Day Tripping In Siem Reap

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I'll be honest and say the social side here has not been quite what I would have expected! I am staying in a lovely guesthouse, with wonderful people but there has not been as many young people as I had anticipated. The Germans who i have loved spending time with are here for one year so not really into spending a lot of money acting the typical tourist, a pastime I was not to keen to enjoy alone! So I think it would be fair to describe me as a bit of a loner at the weekends! Don't be getting your violins out just yet though... 😊

So... When I cycled back from school and saw a girl sitting eating breakfast I thought 'yes' ... But striking up a conversation is always difficult...even for me!! Lol! So awkwardly I just lingered!!! Eventually a conversation came about, and I actually said 'will you be my friend?' CRINGE... But desperate times call for desperate measures!!! Ha ha! I made sure to exchange Facebook details, then proceeded to bombard the poor girl about planning a trip to see the sunken forest and floating village at the weekend! Talk about keen! (Paris I bet you are squirming in your seat with embarrassment reading the low level I have stooped to! Ha!!!! )

From there a friendship evolved, Annie (from Australia) and I went on two day trips over two weekends, so I mustn't have been that embarrassing after all! Phew!

The Sunken Forest and Floating Village:

After being bumped about in to tuk tuk for 45 mins I was relieved to have arrived and actually remained inside! The road was very bumpy and uneven with a number of potholes. On a number of occasions I was nearly flung out of my seat... Whilst that would have been highly entertaining I am glad I hung on tight!

Annie and I enjoyed the luxury of a whole boat to ourselves!! The boats are wooden, very basic and with very noisy and smoky motors!! Unlike everyone else travelling we decided we didn't want to sit on the hard wooden seats on the deck, instead travelled like royalty perched on the front of the boat with our feet dangling out the side in the (I'd love to say clean, beautiful water.... But I'd be lying) muddy, warm water.



It was very relaxing and the breeze was a welcome relief to the oppressing heat I had been experiencing! Eventually we came to the 'floating village'. The clue is very much in the title... It is literally a village in the middle of nowhere surviving on bamboo sticks approximately 5 metres above the water! Complete madness!! How it ever evolved I have no idea, as our poor driver did not speak a word of English, despite out attempts at questioning him about what we were seeing!

People travelled about on wooden boats, lifestyle was primarily focussed upon fishing, with many nets being batted out by people with sticks and tiny fish flinging out into a cornered off area! Pigs were in floating pens, a strange sight by all accounts and many of the shacks housed chickens.



The people clearly took great pride in their floating houses with beautiful flowers decorating the outside. The houses were made from bamboo sticks and leaves, some looking a lot sturdier than others, with some it was a wonder they were still standing!! Incredible!



The whole area was surrounded by floating trees, which I can only assume was the sunken forest!! I would love to know more about why and how this village came about, the only downside to the excursion was lack of information. There were schools floating on water, pigottas to prey, so I can only assume people from this village know nothing else!

There were riverside cafes where Annie and I stopped to enjoy a drink, but really how people bring money in here I have actually no idea! The way of life is so secluded and remote I can only assume they must buy and sell amongst themselves.

Angkor Wat:

Decisions decisions to cycle or not to cycle or to go by tuk tuk?!? Ahhhhh!!!

At the last minute Annie and I changed our minds to not cycle the 8km to Angkor Wat and 12km loop around, and instead travel by tuk tuk. All I can say is hallelujah!!! We came to our senses! Lol!





Another early start we were up and on the road by 7am!! While paying for our tickets we were asked to have our photo taken... Both of us stood lazily, not expecting to ever see evidence of the photo!! To our horror it was printed right bang on the front of our ticket! Ha! All I can say is neither was the most flattering and won't be featured in the family photo albums! Lol!
Note to self.... When I go with Tom, at least make an attempt to SMILE!

First stop Angkor Wat temple and all I can say is WOW!! Annie and I spent the best part of 2 hours exploring here, I know check us out... Quite the tourists! We fitted right in!! Lol! And true to form I was snap happy, any opportunity to stop and take a photo, maybe the reason it took so long?!

When we were leaving we saw some wild monkeys, the term 'cheeky monkey' doesn't come from nowhere! These monkeys weren't shy about snatching food bags from tourists! Witnessing a monkey leaping up and grabbing a bag of mango and running away I knew to stay well clear!

The Koreans however did not have as much sense, and as usual were obsessed with posing for a photo with the signature 'peace sign'. I can't say I was shocked when I saw a monkey go for a young child whose mother had literally pushed her into the monkey all in aid of a good picture.... Idiot!

A particular highlight was as we travelled through Angkor Thom to the Byron Temple spotting the first real life elephant!! Excitedly we both sprung out of the tuk tuk paying little attention to where he was going to park (a decison we later regretted) in persuit of the elephant!

We had bought a pineapple and were in the queue to feed it within a minute! Lol! I was amazed by how big they were, they looked really old with the most dry, wrinkly skin!! The moment was over like a roller coaster in less than a second... The elephant had taken the pineapple from my hand, wrapped it up in his trunk and swallowed it whole before I could blink!! Still pretty cool!



Off we went feeling pretty happy with ourselves to explore the 'Byron Temple' which has faces carved into the stone. Pretty amazing, particularly in some places as you wouldn't notice if you didn't look closely! There were also silhouettes of elephants in the wall!

However in comparison to the time we spent in Angkor this was like a whizz tour! A couple of snaps and we were ready to move on, however the area surrounding Angkor Thom was very big, and realisation dawned upon us that we hadn't really listened to where Ya said he would wait for us! In the heat of the day enthusiasm had dwindled slightly and the thought of traipsing around in search of him was not too welcoming! He literally could have been anywhere! Crap!

Luckily someone was on our side, and we hitch hiked on another tuk tuk towards an area where loads and loads of tuk tuks were parked! The phrase 'needle in a haystack' would be pretty apt! We actually could have been there all day!! I have no idea how, but I spotted Ya, and literally ran to him and gave him a hug I was so happy to see him! We both told him he wasn't to drive off and not tell us where he was going again! Lol!

Next stop was a smaller temple, by this point enthusiasm had dwindled and the term 'a temples a temple!' came into play as we stepped out of the tuk tuk, took a look through the entrance, turned and got back in! Lol!

By this point it was very hot, we were sweaty, sticky and disgusting! We headed to the Tomb Raider Temple! The busiest temple yet, where the Koreans were out in full force taking photos of the back of people's heads (just why?! lol) and gathering in huge crowds in the most inconvenient of places! Lol! You've got to love thief enthusiasm!

I wish I had watched Tomb Raider before I went to have more appreciation of what I was seeing, but for trees to be growing on the top of temples in itself was pretty spectacular!! I have no idea how that is even possible, and the roots were huge!! There were many cornered off photo points! I had no idea of the significance, but I took the attitude of ah well, I'll take the photo now and find out why it's so great after! Lol!

Our day was made complete by a cold drink and a much sought after bamboo stick with sticky rice!!! Yum!!!

Cycling back for sunset...

I decided last minute to take full advantage of my ticket, and cycle back to Angkor Wat to view the sunset! I had planned to go for a run, and going against every quote of positivity stating that 'no excuses' or 'its not a great day until I workout' I decided I could run any day and this was an opportunity not to be missed!

I was instantly happy with my decision when I arrived back to Angkor Wat to see just how beautiful it was as the light is fading, with the sun reflecting it onto the river!! Amazing, and quite a contrast to how I had seen it previously in the morning with the bright sun! I could really appreciate the detail in the stone and the colours were gorgoeus!



I cycled for 1km on to Baokeng Mountain and was like a women on a mission power walking up a stoney, dirt path in my flip flops but I knew they stopped letting people up to the temple at 5.30pm. Sneakily I bypassed the huge queue, casually walking up the outside pretending I didn't know where I was going to the front. Then climbed the steep steps to the top of the temple.

At 5.30 on the dot the sun set over the jungle, it was beautiful.... However I couldn't help feeling disappointed as I thought the sun was going to set over Angkor Wat (clearly hadn't done my research!) lol!

I began my descent in the pitch black and returned to my bicycle to commence my 8km cycle in the pitch dark along a road with no street lights! Luckily there were hundreds of people on the same mission, but I couldn't help thinking if Dad could see me right now he would go bananas!!!

Of course as my luck would have it there was a power cut in Siem Reap so there was loads of traffic and no light!! Crazily people here decide to often drive their moto without the lights, I made it back as far as the street with my guesthouse before cycling straight into a moto who had decided to do a 'u turn' in a pitch black street with no lights on! To say i was less than impressed was quite the understatement!! Don't worry Dad, I made it back in one piece! Lol!

My stresses were all taken away pretty quickly as when the power resumed I went with Annie and some of her friends and enjoyed my first foot massage and a cocktail!!
'This is the Life'


Phew.... My fingers are tired so that's enough to bore you all with! Until next time 😊

Love and miss you all xxx

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