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Published: September 11th 2009
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Soo it has been a little while again...and so here is another lot of updates! Enjoy.
Sarah and I met up with my parents in Siem Riep for a few days of temple scouring and tomb raiding. By far one of the highlights of our trip.
My parents arrived on Friday evening, to find Sarah and I vegging out in hotel robes and watching HBO, luxuries we had not experienced for quite some time. The next morning we headed out with a tour guide to several of the temples, including the temple the movie 'Tomb Raider' was filmed at and the infamous Angkor Wat. It was blistering hot outside and was definitely nice to have an a/c van to take us to the temples that were farther-afield. The temple are not close to each other by any means, and so most people travel by van, tuk-tuk or bicycle (depending on budget and how adventurous your group is).
We had a wonderful day, our guide was amazing and we really recommend having someone with you to explain when the temples were erected and the different reliefs and carvings. It would have been difficult to narrate from a guidebook in
the sweltering heat, while trying to take in the sights as well.
We arrived back at our hotel around 5pm absolutely exhausted and glistening from the heat. We all opted for a couple hours of relaxing, before scrubbing up for dinner. Later that night, we dined at the Italian restaurant in the hotel. We headed to bed in good time as we had another day of temples awaiting us when the sun rose.
The next morning we headed out to a temple made of pink sandstone, popularly known as the 'Woman Temple', it was about 40km away from Siem Riep and gave us some time to wake up and watch the villages and rice paddies pass by.
The 'Woman Temple' is remarkably different than the temples we had visited the previous day. This one is famous for its carvings, as they are incredibly detailed; whereas the others we visted were mostly known for their engineering and architecture.
In total we visted 8 temples out of staggering 48! After our second day of temple-touring our heads really couldn't handle another day of temples. We went back to the hotel to relax and freshen up and then headed
out to the local night market, which surprisingly had some things we hadn't seen before and offered no hassling and great deals. After winding our way through the market, we made our way to Pub Street for some evening brews. Chosing the 'Angkor What?' bar as our first stop. My parents, Sarah and I all shared a couple pitchers of Angkor Beer, at a whopping $3 a jug. How's that for cheap? After drinks, we all jumped in a tuk-tuk back to the hotel for dinner. After yet another great meal for only $10 we headed to bed.
On Monday Sarah and I worked on the blog, and backed up our pictures until the early afternoon. Later on we all headed to the Siem Riep Museum for 'a little more culture' as my Dad put it. It was actually a good way to solidify all the information we had taken in during our tour. After the museum we headed to some local markets for some more bargain-hunting and some more beer on Pub Street.
On Tuesday, Kerstin headed back to Singapore early. My Dad left not long afterwards to Hong Kong and last but not least, Sarah and
I caught a bus to Phnom Phen, the capital of Cambodia.
We arrived in early evening after a relatively comfortable ride. As we entered the main downtown area, we were amazed to see hundreds of people doing aerobics in the city parks, as well as friends playing badminton or doing laps along the footpath. The city was buzzing with life.
Sarah and I got to tuk-tuk to our guesthouse, a slight downgrade from the luxury we had been living in over the weekend. However, opted to stick with a/c, making for a much more comfortable nights sleep. Later that night we stuck close to the backpacker district and ate dinner at the Lazy Gecko. The next day we decided to go to the Killing Fields, which are about 14km outside of Phnom Phen. From 1975-1979 when the Khumer Rouge controlled the country, they used these fields to kill thousands of people and then burried them there in mass graves. Quite a harrowing day-trip but one that remains as a testiment of what people are capable of doing to their fellow human beings.
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