Day 41 of The Big Adventure.  
 We woke up and decided we should do some thorough research into the temples. Did we want a one day pass or a three day pass? 

How would we get there? What was best to see? 

After some serious googling, I found that you could buy a ticket for the next day after 4pm and go in and see the sunset and then your ticket was valid for the next day. This sounded ideal as I was keen to see both the sunrise and the sunset, but a whole 12 hour day of temple touring would have been too much in the 40degree heat. 

So we decided we’d do that. 

What should we do with ourselves for the rest of the day? 

We realised we were running out of conditioner and didn’t have any cereal for breakfast so we looked up the closest supermarket. It was a 5 minute tuktuk journey away so we went outside and hailed a tuktuk. 

The driver seemed very friendly and wasn’t too pushy so we asked if he’d take us to Angkor Wat later to see the sunrise. He looked very happy and said he’d love to, so we arranged for him to pick us up at 4pm. 

We got to the supermarket and spent a good half an hour perusing all the different conditioner options (toiletries are my FAV). We settled on one we both liked and found a nice hair conditioning treatment to go with it. 

We bought some healthy cereal because Lauren wanted to diet and headed to the checkout. 

After it had all been scanned through we realised we didn’t have enough cash on us (we have a shared purse we both put money in for things like groceries and shared meals). Thankfully, Lauren had her card with her so we put it in the card machine at which point, Lauren turned to me and with wide eyes said ‘I can’t remember my pin’. 

I had noticed her memory had gotten shockingly worse since she’d been sick and I wondered if the lack of nutrients was starting to have a serious effect. Must. Feed. Lauren. 

She checked her phone to see if she’d written it down. She found one she thought was it and entered it. 

The card was declined but didn’t say incorrect pin so the cashier suggested we try and withdraw some cash from the ATM outside. 

We headed outside but the ATM said it could not process the transaction at this time. 

We went in search of some other ATMS that accepted MasterCard (surprisingly difficult!) and none of them would work. Until eventually one printed a receipt that said at the bottom ‘number of incorrect pins exceeded’. We got a tuktuk home and tried to call card services to get her card unblocked. But then the line went dead and when she tried to call back a chirpy little voice said ‘you have $0 credit’.

Oh good. 

I remembered how frustrating that was from when I was having problems with my card and asked if there was anything I could do to help. 

We went over the road to a little newsagent to buy $2 of credit and went back upstairs to try again. 

After 30 seconds the same thing happened and we became very aware of how much credit we were going to need to buy to last the whole conversation. 
I suggested Lauren trying using a Skype call because those are mucho cheaper when trying to call overseas numbers and it worked a treat – she managed to get through and the lady unblocked her card within a couple of minutes. Thankfully Lauren had remembered her real pin by this point so we headed back to the supermarket. 

We realised we’d forgotten bananas last time so we grabbed a bunch and took them up to the counter. We motioned that the bag behind the counter was ours so she put it on the counter and charged us for the bananas… But not the rest of the shopping. They must have thought we’d paid for it last time. But either way we said lots of thank you’s and headed straight for the door. 

It was almost 4pm by this point so we headed back to the room to drop off the shopping and change (we knew we had to wear ‘polite’ clothing at the temples) and went out to find our tuktuk.

The man who pulled up wasn’t who we were expecting but told us that his friend was busy and had sent him instead. 

So we hopped in the back and he sped along the roads of Siem Reap.

   

We took us to the ticket office first, where we were informed tickets for the next day didn’t go on sale until 5pm. Oh dear. 

My researching hadn’t been entirely successful. We went out to the tuktuk driver to let him know we’d have to wait a while before we could buy ours tickets.

We went to sit on some chairs at the edge of the room and waited.

At around 4.45pm, we noticed large groups (bus tours presumably) coming into the ticket hall and waiting in front of the ticket stands.

It was bizarre that the ticket stands were all open and not one of them was busy and yet the hall was beginning to fill with queues. 

Some of the staff began organising people into different lines and we managed to get to the front of one. 

It was similar to the beginning of a race. You could see all the staff preparing what they’d need. 

Everyone was ready with their $20 notes in hand. 

And as soon as the clock struck 5pm, they began issuing the tickets.

We were some of the first ones with them and headed straight back to our tuktuk to get going. 

He dropped us at the far entrance to the site and told us to walk straight across and he’d meet us on the other side. And with that we set off.

  Angkor Wat is set in a huge jungle area and as we walked through the temple came into site with the sun just behind it. It was quite a breathtaking view.

  

   

We were walking through the temple; climbing up stairs and exploring little passageways…

  
  
  
when we saw a monk blessing people. So we decided to join in…

  

We continued walking through the grand temple, ogling at all the amazing architecture and detailing. 

  

  
  

We walked to the main entrance of the temple and watched the sunset from some steps. 

  
  
  
 

 
It was a beautiful sunset and the haze above Siem reap actually made it better because you could look almost directly at the blazing red sun. 

  
  
  
 

 
After the sun had set, some of the guards told us it was closing time and that we had to move so we went to find our tuktuk driver. 

 

 
He took us back to our guesthouse and we asked him if he’d come and collect us the next day to watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat and show us the other temples. He agreed and said he’d pick us up at 5am. 

It was still relatively early so we headed into town for some dinner. Cambodian New Year was coming up so there were fairy lights and decorations everywhere.

  
  
  We sat down in a restaurant that, we later realised, was full of Australian teenage girls on a school trip. 

We ordered a traditional Cambodian dish – Amok (except we ordered a vegetable one instead of the classic fish one).

  
It was delicious and reminded us very much of a Thai green curry. 

After dinner we decided to head back to the night market because Lauren wanted to buy some souvenirs for people back in Sydney. So we spent some time wandering the stalls, selling everything from jade to pashminas.

  
  
   
  
 
My personal favourite were the stalls selling artworks, where you could see the artist painting onto the canvases :

  
  
  
  
  
  
  

 We realised we’d need some airy trousers to look around the temples the next day. Lauren had seen some rather fetching wrap-around ones on some girls in our hostel and so we decided to buy some. 

  
  
Trousers and souvenirs in hand, we headed back to the hostel for an early night. 

We set our alarm for 4.30am the next day. Eurgh.