After a very long journey from Pakse, we arrived a little bleary eyed into Siem Reap at the ungodly hour of 1am. It was a long bumpy ride on a dirt track, and that was to say the least. It took us 18 hours to get there, but we thought it was only suppose to take 12, so the journey felt a lot longer. As we arrived so late, we did wonder how we'd get to the hotel, as we got dropped to a bus terminal in the middle of nowhere.

Luckily there were some tuk tuk drivers there to give us a lift. The guy who picked us up said he would like to be our driver for Angkor Wat, but we were too tired to discuss that now. We told him to come to our hotel tomorrow to discuss it. I asked what his name was and he said Mr Lucky! He dropped us off at the hotel, after searching around for ages. We were so glad to get into a comfy bed for a good nights sleep.

We were hoping for a lay in the next morning, but no that didn't happen. We got woken up by some megaphone blaring out loud music, and some old guys voice in the early hours of the morning. That subsequently carried on until 12 midday, so we were rather tired to say the least. We had a really lazy morning not even leaving the hotel. While we waited for the tuk tuk driver to show up,we just had some lunch. Then he arrived, well they arrived. We did some negotiations, agreed a price then set off for our sunset tour.

Sunset over Bakheng Hill

The only thing was that it wasn't Mr Lucky taking us, it was his brother Kaka, who followed us back when we took the tuk tuk from the bus terminal. I suppose it wasn't so much of a problem, as long as we've got a driver I didn't mind. So we went off to purchase our 1 day ticket. If you buy it before 5pm the night before, it includes access to a sunset viewing that evening. So that's what we did. The queues were pretty long, but it was to be expected.

Once we got our entry ticket for tomorrow, our driver took us to the Angkor Wat site. When we drove in and I had my first glimpse of the site from a distance, I actually got quite emotional. It was stunning. Although when we were directed to watch the sunset, it wasn't over Angkor itself, it was up a hill. It's a 20 minute walk to the top of the hill, which was unrelenting in the heat.

When we reached the top, we had to obey the signs and their culture. No vests, strappy tops or shorts or revealing clothes are allowed. I had a cardigan to cover up, but John only had a vest on. The security guard was shaking his head at him and wouldn't allow him in, unless he covered his shoulders. Luckily I had a pink scarf to lend him, which he had to wear around his shoulders! That cracked me up, it was like on his birthday in Galápagos where he wore wellies and shorts! So we wandered on in and I took some photos of him wearing this pink scarf! It really suited him!

We had to climb some steep steps to reach the site, it was pretty busy with people all doing the same as us. I was searching for Angkor Wat, hoping we'd get views of it at sunset, but no, you can't actually see it from the top of this hill. I guess that was probably a good thing, as it would be even more crowded. We wandered around the site, there were some statues and monuments, but were nothing special. We tried to stay in the shade, as the sun was still so intense. As the sun was beginning to set, it became a little cooler, but not much. We walked around and saw some monks, then got in position to watch the sunset.

It wasn't an amazing sunset, i've seen better, but it was an Angkor Wat sunset. We waited for the sky to change colours, it turned pink and blue. Some of the buildings made for an interesting silhouette with the colour of the sky behind them. Then we headed down the hill and our driver took us back. We've to be up at 4am, so it's an early night for us. So looking forward to seeing Angkor Wat properly tomorrow :-)