Small Tour Circuit: Angkor Wat

Happy Saturday Y'all! I hope your weekend is starting off great. 

Today I want to share the temple of Angkor Wat with y'all. 

*Traveler Information: While we were in Cambodia we spent two of the days exploring the Angkor Temple Complex. We went ahead and bought the 3 day pass for $40 a ticket. This allows you 3 days of exploring the temples. The pass is valid for a whole week, so you don't have to go consecutive days. We opted for the 3 day pass because our options were 1 day passes for $20 each, or 3 day passes for $40. This worked out because it gave us more freedom to travel around and to have access to the temples every day of our stay.* 

Day one we went on the Small Tour Circuit and Angkor Wat was our first stop along the tour. We had a couple temples in mind that we really wanted to see, but since the small tour included those- plus a couple other places- we decided to just do the small tour through our hotel. Basically we just rented a tuktuk for the day for the total price of $15. Our guide took us to each stop along the tour. Took us for lunch. Back to the hotel. And then back out for the evening. It was definitely worth the 15 bucks. 

As our tuktuk arrived at the temple, Matt and I looked out and saw this amazing place we had just seen through pictures. It was crazy to believe we were about to walk around one of the most famous temples of the world. We visited Angkor on day one and then again for the sunrise on our last day in the country. (More about the sunrise below.) 

*I hope you are prepared for a lot of pictures.* 

Matt and I enjoyed walking around the temple and taking in a site that has been around for thousands of years. There were two things that stood out to me as we were walking around

1. The size of the temple. It was so much bigger than I was expecting. Both in height and in square feet.  There are wooden steps you can climb to the top, and it's definitely worth the climb. 

2. The detail. I don't know why I was surprised, but just the delicate carvings and detail added to the temple was amazing. I really can't imagine the time it took to make one of these aspects- especially without the use of modern tools.

Ancient Alex would have put her mallet and chisel down and said 'I'm done.' 

Sunrise at Angkor Wat. 

Okay, so let's talk about this adventure for a bit. Before coming to Cambodia, we had read from a few places that sunrise at Angkor was not a necessary thing to do. And I really believe the people meant what they said. I knew that in their opinion- you could skip this and be okay with your experience at Angkor. However, all of those people still did the sunrise or sunset experience at Angkor. 

Here's my opinion- do what you feel you can live with. 

For us, I knew that since we were visiting during the rainy season- chances of a beautiful sunrise were slim. But I wasn't willing to risk the chance of missing a sunrise just because others told us to pass. So on our last park day, we woke up early and went to Angkor. 

Was it a great sunrise? No. 

Do I wish I stayed in bed? No. 

I'm glad we did it. We got some good pictures of the temple we didn't get the first day, and we had the experience of getting out early. To me- it was worth going. I think some of y'all would choose differently and that is perfectly fine- it's your trip. As bloggers, it's our job to tell our story and share our experiences. Waking up early just to snap some pictures of a sunrise that never happened was worth it for us. 

I hope you enjoyed looking at these pictures as much as I enjoyed looking back at this temple. I'm so glad I came across a blog post about Cambodia all those months ago. Without Chelsea's post on Angkor- I don't think Cambodia would have made our travel list. 

I am looking forward to sharing the rest of our trip with y'all. I am planning on going through all the aspects and places visited while on our trip, so hopefully you don't get too bored with the play by play. 

Happy Weekend Y'all!