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Published: March 20th 2008
We (me, Chris and Shannon an Aussie girl we had met in Pnom Penh) set off from Battambang to go to Siem Reap on the boat. We had been told that the boat trip (although a lot longer than the bus) was beautiful and not to be missed. It could take anything from 3 to 10 hours and being the dry season it was prob gonna be closer to 10!
We were so tired when we got on the boat but I was trying to keep awake so as not to miss the scenery we were taking the boat to see! It was a very long jouney.... 9 hours I think (the engine broke down a couple of times and the water was so low that sometimes it was very slow).... and to be honest we could have a sleep and wake up to the same sights.... it was really interesting though. We saw the way the locals live on the river, their houses or boats on the river they live on and the little schools on the river. The kids on the river were so cute and friendly!
Si met us in Siem Reap as he had some
work to do to in the day there and we could all meet up in the evenings.
The next 2 days were spent in Siem Reap going to Angkor Wat which was fantastic! The first day we went to the main 3 temples and saw sunset at one of the top ones to see sunset at (our guide recommended it) which was great but so so busy you could hardly view the sunset..... and climbing down the temple stairs which were very narrow was absolutely manic with the crowds all trying to clamber down at once!
That night we decided to rise early for sunrise the next day at Angkor Wat and booked our tuk tuk driver that night, his name was Lucky. Lucky turned up the next day at 5am and drove us to Angkor Wat whilst slugging his red bull at the wheel (it really made us giggle). We had forgotten our torches so we stuck closely to people who had remembered theirs whilst we made our way to the spot for sunrise. Ahhhhh it was definitely worth the early rise as it was stunning and not as crazy as sunset! After sunrise we grabbed some
breakfast and went out to meet Lucky who had arranged to come back to take us to a couple more temples.
We couldn't find Lucky anywhere amonst all the tuk tuk drivers waiting outside. Although Chris thought she had found him and jumped into the tuk tuk and after discussing where she would be heading next to the driver they both realised that they weren't the right drivers or customers..... The other drivers began to laugh when we had walked around continuosly for about an hour looking for lucky and shouting out "Lucky where are you?!". They were telling us that we had obviously not paid out driver well enough and he had found a better offer. They were cracking up at this and we were too. Well eventually someone offered to take us to the next 2 temples so we changed drivers!
The next 2 temples were wonderful too, so many beautiful carvings on one and the other had magnificent huge trees everywhere and coming out of the ruins themselves.
That night was our last in Siem Reap and as we had no more dead early rises the next day we went out to sample the
nightlife. We had lots of cocktails in a great little cocktail bar where the barmen were like Tom Cruise in Cocktail. Then we went to a khmer club which was lots of fun and met some people who we went to eat an early breakfast with after the club, beer and BBQ fish. Then we had about an hours sleep before we had to get the bus to Pnom Penh.... we felt super rough!
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