What would Indiana Jones do?

---

So we departed Ban Lung and by bus (again) continued to the other side of country, to Siem Reap - it's Indiana Jones time! Siem Reap would be a sleepy village without this world famous Cambodian tourist attraction - I'm of course speaking of the temples of Angkor, and as the brightest gem in the crown - Angkor Wat.

There's not much to say about Angkor, since you can read all about it from Wikipedia, but at least I'd like to tell some views of my own. As an ancient capital of Khmer Kingdom it's still unbelievably well preserved. It's thousand times bigger and mightier than its little brother Wat Phou, as you careful readers may remember, that we visited in Laos. All the tourists do at least Angkor Wat and most likely also Bayon (those gigantic stone faces) and 'Lara Croft -temple', which is taken over by the nature. We did them all and a couple of others, such as a nice temple nearby the last mentioned temple (as you can easily notice we didn't have a guide with us, but just eyes and my new camera since the old one decided to resign in Siem Reap) and one minor temple. All of them are about to astonish a traveler a lot more than Wat Phou, so I would advise not to visit it if you don't happen to have a lot of extra time when in Laos.

Despite the mass of tourists (and a vast tourist hype in general), the temples of Angkor definitely are worth visiting, but no longer than one sunset, sunrise and wandering around the area the rest of the day. One day was enough for our cultivated archeological minds at least. All in all, it's a huge place and leaves a lot of room to wonder how it had been built without plaster or any modern equipment.

PS. Have a night out also in Siem Reap, but watch out, sometimes even the most careful traveler can spend a lot of money when it's a holiday in Cambodia!

---