Blogs from Knar, Siem Reap, North, Cambodia, Asia - page 4

As the title of this blob indicates, our previous night out on the town in Siem Reap turned bad. The story of the night is one we considered for a long time whether to gloss over or omit completely from this blog series. However, just as traveler's tips are generally better and more truthful than some guidebooks and travel brochures, so too are traveler's warnings. So here it goes... Our night had been going well. We went out to dinner with a group of friends we had met over the last couple of days and followed this up with a return to Angkor Wat? Bar. A place we enjoyed the night before with cheap buckets of cocktails. Sometime when you travel as a guy, especially with a mate, you relax with some aspects of travel and ... read more

After hiring a couple of mountain bikes, we'd decided to save the most famous temple, Angkor Wat, for last. As such, we were off to ride the grand circuit of the temples in Angkor. The circuit is approximately 26 kms but another few extra by taking a "shortcut" down a side road. The "shortcut" was a great way of seeing some of the local villages and our voices almost became hoarse from all the "hellos" responding to the local kids. However, our shortcut managed to bypass the ticket booth for the temples and we had to ride 5 km back towards town to the ticketbooth. Having not had a good bit of exercise for awhile, the opportunity was embraced, pushing our mountain bikes to their (and our) limits, riding in the slick streams of tuc tucs, ... read more

Sorry, we are getting lazy at writing in our blogs but wanted to post some of the pictures we have taken. These are from our short stay in Cambodia.... read more

On December 9th, Aoife and I arrived in Siem Reap. The main reason for visiting this city is the nearby Angkor area located in Siem Reap province, the historic remains of a great Khmer civilisation. The Angkor era existed from 802 AD until 1431 AD when the empire fell and a dark period ensued as the population abandoned the area. “In 2007, an international team of researchers using satellite photographs and other modern techniques concluded that Angkor had been the largest preindustrial city in the world, with an elaborate system of infrastructure connecting an urban sprawl of at least 1,000 square kilometres (390 sq. mi) to the well-known temples at its core”. The temples remained hidden away in the forest until they were rediscovered by the French in the mid-19thcentury. The Angkor temples exceeded our high ... read more

Cambodia – Siem Reap – The mighty temple of Angkor Wat and an unwelcome sneaky hand during a massage!! With my last night in Bangkok completed and my goodbyes said to Maam and Gav I got ready to get the bus to Siem Reap. Everything was really easy, I already had an e-visa organised a few weeks before hand and the bus journey, although a little tight on space was pretty painless. We stopped just short of the border for food and this is when the sales pitch commenced and the attitude of some of the staff took a slight u-turn. Because I already had my visa I was not a prime target for the sales team and my lovely orange square sticker I had to wear told them this, the cost of my visa was ... read more