Temple Raider

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Kev and I have decided we like Siem Reap. We've been here a few days now and despite it being a tourist trap for the local temples, and therefore full of people offering you their services and wares, its actually a pretty nice place.
We left Bangkok on Tuesday morning, got our bus ok, although in hindsight, not early enough. We'd booked on to the 11am bus to the border, despite being told most people have an early start. The trouble is, the books didn't mention that this is because there are no buses in the afternoon from Poipet on the Cambodian side, to Siem Reap...or in fact anywhere. So having been charged over the odds for our Cambodian Visa, despite thinking we were on the look out for major scams, we then got over the border and had to fork out for an expensive taxi to Siem Reap, instead of going to Battambang. This was after changing Kevs travers cheques into Riel (foolishly) at a rubbish exchange rate. After arriving at Siem Reap, we booked into the lovely (cheap!! phew) Happy Guesthouse and went in search of dinner. We ended up continuing our big spending by eating at the Cambodian BBQ as it looked nice, and was nice, so we don't really regret it, much. Then went to Angkor Wot? Bar. We got hammered drinking pitchers of cuba libra, and chatted to some girls who we'd met at the bus station when booking our tickets, who managed to get to cambodia without being ripped off (******s).
The next morning, all thoughts of visiting the amazing temples nearby were swiftly abandoned as we woke up around midday with ridiculous hangovers (it seems those cuba libra's were pretty strong!) and so we bummed around all day, complaining of our pain and ended up watching a film called 'the killing fields' about a jornalist based in cambodia at the time. We didn't think much of the soundtrack, or the movie really. In the evening we again met up with the girls and they helped us decide how long we wanted to spend looking round the temples. 2 days. But the following day wasn't going to be our sunrise, so we decided to give Angkor Wot a miss and head out on the large round trip. We had 'David(!?)' as our tuk tuk driver, who was, despite our original misgivings, an awesome driver! We started with Angkor Thom the ancient city of the area which is pretty impressive and a good start to the day. The Bayon is where we entered, and is the most intact area for the city. It is the then King's own personal mountain from which he could survey his subjects. We also met our first (of many, many hawkers here - 2 cans 1dollar sir?). Next Preah Kahn, was well brok up. Had a great example of tree damage, and we were shown round by a friendly, if slightly suspect/fake police man. He accepted gracefully my lack of funds and we ended up only giving him 1000riel ($25c) whoops. Thanks Though Mr Police Man. Next was Preah Neak Pean, a one time pool with fountain in the middle, but for us was just the site of our first proper soaking from the monsoon. We hid in the shrine but in the end just accepted our fate and i stripped off to dance in the rain. The finally two very similar temples, Ta Som and East Mebon. They faced each other across a large expanse and were both high. Pretty cool. They both had great views and we spent an absolute age attempting to take nice photos towards the sun. It didn't really work! We also saw a rice paddy field which was big.
In the evening, we visited the night market and didn't buy anything as we're both men and rubbish at shopping. We did watch the documentary about Pol Pot. Which confused the hell out of Kev but which i found very informative. I think he might have fallen asleep.
Today we made it for sunrise at Angkor Wot. Woop Woop. Neither of us loved the 4am start, but thoroughly enjoyed seeing Angkor Wot revealed by the light of day. We spent a few hours here, as it is pretty impressive and the largest religious structure ever built. We even managed to find the Bas-Reliefs after bickering about where they might be kept. So both were glad when we actually found them. Next we headed to Bantay Kdei, another ruined temple, pretty similar in its ruin-ness to Preah Kahn. A little hawker girl told me i looked like a woman, and then tried to sell me her stuff, i declined politely. With trees all over the place. After this Ta Prohm, famous for being in a scene from a Tomb Raider movie. Lara wasn't there, but loads of hawkers were, we still didn't want any of their stuff, thanks. Ta Promh is pretty impressive it must've been a huge building originally but is one of the most dilapidated sites now, with huge trees erupting through the roofs. We liked it here ,but by this point, were a little templed out. We did have one more to visit on our route back to the hostel for nap time. Karavan was its name and it is one of the only temples made of brick. It looked pretty sweeeet.
We had nap time at the hostel and then went for a nice meal round the corner.
This evening we have a coach booked to Sihanoukville, a night coach, so obv looking forward to that one! We're a little dubious as to whether we will like it in this 'beachside backpacker haven' as lonely planet says its amazing and footprint guides say it is worth missing due to effluent waters. I guess we'll find out!

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