Temples of Siem Reap

We took a morning flight to Siem Reap (Becka was still feeling very ill and had to enjour the whole flight whilst trying to hold down her sick....it was not a pretty sight) and then transferred from the airport to the hotel by bus. On the way we were welcomed by our first glimpse of the stunning temple of Angkor Wat that we would be visiting at 4am the next morning to see at sunrise. First impressions of Siem Reap were how different it looked to Phnom Penh. Where Phnom Penh had a sort of edgy feel and was still going though the aftermath of the Pol Pot regime, Siem Reap felt a lot more relaxed and looked more tropical surrounded by jungle and monkeys. The hotel at Siem Reap was also the first hotel where we had a swimming pool! Simon took full use of the pool whilst Becka laid in bed feeling the aftermath of the dried prawns :-) She did however muster up enough energy to go to the FCC (Foreign Correspondents Club) for a posh (posh for asian standards - english usual pint) drink!

The next morning we arrived at the temple of Angkor Wat to see it at sunrise. We had to trek across a long causeway surrounded by water and with big gaps between the brickwork in pitch darkness and through long grass with clouds of mosquitos flying around (Becka had wished she brought her bee suit with her). Being totally unprepared and forgetting to put insect repellent on, I (Simon) got my first mosquito bite of the trip to much amusement of Becka. We sat on part of the temple, the old library while some street kids(who smelt of wee so he assumed the name of wee-boy) got us coffee and watched the sun come up. Although 4am is not a nice time to get up to go sight seeing, it was very worth it (well that's what we kept telling our tired selves). The sun came up behind the temple and we caught our first proper site of its huge scale. We spent the morning walking around the 1000+ year old site, looking at the intricate carvings around the outside of the temple and trying to stay awake listening to our tour guide talk about the three stages of the afterlife (there were also quite a few bullet holes from the Khmer Rouge days).

Next we visited a smaller temple (but more impressive) that was used in the Tomb Raider movie. You've probably seen pictures of it, its the one with the trees growing all around the brickwork (becka felt very lara croft - minus the big bosoms, pretty face, long legs and big lips but still she was in the same temple as Ange).

We basically templed all day until sunset......it got to the point of when you saw one temple you saw them all. After our temple of doom we all met up for dinner and went to a really nice restaurant where we had a Khmer curry (very nice indeed.....highly recommended if you get the chance whilst popping out to cambodia although becka mistook a whole green chilli for a french bean and looked like her head was going to burst). Becka went off AGAIN to do a spot of shopping in the night market whilst si got an icecream (who sounds the most exciting?).

The next day we...go on guess....yes, we saw another temple! This time we saw the Bayon temple which outdid all the rest of the other temples. The main attraction of this famous temple is that it has pillars everywhere which consists of four faces (apparently they each have a different smile but it was certainly hard to see by the untrained eye).

During the afternoon we took a boat trip around the floating villages, not really that exciting i'm afraid other than hearing and seeing that the villagers eat, drink and poo in the same water! Becka said she wouldn't even let her beautiful dogs swim in it never mind humans bathing in it. (Si did get a spray of the water on his mouth which i found highly amusing......UNCLEAN!)

That evening we went for a meal in town and decided to play a few games of pool in one of the bars. After much deliberating on how we actually got to use a table (they were free so people didn't put coins on them like they would at home) we discovered that we had to put our names on a blackboard and wait for the table to become available... or so we thought, it actually turned out that after some heated words with some "locals" and a not very lady like ladyboy they only use the winner stays on system. We played our few games along with becka and another girl from the group having a bitch off with the ladyboys who were acting like complete divas so all in all it was a good night out!

The next day we headed off in the most unroad worthy bus of all time. It was something out of national lampoons vacation. We all thought the group leader was having a laugh when she said that we would be travelling in this heap of shit for 10 Hrs. Its suspension was none existant, it was far too small, some of the seats were falling apart and had limited "padding" and to top things off all the luggage was piled at the back like a Jenga puzzle constantly collapsing on peoples heads. After some precious time in this luxourious bus we headed for the "Dancing road". This road is not called dancing road because you see ladyboys getting jiggying with it at the side of the road but because it was a dirt track FULL of pot holes. It made the unsurfaced country road seem like a walk in the park. Most of the girls (except becka of course) came out with black eyes :-) Becka did however have a numb bum and window burn from the constant bobbing up and down on the seats. Somehow Si managed to fall asleep to everyones estonishment!

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