You know that feeling when the alarm breaks your sleep, you open your eyes in the dark and you have no idea where you are. It was like that!

Than I remember: sunrise at Angkor Wat! Wohoo!

I got so excited I even put on a long colorful dress and a silk light shirt over, knotted around my waist. It’s not like I go every day in a place like that….

My tuk-tuk driver from the day before was already waiting for me. He came from a village an hour away, with a nice clean shirt and a very awake smile for 5am.

Angkor Wat

That image… the towers of the temple mirrored in the still waters of the lake in front, all this on a red sunrise background. The rainy day before I feared the weather might not allow me, but there it was, my long dreamed sunrise at Angkor Wat. Perfect!

About 20-30 other early birds were also there, waiting. And the sparkle came. First like lines of light and then the sun rose behind the beautiful shapes of the temple. That’s what I call a bucket list wish! I felt grateful.

The tour started with a new guide I met at the entrance where my driver remained. Apparently for Angkor Wat it is like this: another entertainment, other money of course.

I followed him for the next two hours inside and outside the temple, by its huge walls outside, in the large chambers inside, listening to the fantastic history of the Khmer empire that ruled much of mainland Southeast Asia from about 802 to 1431 CE. I was in a trance between past and present and with every step more wowed realizing how massive this sandstone carved temple was. I took a photo on the stone steps inside a huge interior courtyard only to remember how small I looked there. Outside, on a wall of columns made black by the hundreds of years passing over, I took another photo in the sun and got a compliment from a lady for how my outfit was matching the place. We laughed.

We crossed on foot the large bridge outside and I let Angkor Wat behind. I completed my happiness with a green coconut once I found my tuk-tuk driver outside.

Bayon Temple

The ride continued, we crossed the majestic bridge with statues at Victory gate to enter Bayon temple. The rainy day the day before gave me a different perspective on the temples, surrounded my mist, this time the stone structures were rising high on a blue clear sky background.

Bayon temple is to me the most picturesque from outside. With the blocks of stone spread around at the front, the high palm tree, the 12th-century temple, with its 54 Gothic towers, decorated with over 200 serene faces of, according to some Avalokiteshvara and according to others of the King Jayavarman VII himself, with the multitude of bas-reliefs incorporating more than 11,000 figures…. it’s a work of art sculpted in stone.

In the interior courtyard I took a sit and watched. The structure all around, travelers from all over the world, Buddhist monks in orange ropes, guides, a group of Japanese where a father had tight a kid with an anti lost wristlet, girls doing photo shootings. And at times, no one, for a little precious time.

Ta Prohm temple

If some temples, in the heart of the jungle, are now taken over by nature, in Ta Prohm nature truly rules. Probably the most instagrammed, with its structures tightly embraced by massive roots of trees like the invading tentacles of a gigantic octopus. The place looks not just out of this world but out of any imagination. Walking through this fairytale anything seems possible. I just couldn’t have enough of it, so much I loved it. And as it was afternoon time, it was almost empty. I felt like in Tomb Rider, curious, exploring every corner, touching the stones, the roots, looking all the way up to the canopy. What a beautiful place!

I was so high on Angkor Wat. Leaving, the images of the day were still playing in my head.

Two elephants carrying tourists brought me back to reality. I was revolted. I wish Asian elephants could meet their African untamed brothers, have a chat and learn to never obey humans. And this would end after a few bad but necessarily events.

We drove back top Siem Reap, through dusty villages with incredibly red soil, where kids in white uniforms were rushing on the streets on their way home, Buddhist monks were taking a ride somewhere with a motorbike taxi and frits and juice were sold by the roads on improvised stalls, next to gasoline bottles in plastic bottles of 1 or 2L. My driver stopped to buy one so we will be surely back to Siem Reap.

One more stop, I bought a durian from a lonely stall on a long dusty road. I paid less than 5 dollars.

Siem Reap market

I needed a back to reality shot. And I took in in full dose in the local market. Probably my friends back home would have a seizure seeing all that row meat on the ground, covered with flies, the half peeled fertilized duck eggs with the undeveloped dead chick inside and above all, the smells. But I fount it vivid, authentic, colorful and with the best and cheapest fruits and genuine people.

This is real life, real people, real local food. I even found, at the back at the market, sugar cane juice freshly made. It was delicious, with all that lack of hygiene all around. And than, sipping on my sweet juice, I saw her. Young, sitting distracted on a mountain of sugar cane sticks, with the boy clinging to her in a demanding pose.

I left with 2kg of maracuja. Up till today, that is the best maracuja ever.

Siem Reap at night

The city was waking up once the sun was set and the heat was gone. At dark hours life begins in Siem Reap. The night market, the stalls selling everything, the yummy smoke from the hot pans, the people eating outside on small plastic tables, the tuk-tuks waiting for one last customer that day, the motorcycles rushing everywhere. I almost got hit by one that I saw in the last second. I still can’t explain how it didn’t hit me but it did stopped my heart for a blink. My guarding angel must have been paying attention that instant.

Last day in Siem Reap

This day we went outside the city, in the rural area, by the Tonle Sap Lake, where the houses, temples, the school were built on 10m high wooden pillars to keep them dry during wet season when waters were high. Floating villages have buildings on land but also straight on the lake, far from land.

30$ boat ride for an hour on the lake seemed a scam and I would have paid gladly even more to a local with a small boat and a family to feed. But not to the men in shirts behind the counter, where in 45min hanging around I heard 3 different prices. I really try to find a way to go by boat but those people had monopole there. I even got pissed off with my tuk-tuk driver for bringing me there and to their surprise, I left without a tour.

Instead I took a walk through the village but I felt awkward trying to take a glimpse into their life and in the same time not offend them with my presence. I was curious to see all that was there, what people were doing, how the houses were inside… There was poverty, but I was there for authenticity. Simple life is fascinating to me. Still, I was an uninvited tourist into their life. Sometimes it’s too much even being in a place.

A pond full of lotus flowers in bloom, with ducks moving around the green floating leaves and a row of straw huts was my last sight of Cambodia. Simple pure beauty, like all I’ve seen in this country.

I will remember Cambodia for the thrills of Angkor Wat temples, of course and the never to forget flavors of Khmer food. But there’s so much more that’s not on tours options. The day by day life on the vivid markets, on the hidden streets, in the floating villages. People cooking, fishing, cleaning every day, their most candid smiles, the cutest kids. After all, people are the real Cambodia.