding
bicycles to the ruins, we needed to leave at 4am. Man. A 3:30am wake up call is rough. We stumble through packing our bags while being half asleep and hit the road only a little late. Fortunately, the 7km ride goes fast and it's actually pretty fun to be riding on these empty dirt roads in the dark with only our headlamps illuminating the way. We end up getting excellent "seats". While we wait the sunrise and for our coffee drinks to kick in, we chat with the Texan next to us. He's on a three week super tour of the entirety of Asia. Literally spending two or three nights in a dozen major cities. Sounds terribly rushed to me, but he seemed to be loving it. The sun finally started to wake up and we were treated with an excellent sunrise. Far better than our previous Angkor sunrise experience.
Energized with this beautiful start to our day (helped by our coffee drinks that finally kicked in), we set off on our bikes. While most tourists head into the main Angkor temple right after sunrise, we knew from experience that the inside is only OK and it would be better to beat the crowds to the next stop - Angkor Thom. Brilliant idea by us because we had Bayon basically all to ourselves. It was incredible.
As the tourists started to come, we made our way further into Angkor Thom, stopping at Baphuon and Terrace of the Elephants, then went off the beaten path and went to Preah Khan next. Another Tay and Aaron recommendation, it is one of the more abandoned/less restored temples. Super cool to see nature overcome the fallen ruins. We found a nice little overlook to enjoy our packed lunches. We had planned to head to Ta Prohm next but it was already nearing noon and our 3:30am wake up call was catching up to us. So we biked back to the hostel and fell asleep almost immediately, dreaming of the awesome temple day we had.
After those much needed naps, we went to try out this pizza place that Ben wanted to try. It was actually quite terrible pizza but we ended up being very happy with it. Our plan had been to explore the weekend night markets, but after walking only half a block we sought refuge in the nearest massage parlor. Felt amazing and nearly put us back to sleep. Feeling too loopy from the day's activities to stick around downtown, we decided to head back to the hostel. Ben wanted to be lame and call a tuk-tuk to take us back, but I thought it'd be more fun to try to navigate our way back. Boy, was I wrong. Hardest thing I've ever done in my life. Took ages and I'm certain that there were more than a few wrong turns in there, but we finally made it. No thanks to Ben or Becca, by the way.
Still feeling a bit groggy from the day before, Ben and I make a fool of ourselves at breakfast - spilling cereal and dropping things all over. We decide it would be best to take a lazy day. You know what that means in Asia? Massages, of course. And laundry, but only because we were fairly desperate for clean clothes at that point. We had a late night flight to the Philippines so we spent the evening relaxing around the hostel, swimming, playing pool, reading, etc. Excited to go SCUBA again!