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Published: March 23rd 2008
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We arrived in Bangkok just after 2pm. Touched down at the impeccably clean and ultra modern Suvarnabhumi International Airport. Got a taxi to our guest house which was great and spent a few fantastic days in Bangkok. We didn't spend too long here as we are returning in a couple of months, and made plans to travel to Siem Reap in Cambodia for Tuesday 11th March.
Took an early mini bus to the Thailand/Cambodia border where we purchased our 30 day visa at a slightly inflated price. Took a while to get through the border, had to queue up three times before finally crossing onto Cambodian soil.
Once on the Cambodian side we got on a bus that drove us for about five minutes before stopping at a bus and taxi station. We were then told the bus would probably take seven hours and we would have to wait until it had filled up completely before it would leave. As the station was pretty much deserted this didn't seem like an appealing prospect.
As luck would have it, inside the bus station were an American couple who immediately approached us and asked if we would like to share a taxi
to Siem Reap. This would only take three hours, and could leave immediately, so for 15 US Dollars each it was well worth it.
We piled into the taxi which thankfully had air-con and were soon on our way. The journey was, as we had been told, extremely bumpy. The road is literally a dirt track littered with loose gravel and marked with potholes the size of tractor tires.
We arrived in Siem Reap on schedule, with sore behinds, and had little trouble in locating our guest house which we had booked on the internet the night before.
The Sidewalk guest house has an incredibly friendly and enthusiastic owner who seemed to know everything about everything and had a tremendous repertoire of good (read: bad) jokes.
However the guest house was located a little too far out of town to walk and our room, although nice, was unbearably hot.
We stayed in our room until late evening and then ventured outside in search of a tuk tuk (rickshaw.) There were none to be found and just as we were returning to our room, defeated and hungry, one of the guys that worked at the guest house offered to give
us a lift on the back of his motorcycle into the center of town. The three of us jumped on and so began an exhilarating trip to 'Bar Street' which is the main strip in Siem Reap.
When we arrived we were shocked to find ourselves in such a developed and traveller friendly place. The wide pedestrianised street is as the name suggests, full of trendy bars and great restaurants with a decidedly relaxed and slightly Mediterranean atmosphere.
After all the stories we had heard we were surprised to find somewhere that looked so affluent - We had expected Cambodia to be considerably more ramshackle. You can probably put this down to all the package tourists who are drawn to Angkor Wat. This is most apparent away from the center of town where endless five star hotels line the streets. It was made more poignant by our hotel owner telling us that ten years ago none of it was here, and anyone wishing to visit Angkor would have needed a police escort, however he assured us that nowadays it was completely safe.
We enjoyed the first of many fantastic meals, and found a nice bar afterwards in which to
enjoy a mango daiquiri and a mojito or two.
We returned to our room by tuk tuk, comfortably inebriated, and settled down for our first unbelievably humid night in Siem Reap.
The following day we got another bike ride into town and spent the afternoon in 'The Blue Pumpkin' cafe where we had the best milkshakes we had ever had. Indulged in a spot of people watching and attempted to acclimatise to the heat.
Went for another great meal that evening and returned to the bar of the previous night for some more cocktails - we had arranged for a tuk tuk driver to pick us up at 5am the next day to see Angkor at sunrise so we knew we had to be up early. A few drinks turned into a few too many and due to the lateness of our return we were locked out of the guest house. Luckily someone was sleeping near the door so after knocking a few times we were let in, apologising profusely.
We finally retired to sleep some time after 2am and when the alarm went off at 4.30am we emerged from our mosquito nets bleary eyed, and still a little
drunk.
Our tuk tuk driver was waiting for us and we began the drive to the Angkor ticket office in pre dawn darkness. We paid 20 dollars for a one day pass to the temples of Angkor and then proceeded to Angkor Wat, the most famous of the ruins.
The area was teeming with people, even at this early hour, it was extremely peaceful despite this as no-one was really talking but soaking up the atmosphere as dawn slowly began to break.
Before the sun had fully risen we went to look around the temple itself whilst most people were waiting for full day light.
The entire building, particularly the towers, located in its central courtyard, were a beautiful example of ancient Khmer architecture. The long exterior corridors were adorned with intricate carvings and it was really pleasant walking around in the early morning tranquility.
We had breakfast at one of the rickety shacks surrounding Angkor Wat before making our way back to our tuk tuk.
We then made the short trip to Angkor Thom, the fortified main city - Now that the sun was fully up the heat was starting to get to us and we enjoyed
taking a breather in the shade of the ruins.
We had a stroll towards the ancient Bayon temple, at the heart of Angkor Thom. Stopping occasionally to talk to a few groups of sprightly Cambodian children.
Bayon was built by Jayavarman VII in around 1200 and incorporates 216 giant stone faces of Avalokiteshvara staring down at you.
The various other smaller temples and building around Angkor Thom were equally impressive.
After perusing Angkor Thom a little longer we made our way to Ta Prohm, also know as 'The Jungle Temple' which was the site we had both been looking forward to the most.
Unlike most of the sites of Angkor, the surrounding jungle has been allowed to reign supreme over Ta Prohm and it's incredible to see the sprawling roots of huge trees that have anchored themselves to the ancient stone.
This is one place where pictures really do speak louder than words, so take a look!
On the way out we ran into the Americans we had shared the taxi with and they pointed us in the direction of another temple down the road to which we went to explore.
As with Ta Prohm it was hugged
on all sides by jungle and presented in a very tranquil setting.
After finishing the temples our tuk tuk driver took us back to our guest house where we collapsed, exhausted, for a brief power nap.
We had an early dinner at 'The Soup Dragon' which served up cracking Khmer food and wine!
We got an early night and got up the next day around 9am as we were moving to a new guest house right in the center of town with much needed air-con.
We checked into 'The Ivy' guest house for three nights, which was great, it had a bar and nice restaurant downstairs, and we spent much of our last few days in Siem Reap playing pool here.
We ended up spending six nights in Siem Reap, as we had had a fantastic time here, the people were friendly and the atmosphere was great.
We arranged bus tickets to Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital for Monday 17th March, and on that morning bid a sad farewell to Siem Reap.
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