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Published: January 10th 2007
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Due to us not booking a flight from Koh Samui to Bangkok ealier, there were no available flights for the 5th Jan (the day our 30 day Visa ran out), we had to endure a 12 hour journey by Mini bus, ferry, coach, flight from Surrat Thani to Bangkok, and then a further flight from there to Siem Reap. We arrived knackered at the Rosy Guest House where we'd pre-booked a double room with shared facilities, not bad for 2.64GBP a night! Although we were subject to sharing a large single bed and no hot water. But hey we're travellers, we have to do these things, and we're pleased to say, No cockroaches in sight!
Saturday we wandered down by the side of the river to the ''town'' (busy area!), and then caught a tuk-tuk to the War Museum, where we got to hold guns! Once back at Rosy's, we arranged for the tuk-tuk guy who picked us up from the airport to collect us at 4.30 the next morning so that we would get to Angkor Wat in time to watch the sun rise. Wandered into town in the evening to sample some wine. It had been a while
since our last taste of some grapes! Caught an obligatory tuk-tuk back to the guest house for an early night due to the early start the next morning.
Sunday the alarm went off at 4am, and I swear I hit snooze! Woke up at gone 5am with a start and we decided we didn't want to risk the sun coming up whilst on the back of a tuk-tuk, so asked the driver to pick us up tomorrow instead. So gladly we went back to sleep for a few hours. Headed into town and booked our ''Mekong Express Limousine Bus'' (not as fancy as it sounds, it just means it has a toilet and air-con) for our trip to Phnom Penh, had lunch in a Khymer restaurant and caught a tuk-tuk to the Cambodian Cultural Village. There were hundreds of people there, from all over Asia. There were about 10 shows of different aspect of the Cambodian culture and we basically waited at each stage (well, we gave up after 3) for over 30 mins for the performance to start. We carried on looking around and found an archery set up, so bought 10 arrows and gave 5 each a
Civil War Museum
Don't mess with me! go. We were chuffed as we both got one quite close to the bullseye. We caught a taxi from there back into town and went to a lovely little bar called ''Bubbles'' where we had a drink and were chatting away when a guy I know from Pompey, Louis, happened to pass by and spotted me!! He came in for a drink and we all went over the road to try the food from the street stalls, not as nice as Thai food, but just as cheap!
Monday (Groundhog Day!) the alarm went off and we got up this time! Our tuk-tuk driver didn't show (can you blame him?), so we woke the security guard at Rosy's and he went to get us another one. We were at Angkor Wat by 5.30, and I'm glad I had my trusty Maglite (thanks Received Team) as it was pitch black and the ground was quite uneven! We followed a small tour group as we thought they would know the best place to watch the sun come up. We were by the lake in front of Angkor Wat when it came up, but unfortunatley it was quite overcast, so not as spectacular
Bullseye!
Well, near enough for me anyway! as we'd hoped for. We walked up the long entrance to Angkor Wat and into the main building, we spent 2 hours walking around, (and up!) it. We then met our tuk-tuk driver who drove us to a further 4 temples, the Bayon (the one with faces carved into the rock), Preah Khan, Ta Prom (the one used in the filming of Tomb Raider, with tree routes taking over the building) where we came out of a side entrance by mistake and decided to walk round the entire perimeter of the temple and the surrounding grounds, to get back to where our tuk-tuk was waiting. We ended up walking about 3 ks! and finally Banteay Kdel (H had had enough of temples by then, so decided to sit it out whilst I went in to have a look round).
We were dropped back at Rosy's where we had a well needed siesta! Walked into town and found a resonably priced Mexican, so we treated ourselves to nachos and a beef steak with garlic mash...yummy! and 2 glasses of wine each, totalling 12GBP!! Bargain!
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sarahp
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ok now u have made me jealous, i love Angkor watxxxxxxxxxxxxxx