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Published: August 21st 2007
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On arriving in Siem Reap from Phonm Penh after a loonng journey with another person near us vomiting!(Cambodians don't seem to travel well!) we were surrounded by millions and millions of tuk-tuk drivers, beggars and hotel-promoters as we stepped off the bus!After literally fighting our way through them to find our bags we got one of the tuk-tuk men to take us to the guesthouse recomended to us - Smiley's. Pleasantly surprised when we got there, we settled in and spent the afternoon relaxing and met up with Lauren and Chris for dinner that evening. We had a lovely dinner with lots and lots of chatting- lots of stories to tell since we left them in Laos! They had pedal bikes so we got free transport asian- style through the streets of Siem Reap balancing (well, wobbling) on the back on the way to Lauren and Chris' guesthouse for drinks. We were laughed at by a quite few Cambodians on the way!
Following day we decided to hire bikes ourselves to explore a bit of Siem Reap - we had a look round the central market- very smelly and complete with deep fried insect-delicacies, pig heads and much more! We
also visited the nearby Wat Bo and cycled along the river for a while.
Saturday morning (after a lie in!) we explored another market and bought some pressies and souvenirs, met up with Lauren and Chris for lunch and generally had a lazy afternoon. That evening we'd booked into a shadow-puppet and Aspara dance show at a nearby hotel- we had a great dinner and thoroughly enjoyed the traditional Khmer shadow puppet stories and the wonderful Aspara dancing as we ate. Especially impressive was the fact that it was all performed by children- all very talented! During the shadow puppets show you could go "back stage" behind the screen and watch the kids moving all the stensils and having a great time.
Sunday morning (after another lie-in!- we've decided since we've only one week left we are properly on holiday now!) we headed to a posh hotel with a pool for the day! For $6 each we spent the day sunbathing, relaxing on sunbeds, swimming and playing cards which was really fun! On our way back to our guesthouse we were greeted in the usual way we had come to expect- our three favourite little local children who
are always playing in the alley way that leads to our guesthouse, are always naked and always greet us with smiles and screeches and shout hello at us and want us to have a hand each and swing them around a lot!!
That evening we hired a tuk-tuk driver to take us for our first experience of Ankor Wat and its surroundings. If you buy a ticket after 5pm it's valid for the whole of the next day so we did as many tourists do and climbed Bakheng hill to Phnom Bakheng to see the sunset over Ankor and it's surrounding area. Once at the top we had just enough time to take a few pictures and admire the beautiful view before the rain came and hard! We tried to shelter against the side of one of the mini temples but still got pretty wet! Deciding to stick out the rain though was a good idea as after the rain had stopped we saw a really great sunset. We headed back into Siem Reap as it got dark for some dinner and a look around the night market. We some drinks with Lauren and Chris that evening before
saying goodbye as they were heading off to Phnom Penh the following day.
Up at 6.45am the next morning for our day of templing! (this felt very early to us after our last few mornings!). First stop was the amazing Ankor Wat, with around a 500m walkway leading you to the main enclosure, giving you plenty of time to take in the amazing view of the 5 main towers. inside, certain areas were reminiscent of the Bath Spa's, some were home to hundreds of (smelly) bats and along each looong wall were hugely detailed bas-reliefs (picture carvings telling a story). You could climb up really steep steps to the uper level of the Wat which gave you a great view of the surrounding area (and a sick feeling if you looked down!). Next up was Ankor Thom and its centre- the Bayon. This has suffered a lot more damage over the years but unmistakeable still were the 50 or so towers, each with 4 large carvings of a face on each side. Next stop, and around 10km away giving us a good tour of the countryside, was Bantay Srei and its amazing red-stone carvings. This is the only temples
Chris climbs Ankor Wat
These steps were sooo steep! made for women apparently and one of the best features were the mini temples that were constructed on the larger versions of themselves. Fourth stop was Ta Phrom where Tomb Raider was filmed and possibly our favourite due to the huge tree roots that have squeezed their way up through the brick work of the moss covered ruins of what used to be a monastery. Last stop was Preah Kahn, by which time we were shattered.
The temples were brilliant and we were throughouly amazed by the beauty, complexity and age of them! The first temples were built around 802 AD and the last around 1219 - so they're doing pretty well for their age! We also learnt a little about the history of the temples, who built them, and what some of the bas-reliefs on the walls of many of them symbolised. Overall it was a very impressive, if tiring day! That evening we had a traditional Khmer dinner (our last taste of Cambodian food:-( ) of Lok-Lak- oyster sauce, beef, onion and tomato served with rice- which we both really enjoyed!
After sorting out our money, planning our movements for our last week and consequently booking
our bus ticket through to Ko Chang (an Island off the south coast of thailand - it means ELephant Island) we spent our last day in Siem Reap munching a yummy slice of cheesecake by the pool that we'd been to a few days ago. We had a great afternoon reading, swimming and playing in the pool before going out for dinner on our favourite 'bar street'- a street shut off from cars and lined with some great restaurants with comfy chairs and great food! and heading back to pack up our stuff for our long journey back into Thailand the following day. We will miss Cambodia!
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Anna
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Wow, Cambodia looks so unbelievably different to what i imagined it would be like! It looks so different to anything else i've seen of East Asia (not that that is exactly a lot!). Anyway, point is, i'm amazed/surprised! All the best for your last week! Make the most of it - i'm sure u will! xx p.s. why are there asterisks instead of some of the words?? Kind of hard to guess what they are!