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Published: April 10th 2007
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Well our last night in Sihanoukville got rather messy as the group was splitting up. A few of us who had been drinking beers decided to switched to happy buckets, yeah those same ones from new year I promised I would never have again, we as you can imagine we all stayed up most of the night drinking and having a great laugh with no concern with what time we have to get up tomorrow morning or the 14 hour bus journey we will have to Siam Reap. So needless to say once I had finally gone to bed for all of 2-3 hours I felt REALLY bad when it came to getting up.
Apparently it took Mark and Juan about 30 mins to finally get me up and that was only because they had to nearly breakdown my down and literally throw me out of bed. In that one moment I then remembered why I vowed I would never do those buckets again, they make you feel worse than anything else I have ever tried! For anyone who cant remember what these happy buckets are, they consist of a small bottle of local whisky, a can of coke
and 2 cans of this syrupy red bull drink which just so happens to be illegal in nearly every country other than Thailand and Cambodia.
So as you can probably guess I had a really horrible hangover and thus bus trip to Siam Reap feeling so rough the whole way, not only that but I didn’t have time to get any water before leaving and the heat was so unbearable it made me feel even worse (yes I know I deserved it!!!). My only saving grace was my I pod which I just put in my ears for the whole trip and didn’t end up speaking to hardly anyone for the whole journey. I have to say that thing is worth its weight in gold I could never have survived some of the long bus journey without it.
So anyway we did finally arrive at Siam Reap that evening and booked into a guesthouse and finally by this time is was starting to feel a little bit more normal and sociable, even though the heat was still unrelenting.
Now for any one that had spoke to me before I left will know that this is one of the places
I was most looking forward to in Asia because Siam Reap is right next to the one of the oldest, biggest and best spiritual sites in the world call Angkor Wat. Believe me when I say this place is huge like you would never believe, apparently at one point is housed over a million people within it walls! It was only rediscovered just over a 100 years ago by a French explorer traveling though the jungle, until then it had been covered and hid in the jungle with only the local monks living and knowing about it.
There wasn’t a huge amount in Siam Reap to do but we did find a couple of cool little places of interest. The first one was a great restaurant that was also a crocodile farm and above the entrance there was a sign that advertised they ‘don’t sell dog, cat, frog or rat!’ which was good to know.
The second place was this tea garden place that was enclosed within a huge net that housed loads of beautifully colored butterflies. It was so tranquil sat in this lovely little garden having a quite drink and watching all these big butterflies flying around.
In the evening Colin, Andrea, Juan, Colin and I hired a couple of Tuk-Tuks to take us to Angkor Wat to watch the sunset as it was free to go after 5 o’clock. Angkor Wat did not disappoint and was truly magnificent temple is style and size.
We watched the sunset my climbing up these really, really steep steps in the middle of the temple and sat there at the top of the temple admiring the view of the grounds and the surrounding jungle as it slow plunged into darkness, well near darkness as we had to leave before it got pitch black.
When I say that these steps were steep you had to climb up them on all fours and getting back down again got a little hairy, apparently from that time this steeper the steps were the more important the place was, so as this was the single most important religious place for the Khmer people the steps were just off vertical!!!
The following day we got up extremely early, I thing about 4.30! So that we could be there to watch the sun rise as it comes up from behind the temple and produces a
great silhouette against the night sky.
We had a very busy day because like I explained early this place is huge and most people need three days to look around the site but we had only opted for a 1 day pass, so we had a lot to see. Not only is Angkor Wat the main huge temple, but there are many other temple of the same size and scale all around. There is a very impressive temple although in a great state of disrepair called Bayron which has 216 huge stone carved faces facing in various directions. This temple was very different t o what I had imagined but still really impressive
Going around all this I was blown away by the architecture, detail and shear size of these structures. I had looked at a lot of pictures of this place as was hoping that I wouldn’t be disappointed once I arrived here, but it was so amazing is was far better and more impressive than I could have ever imagined, just look at the pictures.
We spent hours and hours walking around and up and down all these various temples, structures and other religious buildings before getting
Angkor Wat
This place is so impressive to one of the other most famous temples called Ta Phrom. The reason that this temple is so impressive is that it really shows how old this temple is because all the trees have literally grown over and through the stone work, which gives a great atmosphere and even better picture opponunities. Also this is also the place that the film ‘Tomb Raider’ was filmed and I can see why because it looks to old ruined and untouched.
We couldn’t last though to dusk because the heat had been building up day on day since arriving in Cambodia and by this time in was getting so hot and humid it just zapped all our neregy, along with the fact of walking loads and climbing hundreds of steps up and down all these various temples.
We headed back all exhausted and tired for some much needed food, I was so happy to have seen this place as I had been looking forward to it for so long and I did not disappoint, anyone passing my this part of the world would be a fool to miss this magnificent piece of history and architecture. The pictures look impressive but really
Our spot of watching the sunset
You wouldn't believe how steep those steps are! does not do the place justice, this place really needs to be seen in person to be truly appreciated, and I can’t understand why it isn’t one of the great wonders of the world yet.
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