The Splendour of Angkor
Trip Start
Nov 05, 2002
1
18
69
Trip End
Aug 13, 2003
Siem Reap,
Cambodia
Tuesday, January 21, 2003
Once is never enough for Angkor. I made it back to Cambodia, as part of another trip, in September 2005. Check out the entry for Siem Reap here. As an entry it's a lot better than this crap. Honest.
************************************** Update - September 2005 ************************************
Hi again!
Presently in Siem Reap having come here from Phnom Penh. Now that was a journey from hell! Cambodia is such a poor country that it is rare you see a tarmac road out of the main towns, and even then it's only the main streets in the town that are covered. The
bumpy bus ride from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap took 10 and a half hours on a small bus with very uncomfortable seats!! The road was so bad and dusty that the air-conditioning on the bus couldn't be turned on as the outside dust was making it's way into the air-con unit!! Still, at the end of the day it got us where we wanted to go, sore arse and all, and with the trip costing 5 US dollars it was cheap, which lets face it, is the main concern when you're a backpacker and you're travelling on a budget. More money for the beer we had earned by the time we got there!!
The reason for going to Siem Reap was to see the Angkor temples which 400 years ago was the administrative headquarters of the Angkor Empire. At its height the empire ruled most of South East Asia and the sight of the temples built during most that time is something else! Once you managed to block out the hordes of Japanese tourists you could really appreciate the spectacle. We got to the blue-ribboned temple, Angkor Wat, for sunrise and finished the day, after doing a loop of the other major sights, in the same place for sunset. It is without doubt the highlight of my trip so far, beating the Taj Mahal into second place.
Tomorrow we head back to Bangkok. See ya there!
