Angkorland Siem Reap

... it was decided to leave this one as it was, for its natural beauty. It is famous for being one of the locations used in the Tomb Raider movie. <br><br>The final temple we visited was Angkor Thom, which was built for the same king as Ta Prohm and is also built in the Bayon style. It was the last capital the Khmer empire &#8211; being built at the end of the 12th century. Angkor Thom is a massive area &#8211; about nine square kilometers. The temple in the ...

... We ordered some food from the restaurant too, and I was impressed by how nice it was; I had a very tasty burger. We got chatting to some other people staying at the hostel, and soon found ourselves playing a bowling game on the hostel's Wii on the big projector screen by the bar. I was as **** at fake bowling as I had been at normal bowling in Luang Prabang! Once it got to 10.30pm I was absolutely wrecked, having slept for under four hours, so I went to bed.

... bought, because it's a film camera so I can't show you those pics on here :( I have however, still been having a go with the digital camera, but you must bear that in mind that if they're rubbish, it's cos I'm shooting blindly..<br><br>In other news, you may have noticed there is no longer a return date on my blog. Well, that's because I'm coming back earlier. I've been giving it some thought for a couple of weeks now, and the bottom line is I'm going ...

... them on the stilts. But this is wet season and the water is only about 3 feet beneath the floors. Many have little floating cages filled with pigs and chickens next to the house. Little kids are poling boats about and jumping in the water. At one of the huts I transfer to a very small dugout canoe sitting on a handwoven reed mat, and a woman paddles it through the drowned forest that extends out into the lake beyond the village. Very peaceful.

... very bad!"<br><br>In my opinion, it smelled pretty bad right now, without stepping in anything. Foul like feces, with a slight fermenting type of scent. "It's a good smell," I told myself. "It's the smell of growing food." I didn't buy my own reasoning and decided trying to ignore the smell was best. (Note, all activities on the tour are voluntary - If I wanted to sit on the dike and watch others work, that would have been an ...

... visiting a couple of temples we stopped by the Cambodian Landmine Museum where I learned about how dangerous the country still is. This museum was set up by a fomer child soldier who used to plant landmines during the Khmer Rouge and Vietnam War. Now he spends his time deactivating them. We learned that there is an estimated 3-6 million landmines left around Cambodia - a fact we didn't know about - and that there still are thousands of active, unexploded American ...

... us to see the sunset at a Temple perched on a hill and then announced he would show us a night on the town. Nick and I began to wonder if we would ever shake Sunrise even for a moment. Turns out not. He was a good bloke so we didn't really mind. We re-payed his mix of kindness / business acumen by getting him blind drunk. He was so hammered he fell asleep in the bar a couple of hours into the night. He ...

... and has deactivated over 50,000 landmines to date. He now works with the UN and other organisations to aid and train people to detect and deactivate or safely detonate landmines. He is also involved in charity work dedicated to helping civilian victims of landmines in SE Asia, as well as those who are simply unable to afford to go to school. Was quite moving stuff so early on, but this museum was ...

... inches from my face! ASSSIAAAAA! <br><br>I find her waiting in line for a bathroom, but Spidey and friends are following...quick Azh, move out! We make our escape to a bathroom further away. We wait our turn in line, spider-free, only to be told to pay an entrance fee. Huh? The three locals before us weren't harassed for money! Oh, screw that! We turn and leave grumpy with unrelieved bladders. On the way back to the ...

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 ...