Koh Ker Hotel Siem Reap

Our first stop: Preah Khan: Temple of the Sacred Sword... think Sword in the Stone. There is an opening on top of a pyramid where the sacred sword once resided. It was built by Jayavarman VII in 1191 and may have served as his temporary residence while Angkor Thom was being built.

During our first visit to a temple, I was in awe. The stonework and architecture is impressive. We walked down the ancient stone road through grand entrance archways ...

... was priceless, because the size of Angkor Wat & the size of a glasses screw, like finding a needle in a haystack! Next stop Bayon, which was brilliant! The carved faces were really cool & really big! Really enjoyed this! We had a wander around some of the temples here, before heading for lunch! After lunch with had a chat with the tuc tuc driver on the rest of the rip, but he was hell bent on bringing us to some lake for sunset, but we weren't having any of it because we ...

... of Hindu and Buddhist rulers in a time when the majority of mainland SE Asia was ruled from this city in Cambodia. The temples have recently been awarded UNESCO world heritage status for buildings of significant cultural value to humanity. The majority of them are in the process of being restored as they were built from sandstone and have degraded significantly over the years. It is believed that they used this material so that over time the ...

... with the "It's hot, I have ice cold drinks, how many and what do you want to have?" approach. How does one say no to a sweet, unassuming 10-year-old with big brown eyes and a benevolent demeanour?

Once we're seated, another little girl of about 7 or 8 in bright blue pyjamas with a torn basket came to try and sell us flutes and noisemakers made of bamboo and coconut shells. When it was clear we weren't buying, she launched into the usual "where you ...

... room, but he takes us out for meals, insistent on paying and hooks me up with anything I need. If I know a man who can, it's Prom. We've got a good circle of friends here, mainly Tuk-tuk drivers who work for him and it's a fab place.

Speaking of Tuk-tuk drivers, we cycle every day to the orphanage as it's only 12km one way (nice straight flat road - just psycho drivers) but if we take big stocks like 25kg bags of ...

So there I am gently catching up and finding my way into Khmer life when despite assurances to the contrary we get side swiped by a Typhoon (Ketsana). She announced her presence very quickly on Tuesday night with a crack of Thunder that lit up the whole sky, and then deluge. The rain came down in a form I have never seen before and continued unabated for 36 hours.

Fortunately for Siem Reap the storm passed 200 miles North, leaving us with just the ...

... the kids provided made it all the more worth it. We came to the conclusion this must be where the family lived as well as worked - with one hammock and one platform under the roof but not enclosed with walls for the whole family. No toys to be seen, certainly no TV’s or anything of the like and yet even with their Mum working hard the kids never once got in her way and the little one only made his presence known when it was indeed time for a feed. Even that he ...

... In particular, we admired 3000 images of 'heavenly nymphs’ carved into the temple, sporting no less than 30 hairstyles. We are feeling inspired and may have to-mix up our do’s.

Our second stop, Angkor Thom is an immense walled city that is a skeleton of the political, religious and social center of an empire once stretching from Burma to Vietnam. Bayon is the most famous structure in the city and was built ...

... is surrounded by cows, real ones, not Nandis.

The next temple, Banteay Kdei was built by King Jayavarman VII during the 12th and 13th centuries. We enjoyed exploring this fairly large temple. It was disappointing that it was under reconstruction though and there was scaffolding. There are some really good apsaras on the halls of dancers. You can also find some good devatas at this site. The East gopura is the best preserved face tower here.

Siem Reap, Cambodia theresabill

... area were packed with people throwing water and chalking our faces, so we thought we'd get a way from it a bit on Thanon Khao San. We were wrong. We entered the road from a tiny little alleyway and walked into absolute chaos. Within seconds we were so wet that I think I would have been dryer had I been standing in a pool. We finally fought our way through the crowd to a hostel bar to sit and have a beer, and perhaps get away from the ...