So many temples, so little time - Siem Reap

  Siem Reap, Cambodia
Thursday, December 4, 2008

We arrived in Siem Reap fairly late in the evening, but found a tuk-tuk driver who took us to a few different hotels until we got a cheap one with room for us :)  Our tuk-tuk driver was called Lichee (Like Richie with an 'L') and seemed fair, so we asked him to take us around Angkor Wat in a day's time.

Angkor Wat at sunrise

We got a good night's sleep and spent the next day looking around the markets and resting ourselves a little bit... and then at 5am the next day, Lichee was there to pick us up ready to make it for sunrise at Angkor Wat - the world's biggest religious building.  It is also the best preserved of all the temples in the complex.  Angkor Wat was built originally as a Hindu temple, and was then converted to a Buddhist one, and is a symbol of Cambodia, even appearing on the flag.  Unfortunately, like many wonderful things in Cambodia, all the temples in the complex have been left in a bad way after the Khmer Rouge tore down what they could and shot at what they couldn't - you can see bullet holes in many of the walls at Angkor Wat.

Angkor Wat

We arrived at around 5.20am and headed through the gates to watch the sun rise up behind the temple, and it was an amazing sight, watching it transform and slowly reveal one detail after another as the light got brighter - it was a bit like really carefully unwrapping a Christmas present to draw out the suspense. :)  We spent a couple of hours walking around - all the walls are covered in beautiful stone carvings, many of Apsara, the female spirit of the clouds and waters for Buddhists and Hundus.  One very long wall shows the Battle of Lanka in great detail - luckily many of these carvings are still in tact.

Apsara stone carvings at Angkor Wat

After soaking in as much as we could, we got ourselves some noodles and then met back up with Lichee.  He took us to a number of different temples to go and have a look at - one had huge faces making up turrets, another had elephants depicted on the walls in stone, another had lots of very steep steps to get to the top and another still had great trees and roots wrapped around the stones and growing actually on-top of and through the temple - you may have seen that one in "Tomb Raider" ;)

By the time we had seen all the temples we wanted to, we were hungry again... Lichee took us to a photo shop as we needed passport pictures for our Laos visa... While we waited for them, Tom went over the road and got us some savory pastries, which we shared with Lichee...

Me and Tom at "Dead Fish" in Siem Reap

That evening we went for dinner at an amazing restaurant, called "Dead Fish".  It's mostly Thai and Cambodian food, and is made up of several "floating" levels, some with tables and chairs, some with low tables and cushions.  Downstairs they have 20+ crocodiles living in a pit that they have rescued and keep to entertain their guests, as well as a number of ducks running around :)  And the food was also top notch :D

On the way back to our hotel, we stopped by the night market and had a look around - there was one place in the middle that had a kind of bath full of fish - the idea is that you dip your feet in and the fish come and eat all the dead skin off your feet.... I wish I'd done it now, but I had a banging headache and just wanted to lie down at that point!!  But my lovely friend Kate said it was brilliant :) :)

Early the next morning we boarded a bus to Kratie (pronounced Kratch-eh) - which you can read all about in the next blog!!

And you can find lots more photos here on flickr.