Ankor Wat and Siem Reap

Flew out of Bangkok with Air-Asia, of course had no sleep before we got up to go to the airport at 4am, got there in 15 Min's when we though it would take 45 min, and the Air-Asia counter did not open till 5:30am, stoked tried to sleep on the floor must have got all of 10 Min's worth. Last month of air Asia flying out of Don Muang they will be at the new Airport as of the 25th of Sept. Got a window seat on the flight so did not get much sleep, was only an hour to Phnom Penh anyway.

Visa service at the airport was crazy, give them the completed forms and a photo, then it gets processed along a big desk with 15 immigration officials all passing the passports along the line, when your name is called you pay $20 US and walla you have a One month tourist Visa. Then the Usual shite and we were in. I was in a bit of a daze through lack of sleep so was all pretty random to me. Caught a taxi to one of many bus stations and a bus to Siem Reap, Air con was broken and the seats were tiny and the bus was full so was a pretty shitty ride for 5 hours, I copped all right but James suffered a bit as he had the isle seat and could not sleep as well.

Got into Siem Reap and was meet by a wall of touts was insane they opened the gates and they charged at us at a sprint, we just picked one and he took us to a nice guesthouse $8 US a night for king singles, clean room, hot water, fan and cable TV all good. Our diver offered to take us out to the temples so we said yep, so next morning after a long long sleep we headed out to the temples of Angkor. First up was Ankor Wat the most famous of the group, was spectacular, we picked up a random guide on the way, uni student making some cash on the side. The temple complex is huge, with so many photo opportunities. It lives up to the hype and then some, would recommend it to anyone. Visited more temples on our moto- remorque (motorbike with trailer attached), the Bayon was wicked loads of faces set in the walls and towers. Looked at temples till 5pm and we had started at 7am was a big day.




Day two saw us doing much the same, was just as good, we ended up doing the small and big circuit plus a couple of temples in town and we went out to Ton Sapp lake to the floating villages, went up the hill there to a temple for spectacular views of the villages and the lake which is huge must be around 100kms long and 40 odd kms wide. Our driver even took us out in his little fishing boat which he poled/ paddled along in a shallow part of the lake, was gold and we tipped him for it. After 2 days of solid temples we decided that was enough and James has now headed to The beach, I'm heading across the lake tomorrow to Battambang.


One thing I forgot to mention is the touts and the beggars, strange that I forgot as there as several outside eyeing me up :D. Out at the temples its crazy, have to run a gaunlet of touts and little kids between your vechile and the temple entrance and vice versa, mr yo wannna cold drink works when your thirsy but hearing it 50 times can get annoying, and the little kids with there flutes, post cards and knock off Lonley Planets is a drag. In town there is the little kids, the book sellers plus your assortment of beggars, alot with missing limbs, but thats what the local small moneys for I guess.

But the good far outweighs all of that, and im very happy I made the effort to come here.