Angkor Wat

---

Hey guys,

after we visited Pnom Penh we headed on the bus to Siem Reap meeting a couple of people who we recognised from the Chu Chi tunnels. Siem Reaps a lot smaller place then I had imagined and because its low season and the trouble in Bangkok at the moment, tuk tuk drivers are desperate. They offered to take us (5 people) to find a hotel for $1 for all. We didn't argue and headed to a pretty good place called the Village Garden you can get a dorm room here for $1/night or a more comfortable room for $2/night so not bad at all.

We decided to hire bikes to visit the Angkor Wat complex and again this was $1, i'm pretty sure nearly everything here is $1 even the children on the streets will offer you anythng they have for $1, bracelets 10 postcards chopsticks anything! Its strange how Cambodia has taken the US dollar as their own currency, when you go to a cash point you can only take out dollars not Riel which is crazy and surely won't bare well for their economy.

Anyway we left at 4am to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat, a lot of people will tell you that the ticket gates are closed at that time which is true but they don't tell you that they open at 4:30am so its not a problem. It was $20 for the day to visit all the temples in the area and also had other temples further a field. If you have more time you can get a 3 day pass for $40. We started at Angkor Wat and the clouds were bearing overhead, so no sunrise, but we did get the whole day to explore the various temples.

Be aware there are loads of temples! Preh Khan was one of my favorites, again it was a stone built temple but this time with 4 entrances, 3 quite small so you have to bend down all the way to the middle and one large entrance. The idea being that the king would come through the large entrance and evereyone else came through the other 3 and bow to the king as they came in.

The best sight of nature vs man can be seen at the Tomb Raider temple (I forget the name). Here you will see huge tree roots dominating the stone walls breaking them apart, it really is a scene and a good one for the camera!

We were going to stick around for sunset but the clouds came over once again and we left at 7pm, a long day!! We met up with some guys we knew from the Everest trek (Dan and Tear) it was really good to get in touch with those guys again and we swopped tips about various countries we've visited. We went out for a few drinks at a bar called 'Ankgor What?' along pub street which is very appriopiately named. The line of bars and resturants make Siem Reap a bit of a party place for the tourists and you will pretty much only see westerners here, so don't expect a local experience. There are so many people offering drugs here even a 10 yr boy offered crack to Martin, which he got pretty annoyed about.

The next day we got a Tuk Tuk to the minefield museum, if anyone has a chance to go there, go! It doesn't look like much from the outside, or inside to be fair, but we got a tour round the place and an explanation on why it was set up by a guy called Brian who is very enthuastic about this cause and moved from the US be more part of it. It was originally set up by a former Khmer soldier called Aki Ra, he planted loads of mines when he was just a kid. One day he relised the damage they caused and began a clearing operation using just a stick. His years of planting mines gave him a good indication of where others had planted them. Cambodia is covered in mines at their current rate they would clear all the mines in a 1000 years. If this place was owned by America, Brian rekoned it would be cleared in a week. Just identifing the lack of resources in Cambodia. The museum is not only about clearing mines but also about the victims of mine explosions and other disabled children in Cambodia. They run a school in the back of the museum for the kids that Aki Ra brings in. You can't say anything bad about this guy he is genuinly doing a good thing for the right reasons.

Later that night we met back up with Dan and Tear and I tried snake. It was actually quite nice just as everyone says it taste like chicken! Martin ventured for the crocodile which tasted like a mixture between fish and chicken and after the 4th bite I think he wasn't that impressed by it.

We left to Battembang on the boat the next day check out the blog!

All the best,
Mark

---