Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor

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Our journey to Siem Reap was an interesting one.... a cramped bus as usual but this time full of Cambodians being sick into plastic bags everywhere! We have never seen so many people puking at once! And worse still, the puked filled plastic bags were just casually tied up and left to sit amongst our feet for the whole 6 hour journey! However, the journey was made slightly more bearable by a cute kid who we introduced to the likes of Jay z, Tinie Tempah and Kanye! He even borrowed rikkis shades and sat bobbing his head along to the beats!

We spent 3 days here overall, generally chilling, shopping, eating and of course seeing the mighty temples of Angkor. We decided to opt for the one day pass (due to budget), but for us this was ample time to visit the temples. The one day pass also entitled us to visit the site after 5pm the evening before to see the sunset. We therefore spent one evening exploring Angkor Wat (the main temple) and watching the sunset, getting some lovely pictures! The next day we had an early 5 am start to make it to Angkor Wat for sunrise. This was a funny experience, loads of tourists crowded around the lake in front of the wat to try and get the standard Angkor wat photo; people pushing their way to the front to find the prime spot to the annoyance of others! The worst part was that there wasn't even a picture worthy sunrise as it was cloudy! The 2 hour wait and early start was for nothing yet we still really enjoyed the experience of seeing Angkor appearing gradually out of the dark with the monks drumming in the background. Furthermore, by waking up early we were able to beat the crowds to the other temples. We completed the "grand circle"tour which encompassed Bayon (a temple with amazing faces incorporated into the walls of the stupas), Baphuon (a worn down pyramid looking temple), Preah Neak Pean, Preah Khan and Ta Phrom. Ta Phrom was our favourite, it is a temple that has been taken over by nature and has huge tree roots entangling themselves around the site. It was also used as the set for Tomb Raider!

After our day walking around the temples getting hot and sweaty, we treated ourselves to a foot scrub and massage which was incredible and for a grand total of 3 pounds between us! We loved the night market also and went a bit crazy buying lots of bags! We also bumped into Kady and Harry from Bognor (small world!) and experienced a rather random Japanese show!

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