Angkor What?

Got picked up at 06.45 to be taken to the bus station for our bus to Siem Reap. When we got to the bus station (about 10 minutes later) and onto the big bus we discovered that it wasn't actually leaving until 08.30 - could have had a lot longer in bed!

1 - Climbing Angkor Wat

Roads from PP to SR is pretty good - single carriageway each way. Landscape was very similar to India - very dry occasional fields with crops, palm trees. Small wooden houses on stilts and even smaller shops. Certainly a marked contrast to the greenery and paddy fields of China and Vietnam.

We stopped several times on the way and eventually arrived in SR at about 15.30 (I think). Getting off the bus was a pretty traumatic experience as we were automatically surrounded by what felt like a plague of locusts but were actually tuk tuk and guest house touts. Took us a while to get through them to get our bags and maneouvre ourselves to the free tuk tuk we wanted to Smiley's Guest House. All the time people were shouting, pushing and thrusting signs in your face there must have been about 15/20 people around each of us. I just said "no" repeatedly til I eventually shouted "NO" but it still had no effect. I was hoping it would all go silent like it does in the films! Jay (who was also on our bus) literally screamed "no" and everything still continued. AT this point I thought I would hate Siem Reap and it did feel a lot like the scary side of India.

2 - Angkor Wat

Anyway, our tuk tuk driver, Sari, took us to the guesthouse which was really nice with a garden and after some careful negotiating we got a room for $5 a night. Then we got taken up to buy our 3 day passes for the wats (temples) which is a steep $40 for 3 days, although compared to Disneyland is a snip! (The temples are about 7km plus away from the centre of SR) Although our passes didn't offically start until tomorrow we can use it for a free sunset on the first night so we went down to Angkor Wat to see this. Angkor Wat is pretty impressive and is the most intact of all the temples with the most imposing skyline. Most of the people were leaving as we arrived to go to a more popular sunset venue (see later). The sun actually sets in front of it so we climbed up the tower which was pretty steep (have later met people who have sprained ankles, broken arms on the precarious bits of the wats) and watched the sky turn slowly redder. It was lovely and we were not disappointed although is not our favourite one here!

3 - Altar at Angkor Wat

Got tuk tuk back into town for dinner where we virtually could have been anywhere in Europe. There is one street 'bar street' which is pedestrianised and the restaurants and bars are all pretty trendy or v western - some even have Phillipe Starck interiors (all white with matching furniture). Seems like there has been a lot of foreign investment here but spose that is inevitable in one of the most popular/amazing sights of the world. There is certainly something here for every budget! Had a nice meal and meandered home ready for an early start tomorrow!