First Day in Siem Reap - Pre Rup Sunset

Kampong Kdei - Stone Bridge — *Kampong Kdei – Stone Bridge*

On our way to Siem Reap, we stopped in Kampong Kdei for a short visit of the 12th century stone bridge.

Viroth’s Hotel

We arrived in the early afternoon. We checked in in the Viroth’s Hotel, the most Western type of hotel we stayed in during our holiday. The hotel was absolutely amazing and had always a couple of old-timers parked next to the entrance. The rooms were nicely decorated, the pool was magnificent and the food very tasty. Staff was always very friendly. Every time we entered the hotel, we were offered wet wipes to refresh us.

Dining Room at Viroth's Hotel — *Dining room at Viroth’s Hotel*

Lunch at Tevy’s

We left our luggage in our room and went for lunch not too far from the hotel. We had read very good comments about Tevy’s on tripadvisor. It was a simple restaurant that served local Kmer dishes. The restaurant was small and most tables in the air conditioned area were already occupied. We sat just in front of the counter where dishes were prepared and we could move inside as soon as a table was available. The food was super tasty and the price was incredible, 7 USD for the both of us. No wonder that this gem was very busy !

While we ate, we saw a picture of Kim, a lady tuk tuk. We decided to contact her for our excursion in the afternoon. We had read that for women it was much harder to obtain tuk tuk rides than for men, so we wanted to support her.

Pre Rup Sunset

Around 4pm we left with our lady tuk tuk to buy a week pass for the Angkor Wat Sites. We were the only ones at the ticket counters, but the number of counters suggested that this was not always the case. We had our photo taken for our passes which we had to show at the entrance of the domain and each temple.

Ticket counter for Angkor Wat Site — *Ticket Counter for Angkor Wat Site*

Kim's Tuk Tuk - on our way to Pre Rup — On our way to Pre Rup with *Kim’s Tuk Tu*k

First visit was the Pre Rup temple for the sunset. There were many clouds so we feared the worst. Kim had provided us with chilled water and cooled hand towels. What a service! Then she stopped at a roadside stall and bought us some fruit to try out. It was palm fruit and it actually tasted very well. Hey, we’ve discovered something new again!

We arrived at the temple and there were already many vendors awaiting us, but all in all it was much less compared to what we had expected.

Pre Rup was a state temple built for a king (10th century). We climbed the high stairs to the top to see the sunset. We were in time to find a good spot to watch the spectacle. There were many clouds, so the sunset experience was not the best, but we were happy because we were able to capture some beautiful memories. Back in town we said goodbye to Kim who gave us 2 scarves as thank you. She was already fully booked for the next days, but one of her male friends who spoke very good English could replace her. Perfect !

Sunset at Pre Rup Temple — *Sunset (or almost sunset) at Pre Rup Temple*

Dinner at Malis

We had a quick shower and decided to have dinner at Malis, a restaurant where we already wanted to eat in Phnom Penh but where we did not manage. The food was super tasty! The Crème Brûlée with green pepper was so good !