Amazing Angkor.

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Thurs. 4th. May.
We set the alarm for 05:15 and sleep-walk along to the nearest temple to watch the monks do their breakfast round. The local people sit outside their homes with cauldrons of food, and when the monks arrive, they are given portions of this in return for a chanted blessing. This continues until presumably the monks have enough for breakfast, and then they traipse back to their temple to eat cold rice, etc. We traipse back to our bed, until 09:30, and then went down to a breakfast that was only marginally better than that the monks had. There must be lots of things to see and do here, but as the mercury hits 40 deg., we adjourn to the pool side and still had a hard job keeping cool. Once the sun goes down, it's bearable, so we walk around town, looking for somewhere deceny yo eat, and have an OK meal.

Fri. 5th.
This is getting to be a bad habit. A 05:00 alarm, so we can be at the airport for our 06:30 flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Amazingly people are out jogging and doing organised aerobics by the riverside. We walked across the apron to a tiny, twin propellor plane that had to stop half way through the 2 1/2 hour flight for re-fuelling. The view from the plane was monotonously bare flatlands with an abundance of water and the odd huddle of trees. Quite unimpressive. We share a taxi into town, and choose a hotel not too far from the centre. After just one hour of being in Cambodia, we decide to leave for China. We do not like it here at all. We've seen poverty and squalour before, but not on this scale. The victims of land mines are everywhere, and I can't cope with it. Vietnam was next on the list, but we don't have the time to do it justice. We fight our way through the touts - everyone tries to sell you something - and book a flight to Kunming, China for Sunday, can't wait. Tonight, the main restaurant street was closed off to beggars, so we had a bit of a respite while we picked at our evening meal.

Sat. 6th.
We have booked a tuk tuk driver for the day to take us on a tour of the important Wats, Angkor Wat being the main one. Our driver stops now and again to point out interesting sites, and then drops us right at the entrance to the Wats. It really is a great way to get around, and you get even closer to the monkeys and elephants. Angkor Wat was more impressive than we had hoped, and even though there are thousands of people, mostly Japanese, milling around, there is a feeling of serenity about the place. The intricacy of the stone carvings is out of this world, and how they erected such a huge edifice is phenominal. All the temlpes are amazing, but our 2nd. favourite was Ta Prohm. The buildings here are interwoven with tree roots, creeping in and out of the stonework. Why the roots did not just demolish the buildings, instead of wrapping themselves around them, is unanswerable, but it certainly makes for good photographs. Bayon Temple, in the centre of Angkor Thom, and The Elephant Terrace are incredible too, and we can fully appreciate why the total complex is among the top "must sees" in the world. We could have stayed until sunset, but the clouds came over and our tuk tuk driver braved the cycle rush hour and got us back safely. We decided to eat in the hotel restaurant tonight to avoid the melee of town.

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