Siem Reap

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Arrived Siem Reap about 4pm. Settled into hotel then walked into the city central area. Here there is a street called Pub St - which, you guessed, has many pubs and eating houses. Very lively area with lots of tourists. We had a cocktail at one pub and then went to the Cambodian BBQ for dinner. This is where you cook you own dinner - meat on a curved BBQ plate, which allows the juices to flow down into a moat around the outside which is full of stock and vegetables. We ate the usual chicken, beef and pork, together with crocodile and local fish. (Must say that we are not too keen on the fresh water fish - a bit tasteless). After dinner went to the night market to see more of the same sorts of wares being sold.

Following day we were collected at 8.30 by our tour guide Sun Same. He took us out to one of the more remote temples - Beng Mealea which was built before Angkor Wat but by the same king - just that it was in the wrong place, so he then had to find the "center of the universe" which ended up being Angkor Wat. Beng Mealea is very broken down but was good to see how they built these huge temples in the 11th C.

In the afternoon we went out to the Tonle Sap (Lake) to visit the floating villages and to see how they exist in what is a very interesting environment. This lake rises by upto 10m in the wet season and is currently draining out to the Mekong to what is its lowest point in a couple of months time. The floating village people migrate with this water flow. Quite sad as we were told of how the typhoons come and many of the fishermen are caught out on the lake and drown. We purchased a bag of rice to donate to the orphanage within the village.

Next day we were taken to Angkor Wat - a vast temple that has been reconstructed over the last few decades. Interesting carvings and structures. Sun Same was good at explaining the Hindu and then Buddhist history of this temple. Amazing place - one of the seven wonders of the world which is visited by millions of people each year. We feel quite foreign in these sorts of places, as there is very little English heard around the place. But really exciting to be here.

After this we went to the Bayon temple which was the Buddhist temple built by the next King in about 1181. This has the smiling face sculptures and again is amazing to think how they ever made these sorts of things in those days. On way there we saw about 8 elephants that are used for tourist rides.

After a nice lunch at a local restaurant near by, we visited the Ta Prohm temple - which was built for the Kings mother. This is the temple that features in the Tomb Raider movie - lots of big tree roots coming in over the temple walls etc. There is a lot of work going on at this temple to reconstruct it. Again a fascinating place.

Stopped by the side of the road to have a closer look at the Black and Yellow rice grown in the area.

By this time we were over the heat of the day and headed back to the hotel for a nice relaxing time around the pool, and a few more cocktails.

Off tonight to the night market to have our feet cleaned by fish and have a leg and foot massage.

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