Siem Reap (Cambodia)

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  Siem Reap, Cambodia
Monday, March 10, 2008

Hi gang. Sorry I've been a bit slack with this travel blog malarkey. I'm actually now in Phnom Penh, but I'm going to cover my 5 days in Siem Reap in this blog.

Friday 5th March
Got to the coach station (and I use the term 'station' very loosely, it was a bunch of tiny plastic chairs on the pavement alongside a row of coaches!) at 7.15 only to find that the bus was now leaving at 8am. I had a good half hour of being harassed by a woman trying to sell me a baguette! was sitting next to a Cambodian lady and her small kid who was facinated with my ipod! After the bus was full I was suprised to see the driver and his two helpers start loading massive sacks of rice, corn, etc into the aisle of the coach. In the first hour we must have stopped at at least 7 other villages to pile on more sacks and then making the new passengers sit on top of them!!! In the end there was a mound of sacks at least 2ft high! A young girl who was sitting on the sacks next to me must have been travel sick as she was throwing up into a plastic bag the entire waay. Niiiiiiice! And to make things worse, every time we stopped she would eat again, only to throw it up 10 minutes later. After an arse-numbing 7.5 hours along the worst road I have ever seen, we arrived in Siem Reap. As soon as we entered the city the roads changed from dirt track to tarmac. After a short tuk-tuk ride I was at my guest house, Mahogany - a nice little place made entirely from wood. I decided to dump my bag and go exploring the town, and by exploring I mean finding a nice bar! I found a nice place, had a huge bottle of Angkor beer and brushed up on my Cambodian (which I've been trying to use as much as possible), before putting my skills to the test in the indoor market. If there is one place you don't want to be when it is 35 degrees, it is indoors. With no air-con!
In the evening I popped back into town for a couple of beers before getting a tuk-tuk back. On the way the drive was offering me weed and hookers. I declined! When I got back at 11pm I found the gates to the guest house were locked! After a bit of confused crashing around, and contemplating whether to try and climb them, someone came to let me in.

Saturday 8th March (second attempt, a computer crash lost this once already!)
Today I bought my 3 day pass for the Angkor temples. One of the guys who worked in the guest house I was staying in had offered to be my driver for the day the night before. The first stop was the impressive Angkor Wat. As you walk over the bride over the moat you can see the tips of the five central towers over the western gate, but you had no idea of the sheer size of the place until you pass through. In one corridor there is a 700m by 2m wall called the 'Gallery of Bas Reliefs' (whatever the hell that means) which is completely covered with amazingly detailed carvings. I spent a good two hours there before heading to the massive Angkor Thom, which was the last capital of the Angkor region. Apparently it was home to 1m people back in the day. I spent a couple of hours walking around the city, which consisted of the city walls (3km long and 8m high on each side), the temple Bayon in the centre, and various other buildings and ruins, before I had to head back to the guest house to charge my camera battery.
After an hour we headed to Preah Khan, which is surrounded by jungle on all sides, and the pretty boring Neak Poan. At about 5.30pm we headed to Phnom bakheng, a hilltop temple, to watch the sunset. After a steep climb we reached the top to find the place absolutely rammed with tourists all fighting for the best views of the sunset and surrounding jungle.
After I was home and showered I went back to the same small restaurant that I had eaten breakfast at, partially for the good reviews that I had heard, but mostly because of the beautiful staff! Inside I got chatting to a couple of old guys who were both originally from East Sussex. Small world! After that I managed to completely jinx myself by telling my mum that I hadn't had a case of travellers belly yet. Bad move. Less than 30 minutes later I was feeling rough!

Sunday 9th March
Woke up at 5am today to watch the sunrise at Angkor Wat. I'd read somewhere that it was supposed to be one of the top 3 sunrises in the world. It did not disappoint. After that we made the hour-long 30km ride to Banteay Srei, stopping along the way for some noodle soup for breakfast. The next stop was Ta Phrom, which is unique amongst the Angkor temples as it hasn't been cleared of trees and restored like the rest of the temples. There were some bloody massive trees growing out of some of the walls and ruins! After that I went to Banteay Kdei, which was nothing special, before having to cut the day short due to a dodgy stomach. As the gates had been locked the previous two nights I decided to move guesthouses. I ended up at the Manaday Inn, which was similar to the one I stayed in Battambang - massive bed, fridge, satellite tv and air-con. The TV came in handy as I spent the rest of the day in bed watching football due to stomach pains.

Monday 10th March
Was still feeling a bit ropey today but it was the last day that my ticket was valid, so I made the 10km trip to the town of Roluos to see the temples of Bakonh, Preah Ko and Lolei. To be honest I've well and truely had enough of bloody temples now! The rest of the day was spent chilling in the hotel room before I headed to the delightfully-named Pub Street for a beer!

Tuesday 11th March
Due to my last 2 days being pretty much a write-off, I decided to hang around in Siem Reap for one more day to see what else it has to offer other than the temples. Not much, as it turns out, but it was still nice to chill out outside of the hotel room for the day.

Post your own travel photos for friends and family Pictures

Angkor Wat	Angkor Thom	On the way to Preah Khan	Sunset from Phnom Bakheng 1
Sunset from Phnom Bakheng 2	Sunset from Phnom Bakheng 3	Sunrise at Angkor Wat 1	Sunrise at Angkor Wat 2
Sunrise at Angkor Wat 3	Ta Prohm from the outside	Ta Prohm from the inside	The Bakong

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