My husband and I recently traveled for a month and a half in Asia. We went to Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. At the beginning of our trip, we went to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat and it was by far the highlight of our trip!

Angkor Wat becomes a time machine the moment you cross the main walls. You can see detailed engravings on the sand rock walls everywhere and sadly, also the struggles of the war.

Angkor Thom was the temple that impressed me the most. This temple is completely covered with faces. While walking inside the temple, everything is really surreal. You can feel an intense energy in this place.

Angkor Ta Prohm aka “Tomb Raider Temple” for the tourists, is the temple where some scenes of the Tomb Raider movie was shot with Angelina Jolie. What is particular about this temple are the huge trees that seem to be born from the ruins of the temple.

When you hire a tour to see the entire complex, they take you only to these 3 mentioned temples. But if by this time you are not tired and can deal with the heat, they will gladly take you to see more and so we did! After a quick break with food and cold beer, we continued, which was nice since not many tourists get to these temples. This complex is huge, and you can buy tickets for various amounts of days so you have enough time to explore. Plus… there are lots of monkeys!

Some cons about this experience were the insane heat and the big amount of tourists (even in low season). Siem Reap city is really nice as well. You can see Nāga, the 5 headed snake everywhere!. Also, the downtown is perfect for backpackers; you can find delicious cheap food, cool clothing and lots of places that offer beer for 50 cents. When the night comes, the locals have mobile bars around the downtown area, and the streets become a huge bar with all kinds of music.

You see lots of contrast at night since you see families with small children having a nice quiet dinner, next to people getting shit faced drunk, dancing to reggaeton between tuk-tuk drivers sleeping in their hammocks. It is just a sweet fun chaos and I can’t wait to go back!