Train from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Singapore

For the last leg of our Southeast Asian adventure, we spent just over 2 days in Singapore. We could have easily flown from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore, but we decided to take a train instead. Having no other opportunity to see the Malay peninsula, we decided it would be a good way to spend part of the day.

After another scrumptious breakfast at the Kuala Lumpur Hilton (which you can read about in detail here, if you're curious about this *amazing* breakfast), we checked out around 7:30 and walked across the street to catch our 8AM train. We had explored the area the day before, so we knew right where to go. Unfortunately, we didn't know what section to sit in.

We purchased first class tickets because they were still within a reasonable price point. We boarded the train, found our seats, and got ready for our 6.5 ride. The car was perfectly comfortable and clean, and our seats were very nice. When the guy came around to check our tickets, he informed us that we were in the wrong car. He directed us to the first class car, and we laughed because we couldn't imagine how the car that was supposed to be first class could be better than this one.

As we crossed into the next car, it wasn't all that much nicer (seats a little cushier perhaps), and when we got to our seats, we discovered another couple already sitting in them. They apologetically got up and explained that their seats were broken, so they kept moving from seat to seat until they could find one that wasn't being occupied. We felt guilty for "kicking them out" but the got up immediately.

The train ride was lovely. It was a refreshing change from the sketchy Air Asia flights we had taken over the last week and a half. We read, napped, wrote, and just enjoyed watching the scenery roll by.

Around 2:15, we stopped at the customs and immigration point for leaving Malaysia and crossing into Singapore. We had to take our bags and put them through scanners and essentially walk through this big, empty building where we signed a piece of paper saying we weren't carrying anything bad.

When we got back on the train, we only rode for another 5-10 mins before arriving at our destination: the Woodlands Station. We went through security again, and then we had 2 objectives: 1. transfer our Malay dollars to Singapore dollars and 2. find the right bus to take us to the Singapore metro. Although we were officially in Singapore, we weren't in Singapore city yet. We were still very much on the outskirts of this tiny country.

I had read ahead of time that getting Singapore dollars at this bus/train depot was a bit of a challenge. If you arrived by train, you had to walk down the street and up the hill a ways to get to an ATM machine outside of a minimart. We stood for a few minutes surveying our surroundings when we saw the exact bus we needed pull up. On a chance, we decided to ask the driver if they took Malay dollars, so we wouldn't have to worry about changing money just yet. The bus ride only cost about $1-$1.50 a person anyway. We stood half way up the steps of the bus and showed the driver our palms full of Ringgit. He shook his head negatively, and slightly embarrassed, we tried to politely shuffle past the people behind us on the steps to board the bus.

All of the sudden, a kind religious gentleman (of what religion, I don't know, but he was dressed from head to toe in some sort of religious regalia - sikh would be my guess) stopped us from getting off the bus, and offered the driver enough money to cover the fare for himself and the two of us. He didn't speak English but politely refused our offers to give him our Malay Ringgit or even the few American dollars we still carried. It may not have been more than a good deed to him, but such an act of kindness is something I will always treasure.

The bus took us to the MRT (metro) station, where we found an ATM and purchased tickets that would take us to the Orchard Station just a few blocks from our hotel.

In choosing a Singapore hotel, I considered many options. I looked closely at 6 hotels that ranged in price from $90/night to $170/night. All were under my $200 limit (not sure what I mean? Read one of my earliest posts that explains my criteria for choosing a foreign hotel. This is before Air B&B existed, mind you. I have absolutely no experience with that style of travel). Then it came down to location and amenities.

We ultimately chose the Royal Plaza on Scotts. For $150/night we enjoyed a hotel that was minutes from the MRT, included breakfast, the rate was refundable, and it had the highest star rating out of all the hotels I looked at. Mind you, all of the hotels were at least 4 stars and they all had stellar reviews. This one just seemed to fit the bill for our stay.

Orchard Station is also in the shopping district, so we knew that our hotel would have close proximity to good shopping and food. If money is no object, consider staying at Marina Bay Sands. It's comparable to the Burj Al Arab in Dubai. Like Dubai, we had no intention of staying there, but we did take advantage of their afternoon tea so that we could explore the hotel. (More on that in a future post.)

Royal Plaza on Scotts - Singapore, Singapore

After checking into our hotel, we went for a walk to find dinner. Singapore is a major cosmopolitan city, so we could have easily eaten in just about any food chain we wanted. Instead, we were walking down the street, and saw this little eatery tucked away down a couple of stairs. We peeked in and saw (what looked like) a bunch of locals and a small scale cafeteria-style restaurant. With maybe 3-4 different food vendors to choose from, we each picked one and enjoyed an authentic Singaporean dinner. Unfortunately, this would be the last meal of the trip that we truly enjoyed. Why? Oh...just you wait.

Singapore is not without its own adventure and missteps. Until next time...

Thanks for reading!

- Foxy the Traveler

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Day 2

On our full day in Kuala Lumpur (KL), we didn't rush to get up. Since we went to the bird park the previous day instead of this morning, we re-ordered things a bit for today. Breakfast at the KL Hilton was incredible! Beyond incredible! It was literally the most amazing buffet I've ever seen. Not only did it have everything you'd expect at an American breakfast buffet (made to order eggs, turkey bacon, chicken sausage (they didn't serve pork at the hotel) potatoes, baked beans (a British breakfast item), cereals, yogurts, breads, pastries, pancakes, waffles, donuts, french toast, oatmeal, and the most beautiful and exotic fruit assortment including pineapple, mango, orange colored watermelon, white cantaloup, star fruit, dragon fruit, and passion fruit. A breakfast buffet like that sounds amazing, right? But...BUT...in addition to this scrumptious and enormous selection of American/English breakfast foods, they also had stations for other nationalities. They had a Japanese breakfast station with sushi, fish, rice, and salad. They had an Indian breakfast station with assorted curry dishes that Americans would typically associate with lunch/dinner, and then they also had a Thai/Malay station with more fish, picked vegetables, etc. I've never seen so many authentic international breakfast cuisines at one buffet. In my diary, I wrote, "I'm so excited we get to eat here again tomorrow morning."

After eating our fill, we took the KTM rapid transit system to the KLCC station for the Petronas Twin Towers (once the world's tallest building(s)). We got our tickets for the 10:30 group (we didn't reserve these in advance) and browsed the gift shop until our time.

Petronas Twin Towers Elevator - KL, Malaysia

The elevators first stopped at the 41st floor where we could cross the sky bridge. See the photo at the very bottom of this blog post and you can see how high the sky bridge is. Once we crossed the bridge to the other tower, we then took another elevator all the way up to the 86th floor.

View of KL, Malaysia from the Petronas Twin Towers sky bridge

I really thought KL was a very lovely city. Not very walkable, but lovely to look at from high buildings. After the towers, we took the train a few stops back, so we could visit a place called the Central Market. I was very excited to visit this place for 2 reasons. 1. I love shopping. 2. I love air conditioning. Haha! I love browsing markets and getting souvenirs from stands and more "authentic" type shops. The Central Market was inside and air conditioned, so I was very excited to spend some time and Malaysian Ringgit at this place.

Inside the Central Market - KL, Malaysia

I absolutely loved this place. It had 2 floor that consisted of so many different types of shops. For various people, we bought cinnamon coasters, an adorable stone cat that you put on the top of something and it looks like it's looking down, a handheld mirror, some chocolate, a Christmas ornament, some magnets, and some coconut cookies.

To keep the chocolate from melting, we took the train 1-2 stops back and returned to our hotel. Since it was already 1:30, we hung around in the executive lounge of the hotel until 2:30 when they served tea, and made that our lunch. Yes, the magnificent breakfast we ate earlier that morning kept us full until nearly 2:00.

Around 3:00, we took the inefficient monorail system to the Berjaya Times Square Mall. This multi-story shopping mecca was such a wonder. It even had a roller coaster in the middle of it.

Roller coaster inside the Times Square Mall - KL, Malaysia

Up and up and up! The many levels of the Times Square Mall - KL, Malaysia

Our purpose in visiting this place was yet another Escape Room Adventure. You have to remember. This was 2015. The Escape Room craze hadn't yet come to the United States, and it was such a novelty thing for us. We just found them to be so much fun! The one in Malaysia even had a hallway with motion sensor lasers like you would see in a Mission Impossible movie. We still needed all of our hints. Haha!

After walking around the mall, we returned to the hotel for Happy Hour, and ate dinner. It's pretty amazing how ridiculously we took advantage of the executive lounge in Malaysia. We didn't spend a dime on food that entire day. The food in the lounge was just soooooo good! Looking back, I'm a little sad that we didn't make more of an effort to find a Malay restaurant and indulge in the local cuisine, but at the same time, I still salivate when I think of the food in that Hilton lounge. Sadly, I didn't get very good pictures of it.

As the sun set, we went back to the area around the Petronas Towers to try and get a picture of them lit up. As we arrived, we caught the last few minutes of the fountain show. The one in Dubai is better, but I loved all of the different colors they used.

Petronas Twin Towers fountain show - KL, Malaysia

From the ground, it was nearly impossible to get a good picture of the towers. I had the same problem in Dubai when we visited the Burj Khalifa (the tallest building in the world). I had to get to a place that was far enough away and at a high enough elevation to really get the picture I wanted.

Prior to the trip, I read online that the Sky Bar at the Traders Hotel gave the best view of the towers. I also read that they had a rooftop pool up there that only hotel guests could use, but that anyone could go to the Sky Bar provided they had a reservation. Well, we didn't make a reservation, but I figured that there was no harm in going up there anyway.

My husband thought I was completely crazy and wanted no part of my antics. So while he stayed down in the cool, dark lobby, I ventured up to the top floor of this posh hotel. (Side note - as a result of this experience, perhaps I'm not quite so timid as I once thought. Read on, and you'll understand.)

I walked right up to the host and hostess standing at the entrance. They asked if I had a reservation, and I kindly explained to them that I simply wished to take a picture of the towers. Would they mind if I came in for just a few minutes? They were very friendly, and welcomed me in with a smile. What I soon discovered, however, is that round booths lined the windows, and that the only way to get the picture I wanted was to scoot to the back of one of those booths and lean over the back.

So, I walked along the aisle passing red, plush booth after red plush booth, looking for an empty one where I could quickly hop in, snap my photo, and then be on my way. I walked and walked and got all the way to the rooftop pool and didn't see any empty booths. The windows leading out to the pool were steamy and full of condensation, not terribly conducive to a good photograph.

As I walked back along the aisle of booths, I spotted a man sitting in one by himself. He sat all the way to one side, leaving the rest of the booth empty. I also happened to notice that he was talking on the phone. Not seeing any other options, I hopped into the booth with this stranger, snapped a handful of photos of the towers, flashed the man my dazzling smile, and dashed away before he could say a word. My photos weren't perfect. Most of them still had some sort of glare or backlight in them, but I'm very please that I was able to get the pictures that I wanted of the towers all lit up at night.

Petronas Towers at night from the Sky Bar at Traders Hotel

Then we returned to our apartment sized hotel and called it a day. Up relatively early the next day to catch our train that we took from Malaysia to Singapore. Only a few days left in this Southeast Asian trip. I hope you'll join me for the last few posts on our Singaporean adventure.

Thanks for reading!

- Foxy the Traveler

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Day 1

Got off to an early start on this Wednesday morning as we packed up and left Bangkok for the last time. We checked out of our hotel around 5AM and headed to the airport for our last Air Asia flight of the trip. The looming thunder clouds made us very nervous to embark on a budget airline, but our other flights so far had been ok. This flight also took off on time and landed slightly ahead of schedule.

Upon arrival, we changed our money to the Malaysian currency and then we took the KLIA Ekspres from the airport to the KL Sentral station and checked into the Hilton hotel. We pre-booked the KLIA Ekspres tickets and found it pretty easily from the Kuala Lumpur (KL) airport. This train is designed for airport travel, so they have plenty of luggage racks. They also sent me the barcode for our tickets via email, so I was able to save a picture and bring it up on my phone (I also had printed copies just in case).

We picked the Hilton Kuala Lumpur for 2 reasons. 1. It's within walking distance to KL Sentral which is the main hub for transportation anywhere in the city, and 2. we could use hilton points to stay there. Boy oh boy are we glad we did this. We got to the hotel around 10AM, but thanks to the Hilton Diamond status that J had at the time, the hotel upgraded us to a massive suite (with 2 bathrooms!) and let us check in early. We also got access to the executive lounge on the 33rd floor. The lounge was just as awesome (if not more so) than the lounge in the Bangkok Hilton. We went there several times throughout our short stay. From 2-4, they served cakes and finger sandwiches with tea, and from 6-8 they had canapés for cocktail hour. So yummy!

For sightseeing that day, we went on the commuter line out to the Batu Caves. This place is really neat, pretty easy to find/navigate, and I highly recommend it if you have the stamina to climb a lot of stairs. Hold onto your hats. Literally. The monkeys that are ALL OVER the place are notorious for taking loose items.

Approaching the entrance of the Batu Caves - KL, Malaysia

Entrance to the Batu Caves - KL, Malaysia

Monkey at the Batu Caves - KL, Malaysia

Batu Caves - KL, Malaysia

After the Batu Caves, we decided to try and find the Kuala Lumpur bird park. We planned on doing this the next day, but since we still had a fair amount of day left, and since the bird park wasn't really near anything else we planned on seeing the next day, we took advantage of the daylight. We took the train part of the way there, and then tried to walk the rest of the way. It wasn't terribly easy to find, and we got caught in a pretty big thunderstorm. The worst of the rain started right as we arrived, so we only got a little wet. The storm brought such welcome relief from the heat, but delayed us going into the bird park until about 5pm. The rain kept the other tourists away, so we had the entire bird park to ourselves pretty much. It was also a Wednesday, however, so there were no shows or demonstrations. We didn't mind, but if you're ever traveling with kids or want to make more of a day out of visiting the place, you may want to consider a weekend.

Bird Sanctuary - KL, Malaysia

Bird Sanctuary - KL, Malaysia

Bird Sanctuary - KL, Malaysia

Making friends at the bird sanctuary - KL, Malaysia

Bird Sanctuary - KL, Malaysia

We took a taxi back to the hotel rather than try to navigate on our own. Then we got showers, ate food in the hotel lounge, and walked through the KL Sentral mall. Like everywhere else we've been in Asia, their train stations also double as mini underground shopping/eating complexes. They're so awesome! It's like this entire underground world.

Interestingly, when we got to Bangkok, we thought that the country was very influenced by Japanese culture and traditions. Malaysia reminded us more of Dubai. Perhaps it's the Islamic influence on those two countries. Both Dubai and Malaysia are still very modern and cosmopolitan. They're definitely considered more liberal Islamic countries with significant western influence. Still, I found it more appropriate to dress more modestly in Malaysia than I did in Bangkok. (Though the Buddhist temples in Thailand didn't permit bare knees or shoulders either.) We also noticed that Kuala Lumpur has much more green space than most other cities. The haze in the picture below is unfortunate, but it still gives you a sense for just how green the city is. Similar to Dubai, KL is also not a very walkable city. But we found taxis to be relatively cheap, and more law-abiding than Bangkok, so they are a good alternative when the train doesn't get you where you need to go.

View from our hotel - KL, Malaysia

Our decision to go to the bird park today made us re-order some of our activities for the next day. But we enjoyed the stay in our giant suite and were in no hurry to get up early. I hope you'll join me for my next blog which features some classic Malaysian sites like the Petronas Towers, the Central Market, and the Berjaya Times Square Mall.

Thanks for reading!

- Foxy the Traveler

Bangkok, Thailand - Day 4

On Tuesday, May 12, we awoke at 6AM in Siem Reap, Cambodia. We ate breakfast at the hotel's outdoor restaurant and couldn't believe how warm it was even at 6:30. In my journal from that day, I wrote, "As beautiful as the hotel grounds are, I won't miss the bugs and the transparent poverty."

Cambodia is an interesting place. The hotel did a brilliant job of shielding you from the desolate surroundings. I mentioned this in my blog from our arrival, but the hotel package we bought really considered our every need. And once we entered the hotel, we really felt as if we entered through a portal to another dimension. Each time we left the hotel to go into town, to the Angkor temple complex or even back to the airport, we couldn't turn a blind eye to everything around us. Although we felt there was little we could do at the time, we did make sure to tip Adam (our tuk tuk driver) generously. 

On our way to the Siem Reap airport, it finally dawned on me what those strange road-side stands were that had the 2-litre bottles with lemonade-looking liquid. Any guesses? They were makeshift gas stations. I kid you not. Imagine a long wooden bench with 6-10 soda bottles sitting out on those benches filled with petrol. No regulations. No way to check for cross contamination or purity. I'm still flabbergasted when I think about it. 

The airport also surprised me, although I guess it shouldn't have. Tourists only come to Siem Reap for one reason: Angkor Wat. The small airport shops were so expensive. We paid $5.00 for the smallest dish of ice cream from the Dairy Queen. And yes, the teeny, tiny airport in Cambodia had a dairy queen. 

We flew Air Asia back to Bangkok. The bumpy flight landed around 12:30 in the pouring rain. Something I noticed immediately but haven't mentioned until now is the advertising used on Air Asia planes. Look at the photo below. That is a picture of an overhead bin on the flight. Every, single, one had an ad on it. Can you imagine United or American Airlines doing something like that? In a way, it made the inside of the plane more colorful. And I wonder how much revenue the airline gets from the advertising, especially considering it's a budget airline. Does the advertising make up for the lower ticket costs? 

Air Asia in-cabin advertising

Our third Bangkok hotel was the VIE Hotel Bangkok MGallery which is near the MBK mall and the Siam shopping center. There was nothing fancy about this hotel. We paid $110/night, and I picked this hotel for our final stay in Bangkok because it got good reviews, had a reasonable price, and had a nice central location. You can read my Trip Advisor Review if you're interested in more. Of all the Bangkok hotels we stayed in, this was my least favorite, but it was certainly adequate and recommendable. Inside the bathroom, they had a sign that listed the toiletries they had available if we forgot anything. Can someone tell me one thing, however. What exactly is plaster? :-D I still laugh when I see that picture. I love funny signs in foreign countries.

Sign in hotel bathroom - Bangkok, Thailand

With only a couple of hours left to the day, we went over to the shopping district and played in another one of those Escape Rooms. This one was so much more difficult than the Escape Hunt from Day 2 in Bangkok. What I loved about these places was that you didn't need a special reservation. And you didn't need to pay extra for just 2 people to have the whole room. 

After the escape room, we did some souvenir shopping, and we passed a McDonalds. Nearly every country in the world has a McDonalds. That's not why I took a picture. Look at Ronald. His hands are folded like a Buddhist. THAT was picture-worthy. Haha. 

Buddhist Ronald McDonald - Bangkok, Thailand

Instead of dinner, since we ate lunch around 3, we treated ourselves to giant ice cream sundaes at Swensens.

Thai Ice Cream Sundaes

Just yesterday, we got up before 4AM to see the sunrise at Ankgor Wat. Tomorrow, we would rise nearly as early to catch a flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Only a few days left on our trip. Malaysia and Singapore round out our whirlwind tour of South East Asia.

I hope you'll join me for my final few posts!

Thanks for reading!

- Foxy the Traveler

Siem Reap & Angkor Wat, Cambodia - Day 2

Angkor Wat is unlike anything you've ever seen or experienced in your life. What's absolutely critical to remember is that you are literally thousands of miles away from the United States (or Western Europe) and any assumptions that come along with that. What am I talking about? And what a strange way to start this particular blog post, yes I know. But when you think about planning to spend a day at a place like Angkor Wat, you have to take into consideration the reality of where you are.

Angkor Wat is a massive temple complex. That means it's not just a handful of buildings in one central location. While Angkor Wat is the name of the main temple, there are no fewer than 25 other named temples throughout the complex. And the entire area is about 500 acres. That's really big. I was trying to think of a good way to help quantify the size. A football field, for example, is about 1.3 acres. Central Park in NYC is 843 acres, so I guess you could say that Angkor Wat is just over half the size of Central Park. Unlike Central Park that is surrounded by a city, however, Angkor Wat is surrounded by jungle.

So, what am I getting at? What am I trying to say? I hear you... "stop rambling" you say. Get to the point. I'm saying that for a place that caters to over 2 million visitors a year, don't expect any amenities. No bathrooms, no where to buy food, no souvenir shops, no picnic areas, no benches, no trashcans, no where to sit (except on the temple rocks themselves), nothing. No handicap access to anything! You are there to see ancient temples...and that's it! What that means, is that you have to have a plan.

I read everywhere that the most popular thing to do is to get up super duper early, see the sunrise, and then head back to your hotel for breakfast. Then around 10:00, the temples get much more crowded with everyone returning. I also read that if you stayed at the temple immediately after sunrise when everyone else returns to their hotels, you practically get the temples to yourself. Truth: since we were there during the peak of summer, we never really dealt with a ton of crowds except at sunrise and sunset.

We got up around 3:30AM and met Adam at 5AM to drive to the temple complex. Like the previous day with the disappointing sunset, we also had a rather disappointing sunrise. Maybe it's the time of year, but we just didn't get those brilliant pinks and reds that you can sometimes see during a sunrise. On our drive into the complex, I snapped this picture.

Sunrise at Angkor Wat - Cambodia

By the time we got to the actual main temple and crossed the moat and bridge, this is all the sunrise we saw.

Sunrise at Angkor Wat - Cambodia

As the crowd started to dissipate, J and I took every opportunity to head directly into the main temple and explore while it was empty.

Angkor Wat Sunrise Crowd - Cambodia

The giant empty temple and deserted corridors really gave a spiritual and somewhat eery feeling to the whole place. For a few brief moments it felt like time stood still, and we were transported to a time long forgotten.

Empty Corridor at Angkor Wat - Cambodia

A special shoutout to our tuk tuk driver, Adam. I know I mentioned in my previous post that Adam took really good care of us throughout the day. When he picked us up in the morning, he took the water bottles that we brought and put them in the cooler he kept on the back of his motorbike. When we arrived at the first temple, he told us exactly where he'd be waiting for us, and he gave us each a bottle of water that he pre-chilled.

After spending as much time as we liked at Angkor Wat (just the main temple), we met Adam where he said he would be, and from there we continued along what's called the Short Circuit. Although Angkor Wat is the most famous of the temples, Angkor Thom is by far the largest city within the complex. On our way to Angkor Thom, Adam stopped at this small structure. I can't remember the name and can't find anything about it in my notes, but I remember him saying something about a "his" and "hers" temples. Throughout the complex, there are so many of these smaller buildings that had some significance to the Khmer rulers at the time. It's sad how much knowledge about these cultures has been lost.

 His/Hers Temple in Angkor - Cambodia

Southeast Asia has no shortage of monkeys. We saw these little guys all over the place, especially in Cambodia and Malaysia. They were by no means friendly or domesticated, but they sure liked mango and knew that tourists were their prime source for getting such sustenance. (Side note - although I mentioned there was no food sold or permitted inside the temple complex, there were a few spots where local women and children sold fresh fruit. For $1.00 you could get a bag of fresh mango or pineapple to eat as you drove. They certainly weren't all over the place, but Adam knew where to look when we expressed hunger. 

Authentic Angkor Monkey

Approaching Angkor Thom

If you look at a map of Angkor complex, you'll easily recognize just how much larger Angkor Thom is than Angkor Wat. Angkor Thom, like Angkor Wat, had a surrounding moat. To cross the moat, they had what are called Naga Bridges. These ancient structures featured statues holding a long serpent, and the two sides are engaged in a type of tug of war.

Naga Bridge at Angkor Thom

At Angkor Wat, there are probably 3 temples that people are the most excited about seeing. First - Angkor Wat itself. Second - the Tomb Raider Temple made famous by the Angelina Jolie movie back in 2001. Third - the Bayon temple...otherwise known as the temple of faces. Inside the ancient city of Angkor Thom is where Bayon is located. This massive temple has numerous levels, but the most notable thing about this temple in addition to its architectural style are the 216 gigantic faces on the stone throughout the temple.

Bayon - Angkor Thom, Cambodia

Bayon - can you see some of the faces? 

After Bayon, we didn't return immediately to Adam. The Angkor Thom complex is massive and there are many things to see besides the main temple. There is a large field that connects some of the other temples on the grounds and the famous Elephant Terrace. Just beyond the Elephant Terrace we found a corridor that shielded us from the scorching sun for just a few moments. We were delighted to find the most fascinating carvings and to enjoy a brief respite from the heat.

Baphoun Temple - Angkor Thom, Cambodia

Elephant Terrace - Angkor Thom, Cambodia

Our last stop for the morning was Ta Phrom, more famously known as the Tomb Raider Temple. There are two main reasons why this temple is so famous. First, because it's the location of the movie Tomb Raider, but secondly, because little has been done to restore/preserve this temple. You can see obvious signs where nature tried to reclaim this structure. Unlike the other temples, where conservationists have done some diligent work in removing the jungle overgrowth, one of the reasons they filmed the Jolie movie here is because it looks even more primitive and undiscovered or forgotten than the others. In several of my pictures below, you can see where the tree roots have grown over the rocks giving it a very "Indiana Jones" or "Tomb Raider" feel.

Approaching Ta Phrom - Cambodia

Famous spot inside Ta Phrom with tree growth over the temple

Ta Phrom reclaimed by nature - Cambodia

One of the Ta Phrom side structures with a tree growing out of the middle

After we finished climbing around Ta Phrom (I'm not sure how else to describe what we were doing. The stairs are steep and uneven. Many stones have fallen, and you can trip or roll your ankles at any moment if you don't step carefully), we noticed the crowds starting to pick back up. It was just after 9AM if you can believe it, but we already spent 4 hours in this massive place. As the sun grew hotter and we grew hungrier, we decided to head back to hotel for a late breakfast, a nap, and a swim.

We returned to Angkor Wat around 3:30 that afternoon. We went to Preah Khan and Ta Keo. Preah Khan had a lot of nooks and crannies to discover. Before we got here, I researched that the two best places to see the sunset were Phnom Bakheng where we tried to see sunset the previous night and Ta Keo. Since we had an epic fail at Phnom Bakheng, we planned to stay at Ta Keo for sunset on this particular evening. This massive temple is a bit off the beaten path, and on this hot May afternoon, we were two of the only tourists there. The stairs had not been restored and were choppy and uneven. In fact, I was so scared coming back down that I did so sitting on my bum. I've never been afraid of heights, but that place made me really uneasy for some reason. As sunset approached, I suddenly changed my mind, and decided I wanted to see my last sunset at the main Angkor Wat temple. We had seen sunrise that morning, and I thought that sunset would create some beautiful back lighting for the temple. What I failed to realize, however, is that they close the bridge to Angkor Wat at 5pm...just before sunset. We stayed as long as possible, but the guards kept shooing us off the bridge.

This is the best picture I could get before we were sent on our way.

Last glimpse of Angkor Wat as we departed

We could have gone back to Phnom Bakheng at that point, but remembering the lines from the previous day, I had no desire to go through that again.

Instead, we went back to the hotel, ordered dinner in our room, sat through a brief blackout, and went to bed.

Tomorrow, we'll head back to Bangkok for a day of R&R before heading to Malaysia.

Thanks for reading!

- Foxy the Traveler