We went through a struggle to find one but eventually we found an old school bell alarm clock. Needless to say, I woke up every 15 minutes in fear of waking up to the loud incessant ringing of bells on the clock.
We made our way downstairs to the many tuk-tuk drivers that awaited their passengers for the day but ours was nowhere to be seen. A small man came up to us and said he was the man from the night before, but it wasn't him. We went with him anyway because we figured a tuk-tuk driver is better than no driver and we later found out that he was someone who was outsourced by the man who drove us to the hostel the previous night.
He drove us to the Entrance to Angkor Wat where we bought a one day pass to the complex which included all of the temples for $20. this is quite expensive for Cambodia but I bet the upkeep for a complex of this size costs much money so I didn't feel so horrible paying it.
***Side note; Everything in Cambodia is in American Dollars. You can pay in it, get most change in it, and having their money is a waste of time. You constantly have to ask, no, no, How much in Riet is it? Plus, once you change money to Cambodian money you can't change back! IF YOU GO PLEASE GET AMERICAN DOLLARS! (even though their money is pretty. You will get some back in change at some point...so keep that for a souvenir).
We went into Angkor Wat past all of the street vendors aggressively trying to sell you french bread or coffee for breakfast. There is no fresh milk in Cambodia so unless you like your coffee black, I suggest you stay away from anything with milk for you will def. get condensed or sweet condensed milk. However, at 5 am you don't really want anything but a nap!
We found our space and waited patiently for the sun to rise. When we were waiting, we noticed that we understood some of the tour groups coming in. They were all Japanese! Hooray! It was strange that we felt more comfortable knowing that there were Japanese people around.
When the sun started to rise we could see the temple in the distance. It was beautiful and we moved around so we could get it at many different angles with the morning sun.
Throughout the day we progressed through many of the temples and the tuk-tuk driver took us to his favorite ones. We even went to one that had GIANT trees growing up through it. It reminded me of something out of the movie Jumanji with Robin Williams, while some of the other temples were straight out of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
It was very hot, so after half of the day had gone we decided to go back to the hotel and then venture on to the local market to get some things for friends in Japan and at home.
Upon our arrival at our hostel, out tuk-tuk driver demanded his fare of $10, but to our dismay, it was $10 per person. We had clearly negotiated with the other man that the fare would be $10 for the two of us for the day, but this man said he was to collect more at a per person rate. To avoid tension he called his boss to double-check. He then proceeded to hand the phone to Gordon, who then handed it to me. I got into a yelling match on the phone with the man which lasted all of 10 minutes. It was not so much the money, but more of the principle that he was overcharging us and thought we were just dumb tourists. I finally told him we were paying him only 15 dollars and hung up on him with threats of the police visiting our hostel, which they never did.
We then proceeded to the market for some shopping, food, and FINALLY some relaxation!
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