Cambodia Part 2 - Light

So...after an uber bumpy ride to Siem Reap and the depressing day of Phonm Peng i can return to the lighter blogs :-)

We arrived in Siem Reap (by we for this whole entry it's myself, two dutch and an australian) to find our names plasted on the sign of a Tuk-Tuk driver. Throwing care to the wind we jumped in his Tuk-Tuk and allowed him to take us to some accomodation. Did he take us somewhere shite that would rival that of Phonm Peng? Nope! For once a tuk tuk driver delivered! He showed us to a great place that was cheap, clean and smelt clean. A first for a long time. And the ride was free because we used the hotel he recommended. Already we liked the place. Got better though! We arranged our trip to Angkor Wat for the next day for a good price. Only down side we were doing sunrise to sunset so it was going to be a long long day! Oh well! Only here once right! Rest of the day was uber chilled knowing that we were getting up early. So just some food, few drinks and a ATM visit!
Next day then...4.30 am arrives and the alarm goes off. At this point i'm regretting the whole day thing. What were we thinking! Ah well, it's booked so i had my coco-pops and we all jumped into the tuk tuk. Got to Angkor Wat and hit the main temple for sunrise. It was stunning! Worth the 4.30am wake up! I think so. May change my mind when i see the pictures...anyways...it was really good actually, lots of colours and it lasts a good half-hour of seeing the sunrise behind the main temple. We strolled through the temple as well but inside is not as good as outside. After this temple we went to the next one...and at this point i'm thinking how are we going to make this last a whole day! Well, there are a lot of temples scattered around. By a lot i mean a lot. They recommend taking 3 days (in my mind a money grabbing scheme) but we were going to do the main tours in one day. We saw a lot of temples, all in various states of ruin etc and all looking surprisingly similar. Wouldn't surprise me if we went around in circles for hours on end visiting the same three temples. All were good though, but the best...maybe even better than the main one was a temple called Peking Duck! Ok, it wasn't called that but i can't remember and i don't have my guide or book with me. It was something similar!...anyways i'm drifting from the point...this was an amazing temple where nature is taking it back. Trees are growing through the walls, and under them. Roots have broken through so there is a real mixture of green and greys. But the best bit...one of the tomb raider films was made here. The downside, sadly Angelina Jolie was not still wondering around. No doubt she was off stealing babies from Africa!
After the tomb raider temple we headed to the last one of the day (it was about 4pm at this point, so still a good few hours to sunset). It was a great temple, but we realised the sunset wouldn't be at where we thought so we skipped it. Maybe we should have stayed, but no-one could be bothered. We'd been up 12hours and walking around for 11 hours. If you can do better, then bully-for-you haha!
Back to the hotel for some much needed sleep...

Now to today...more temples? No! More museums? No! More adventures? Nope! It was a relaxing day! Spent by the pool, swimming, enjoying western food and some table tennis! It was perfect! Especially after temples yesterday. But the evening was even better...the night market. Like any other market but with some added bonuses! Number one is Doctor Fish! A crazy name for a Cambodian Doctor? Nah! You put your feet into a tank full of fish and let them eat away. Sounds wrong but it was hilarious. Doesn't help that i'm extremely ticklish! But my feet did feel smooth after.
Next, and last, was ear candling. Basically, you trust some old bint to stick a candle in your ear and get rid of the wax. Needless to say it wasn't relaxing as you see a flame creep slowly towards your face, but the after is great. Your ears are thoroughly clean and you get to see what they got out of your ears...ok that bit was wrong, but still impressive.

That's it for now...night time here and bus to Bangkok tomorrow. Eurgh...another long bus journey that no doubt i will tell you all about :-)

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