Freedom Hotel Siem Reap

Well talk about a huge day - we were up at 5am to get our 6.45am flight from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap - a 45 min flight in a small propeller plane ! We landed and collected our bags from the trolley (while we were waiting the King of Thailand landed) and made our way to the Freedom Hotel, had a quick brekky and quickly headed out to see the magnificent Angkor Wat. First glimpses were very exciting! Our first temple was in the Angkor Thom - a huge 3km squared complex of temples. We stopped firs...

This is where Lara Croft comes for her hols and adventures. The temples are so different , all gothic like and although in ruins they have far more appeal to me than the imaculate ones in China or Vietnam. We did a sunrise at Ankor Wat, along with a couple of other thousand tourists, it would have been an intermate moment for us all , had the sun come up....well obviously it did or I wouldnt be doing this, but it didnt burst through the dark, more like hid behing the clouds. Ta Prom is where ...

After our first night in Siem Reap (stayed at the Freedom Hotel), we ventured on to the Angkor complex to take in the temples. We wanted to get an early start, which was no problem for us since our jet lag still has us getting up at 4:00 am, with three wake up during the night (time change is ten hours). Our first stop was Angkor Thom - we were saving Angkor Wat (best for last) for the sunrise the next day. I was quite surprised at the relatively lack of people. I realize that we are travelin...

We set off from bangkok at 07.00am on the Sunday morning. There was 2 small mini buses which were very smart ( With the oh so important great air conditioning )Once out of Bangkok we made good progress and got to the Thai / Cambodian border in about 4 hours. We had lunch before we crossed the border. The place was a bit dodgy. A very poor area, with lots of beggars and children hassling all the tourists. It is the worst conditions I certainly have ever seen people living in. We got to the bor...

We booked into our accommodation at the Freedom Hotel, Siem Reap. The standard seemed pretty good and certainly better than I was expecting. Some facts about Cambodia :- 50% of the population is under 18 years old. Average life expectancy is 57 years old. Local currency is the Riel. You get 4000 to 1 US dollar ( Cambodia's unofficial currency ) It is estimated that one third of Cambodians live on less than 1 US dollar per day. There are thousands of children living on the streets, in particul...

Siem Reap. Amazing temples. Group beginning to bond.

There is a lot I would like to say about my travels this far and not enough time in the day to say it. I will later get back into more detail about my trip through Thailand but while it is fresh on my mind I wanted to add my thoughts and comments about Cambodia, the children, the culture and the food!!! First I would like to say that Tuk Tuk drivers are all crazy and the lines that are painted in the road that we in America like to call lanes are only opptional over here and 99.9% tend to ign...

We took a large propellor plane to Siem Reap yesterday afternoon. Everyone was taking pics...quite a difference from the usual jet! The Siem Reap Airport is quite elegant and traditionally modern. Breezed through immigration and there was no customs? We took a small bus to the Freedom Hotel right outside of the downtown area. Very comfortable with lovely pool (took a quick swim last night, dodging the mosquitos). A local festival was ending last night so there were lighted candles/lanterns fl...