Day 1 of looking at them temples at that temple place in Cambodia. Wat was it called?

Asia » Cambodia » North » Angkor
July 27th 2006

Published: August 4th 2006

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mel andy

First stop, petrol station

So why did we go to Siem Reap??? To see the Angkor Temples!!

Everyone and their mother who we have met on our travels so far seem to have seen them, so this was our turn. Could they live up to the expectation?? You will have to read on to find out.

We were up at 7:00am, this is now an early start for us!! We then had to find a nice cheap tuk-tuk driver for the day or two. We did, his name was Borey and for 10$, which seems to be the going rate for a guys services for the day. Even though he did start at 14$

We bought our nice laminated tickets for the temples, which at 40$ for a 2/3 day pass seems to be way out of proportion with anything else we have paid for or bought so far in Cambodia, but this is the countrys premier tourist attraction.

What can we say about our day? Apart from we drove, we stopped, we looked, we climbed, we took photos then we drove!!

The temples were really great! Some more than others. We found the lesser known ones to be nicer

FOB

Family on a bike.

than maybe the big well known temples, probably due to the vast amount of tourists that seem to flock to Cambodia just for Angkor. Some of the quieter ones were really peaceful and with the birds singing in the background made for a nice wander round.

The one thing that we had heard about was the amount of children selling postcards etc. which we have to say, could get quite annoying at times (I know that is a bad thing to say, but when you genuinely don't want one and you say "no thankyou" they just don't listen. The amount of times you have to say this is crazy until they finally give in). Saying all this though , but what was funny or quite amazing was their selling technique! Some of the kids would ask where you were from. Then they would tell you the capital city and the prime minister or president (not just of England but just about any country). We have started to tell them and any other possible touts or con artists that we are from Lichenstein. This sometimes leaves them lost for words. Hahaha.
We met two children who could count in English,

Leading up to Bayon

Italian, Korean, Thai, Spanish, Chinese, German, French and more AMAZING!!!

One more funny thing whilst visiting the temples was: At each temple there were a load of restaurants and due to the amount, each one wanted your business or money. So as you aproached one, the women would see who could shout and clap the loudest to get your attention.
So here we were, about to visit some of the oldest temples maybe in the world? And we were confronted with a barrage of "You want drink, food, come here!" and if you said anything to them they would reply with "Ok I remember you, you buy from me!" And on our second day at Angkor Wat where we had been for over 3 hours a woman actually did remember us and she got upset because, apparently we had 'Promised' to buy from her. CRAZY

Our first day was really good, there are two circuits in the park, we did the Grand tour first which took in 8 temples or ruins all of different age and design. We will not bore you with names or other stuff. Our driver was also really nice so we arranged to meet