The city of Siem Reap is the natural starting point for the UNESCO World Heritage Site “Angkor Wat”. Although we never took the “travel-to-do” lists very seriously, we wanted to take a closer look at the most famous temples in Southeast Asia at least since Mexico – if only to get to know the differences between the majas and the khmer , One thing is already clear to us at the beginning, this trip is pure mass tourism, and it will be expensive. Cambodia slaughters its (only) landmark namely shameless and arrived at the hotel makes you feel really milked. $ 30 for visa, $ 62 for entry to Angkor Wat and $ 30 for transportation between temples – per person. But, we knew it before and just treat it to us. After all, it’s almost Christmas … 
Angkor Wat is not just a temple, the site consists of hundreds of archaeological sites, Angkor Wat is just the most famous among them. Theoretically, one could easily visit all the important temples in one day. After that you probably feel like after a visit to all the churches in Rome in one day and we want to avoid that. The best tip to escape the crowds is to get up early and be back at noon. Accordingly, the everyday life for the next few days looks like: get up early (4 o’clock), visit the temple, in the early afternoon, relax a few hours at the hotel pool and in the evening on the night market and eat. Can you stand it, right?
We decide to visit the resort on three days and book our Tuk Tuk driver from the airport to the hotel for the next 3 days. With a total area of 200km2, the facility is unfortunately too large to visit on foot. Since we are already at the hotel at 10 o’clock (and after the fuss of hotel owners has spoiled our free airport pick-up – who has probably never heard of it, that you can not enter a country in 30 minutes 
), Let’s take the smallest temple group, the so-called Roluos Group, for the afternoon. We pick up the biggest and most famous temples for the last day so as not to take all the fun out of the smaller ones right at the beginning.
And the strategy works. The first temple we visit, “Bakong”, we probably only looked at the last day with a tired smile. But we can enjoy our first temple completely unbiased and the first look at one of these temples (no matter which one) just takes your breath away. The rock formations, the engravings of the rock and the statues (especially elephants, lions and various deities) surround the 800-year-old temples with a mystical atmosphere. After two other smaller temples (Praeh Ko and Lolei), this first little taste is already over. Then we can also check in at the hotel and swim at the pool a bit early getting up from the bone – after all, we are awake since 3 clock! In the evening we go to the night market and eat in a delicious vegetarian restaurant (keyword: Fresh Spring Rolls, an absolute dream!).
The second day begins with probably the most famous sunrise in Asia, at the lily pond off Angkor Wat, to see the sun rise behind the temple. Unfortunately, this experience – as nice as it is – is characterized by busloads of tourists in front of the pond. Already the drive there is a real tuk tuk race and although we are there early (we are picked up at 5 o’clock), we do not manage to get a place right on the lake. We would like to encourage every owner of these two-foot-long selfie sticks held in our noses to kick into the lake. Accordingly, a little sobered it goes on with the so-called “Big Circle”, which includes the temple Krayan, Pre Rup, East Mebon, Ta Som, Neak Pean and Preah Kan. We make the tour counterclockwise (and thus against the tourist masses) and thus remain almost alone in most temples, which compensates us a little for the sunrise. Especially the partly wildly overgrown ruins of Ta Som we find very impressive and provide a taste of the next day.
This begins again with the sunrise, but this time with the mountain temple Phnom Bakheng as a backdrop, which compensates for the disillusionment of the previous day. When we arrive on the mountain, only about 10 other tourists are here except us and we have time to enjoy the darkness, the starry sky and the slowly rising sun. Although there are still more (about 30 people), but it does not disturb the atmosphere by far as extreme as the previous day at Angkor Wat. It continues with the largest plant and then capital Angkor Thom and the main temple Bayon, which from the outside the appearance of a massive mountain is supposed to (and it does). Again, the early hour pays off because we are there 30 minutes before the official opening, but that does not bother anyone. And so, apart from us, only 5 other people are in the temple, which gives the mystery of the walk through the narrow corridors. You get a little better sense of how the explorers of the plant may have felt … Also at the next two smaller (and rather unspectacular) temples, we are still very alone and are then caught up at Ta Prohm of the tourist crowds. Famous is the temple mainly because of its supporting role in the first “Lara Croft” film and therefore the tour groups crowd in front of exactly one building of the plant, but fortunately spread relatively well in the rest. Ta Prohm is less known for its architecture, but above all for the condition of the ruins, because here the jungle has already recovered large parts of the plant. The trees have grown partly through the walls or even on the buildings. If you are here early enough, we could spend hours in the ruins. The last day is rounded off with a second visit to Angkor Wat. We need to talk a little bit with our driver, who actually wants to go home, but we stay tough and are happy that we have paid only 50% of the price and thus have a push in hand. This time we go to the temple and stay a little at the really amazing reliefs.
Back at the hotel, of course, pool is announced, before we are picked up at 19 o’clock to the airport and our flight to Bangkok to the last part of this trip. We have definitely seen enough temples for now, but Angkor Wat is worth the trip and we are happy to have taken the effort. The next time we would probably prefer to rent a private (and cheaper) scooter, mainly to avoid discussion with the driver and to be a little more independent.