The Siem Reap Hostel

My alarm went off at 3.45am, and having only got to sleep around midnight, I was not best pleased. I had packed away the majority of my stuff already however, so all I had to do was put on the clothes I'd left out, put away a few more items, then I was ready. Mark woke up vaguely, and we said a final goodbye, signing off with an "Oh damn!" "What is it daawwg?!" from the SNL "Mother Lover" sketch which had become a bit of a cult thing between us. I made my way downstairs, then out into the str...

In the morning I got up around 9.30am, had a shower then went downstairs for breakfast. Afterwards I spent a bit too long booking my accommodation for Phnom Penh, but once it was finally sorted, at around 11am, I met up with Ric************* a trip to Angkor Wat, a twelfth century Khmer temple and mausoleum built for King Suryavarman II, and other related sites in the vicinity. As soon as we got outside we spotted Thuer, my tuk-tuk driver from the day before, lurking around, and he said he co...

After the uncomfortable journey into Siem Reap we found time to settle in and get our bearings. We started the day after a hearty breakfast and our tuk tuk driver "Luk" met us at the hostel. His tuk-tuk has a slightly different design to the Thai tuk tuks in that it's a motorbike with a carriage trailer as opposed to a motorised tricycle with seating at the back. Needless to say, for a tuk tuk it was rather luxurious as you melted into the seats, but the ride was a bumpy one.

We arrive...

The day started horrendously early. When I turned on the TV for BBC news it was only 10:30pm in Britain which should give you the scope of our enthusiasm to get to Angkor Wat at sunrise. We were lucky to get Luk (pun intended) as our tuk tuk driver as he took us to the wat as the sun was starting to rise. Many other tourists had the exact same idea as us so I felt like I had more to prove than these yahoos when taking a photo. I entered the main complex which was a long path leading to the te...

Another early start today although it wasn't as bad as yesterday and it would prove to be highly beneficial. Our tuk tuk driver drove us to this temple known as Ta Phrom. All I had been told about it was that it was a temple that had been overcome by tree roots and lay hidden away. When we reached the gateway and dodged the people selling us guidebooks, bracelets and scarves (in a way you kind of feel like a celebrity dodging paparazzi) we went through the gateway and it was like entering a d...

"Vinc d'un planeta ple d'ecosistemes, -no es del tot rodo- va escriure un moro, que tenia mala lletra" Antonia Font. Hola a tothom, ya estamos en la capital, Phom Penh, que por cierto es Blaugrana, ya que la bandera del pais asi fue pintada y hoy es el dia de la independencia!!!, que cosas. DEspues de un duro y largo trayecto de Siam Reap a Phom Penh, (digo duro porque me toco en el asiento del final y no habia sitio para estirar las piernas), llegamos a Phom Penh, Oliver Y yo (el muchacho al...

So I arrived in Cambodia this morning around 8AM. The first thing I noticed as the plane was landing was how undeveloped the area was. Unlike Iowa which hardly has a speck of undeveloped land, this place had vast, unspoiled rainforests all over. After landing I paid a mere $2 to have someone take me on a "motobike" to the Siem Reap Hostel. A motobike, or moto for short, is a relatively slow and quiet motorcycle with extra passenger room. It was an incredible experience because here we were we...

I woke up at 4AM this morning, which was a bit earlier than I intended but I had forgotten to set my alarm so that worked out nicely. I headed downstairs and waited at the front desk for Kim, my moto driver to arrive. As I waited I spotted a gecko on the wall. After a while I noticed a bunch more so I counted them to pass the time. When Kim pulled up, I hopped on the back of his moto and we headed to the ancient temples of Angkor Wat. I was dissappointed to see hundreds of others outside the ...

Today I went back to Angkor Wat to visit more temples. After exploring a few temple ruins, my moto driver suggested that we go to this remote mountain that had some ruins underneath a waterfall. After walking up this mountain for about a mile I got to the ruins but there were only a few structures. I asked this British guy if there was more to see and he told me to go up this narrow trail for 200 meters. I took his advice but after walking well over 500m I had yet to see anything of interest....

Today was really cool. I got to see some amazing temples that had these huge trees growing out of them. It was amazing! After exploring them for a few hours I finally felt temple-out. On the way back I asked Kim to stop where we had seen the monkeys before. This time the monkeys weren't visible from the road and we actually had to wander through the forest to find them. It was absolutely incredible! We saw a lot more monkeys than last time, and this time, we were in their environment. We fed ...