Angkor

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The last few days we have been in Siem Reap, which is about 8km away from the Temples of Angkor. We had a really long journey getting here, about 10 hours, on local buses, on which the air conditiong wasn't too great! Daniela and I are still travelling with the same 3 people we had met in Pnom Penh. When we all got off the bus in Siem Reap we were completely surrounded by tuk-tuk drivers, it always happens when getting off a bus but I think it was the worst ever here! We got a free tukt-tuk because they were being paid commission y the guesthouse which they took us too. It's a nice guesthouse and cheap as per usual!

Our first day in Angkor was on Friday, starting at 5.30am, so we could see the sunrise at Angkor Wat. It was absolutely incredible walking up the causeway to Angkor Wat, it's so impressive. I never actually knew that it is believed to be the largest religious building in the world, but being there you can definitely believe it! The sunrise was nice, got some good photos, although there were hundreds of other people watching it too. We wandered around for over an hour, then headed to the next temple, which was Ta Prohm, where Tomb Raider was filmed. This temple was very different to Angkor Wat, not as impressive but still amazing. This is the temple where nature is completely taking over. There are huge trees growing all over it, it looks incredible! This temple was completely packed full of huge groups of tourists, they were so annoying. Then we headed to Angkor Thom, which is really large complex. We say the Bayon, Elephant and Leper King Terraces. I think the Bayon was my favourite temple, as there are loads of huge faces carved into the stone work. It's quite eery looking, but I really liked it. Then yesterday, we got up again for sunrise. although it wasn't so good. We looked around some more temples, but it was so hot, so me and Daniela came back at about 12. We went back again for sunset, which was lovely, although absolutely packed full of tourists again. It's great, you can just get a tuk-tuk driver for the day and it only cost us $6 each!
We did have a 3-day pass for Angkor, but the only temples left worth seeing are about 30km away, and it would have cost too much to get there. Plus it is surrounded by mine fields. I'm not really sure what I am going to do today, maybe head down to the market, I always like doing that!

We are heading back to Thailand tomorrow morning. We have about a 12hour bus journey to Bangkok, and I have heard it is a really horrendous journey so I''m not looking forward to it. We are meeting 4 of my friends I went to school with in Bangkok, so it will be good to see them and hopefully they will have found a place for us to stay!

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