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After Phenom Penh, we headed to Siem Reap, considered by many to be the birthplace of Buddhism and Hinduism and hundreds of temples dating back more than 1,000 years.
New Riverside hotel is a solid choice for ~$15/d a night, including a pool out front which is a welcome relief from the intense Cambodian mid-day sun. They also offer a free tuk-tuk to the Central Market, about 800 meters down and across the river on a very boring road.
Central Market was cool, once you got away from the food section - my Western nose had some trouble in the enclosed spaces. Clothes, bags, packs, bolts of fabric, DVDS, carved and other random tourist chachees.
Some great little alleys of densely packed restaurants - Indian, thai, western, all 30 feet apart. A little more $ than the outlying places, but cool atmosphere and tons of other travelers around.
Pub Street is one lane of bars that had some of best nightlife I've seen on my trip. Both small and massive bars, clubs scattered thoughout. But there were 3 or 4 World Cup games on that night, including UK (my condolences guys) which won that night, so sports
bars were packed and the entire strip cheered each goal. No matter what your scence, you can find something you like on Pub Street.
And yes, yes there were some temples around too.
The next morning we got in our tuk-tuk at 5:30 to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat. Honestly, it was cloudy and a total bust, but we realized that a bit earlier than the rest of the crowd and had a chance to explore with very few people around. Over the next 10 hours, we saw about 25 temples, from well-preserved massive ones from the 13th century to tiny, collapsed structures from the 8th century.
It was hot at midday - if you have more time in SR, I'd split up my viewing to avoid 12:00-3:00pm. But the temples are really cool. Many have some very distinctive features, while others tend to blend together. One has huge stone faces carved all over - somebody said it reminded them of the Easter Island statures. A couple had carved elephants. But overall, there wasn't (to a layman anyway) a huge variety in architectural style as time progressed. Building materials too, (and by this I mean the
use of the various types of stone) also was pretty consistent.
What surprised Bill and I the most was that the inside walls, even in the bigger temples, were blank. No carvings or script of any kind. The outsides did feature some relief carvings around the doorframes, but not as much as I had anticipated. Also the steps were STEEP. I took some pictures that I hope to convey just how so, but suffice if to say you wouldn't have a prayer of breaking your fall if you misstepped. And going up I used hands too, like a ladder, on every step above.
After a couple days here Bill and I headed across another border, this one into Thailand, with Bangkok the night's (and week's) destination.
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