Angkor Wat Sunrise Tour & Bayon Temples with Early Entry

4.97

(148 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

I don’t think I’ve ever woken up so early for anything, but there we were—half-awake in the dark outside our hotel in Siem Reap, waiting for our guide. The air was heavy and soft, almost sticky, and everything felt muffled. When our van pulled up (with cold water already waiting, bless), I remember thinking: is this really worth it? But then we reached Angkor Wat’s eastern gate—no crowds yet, just a couple of sleepy cats—and stepped inside with flashlights. Our guide, Dara, kept his voice low as he led us through those shadowy corridors. You could smell damp stone and old incense. I’m not sure what I expected from an “Angkor Wat sunrise tour,” but standing by that ancient pool as the sky shifted from black to bruised purple… yeah, it got me.

After wandering through bas-reliefs that seemed to go on forever (Dara pointed out stories I’d never have noticed—one about a monkey king?), we had breakfast outside near Srah Srang. There were vendors selling strong coffee and sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves. Honestly, I was too busy watching the light change over the water to eat much. Later we walked through Ta Prohm—roots everywhere, trees holding up walls like they’d always belonged together. It was quieter than I thought it would be; you could hear birds and sometimes just silence. Dara told us about the monks who once lived there. He laughed when I tried to say “Ta Prohm” properly—probably butchered it.

The city of Angkor Thom felt different: bigger somehow, more open but also stranger with all those carved faces at Bayon staring down at us. We passed the Terrace of the Leper King (the name still makes me curious) and then stopped at Bayon itself. Up close those faces are both kind and a little mysterious—I still think about them sometimes when things are quiet. By midday it was getting hot, so we ended slowly, just drifting through the last bits of shade before heading back to town. The whole thing finished around lunchtime but honestly my sense of time was off by then.