Blogs from Siem Reap, North, Cambodia, Asia - page 216

We'll we're in Cambodia now. We left Thailand on the 7th, one day after our Visas expired. We ended up paying for that in time and money at the border. After going through the thai part of the border, we had to wait in line to pay our fines. This involved one very slow border employee stamping forms at a ridiculously slow pace. After waiting half an hour or so we were directed to the Cambodian Immigration part of the border, this went pretty smoothly and soon we were on our way to Siem Reap. One thing to note is that the roads in Cambodia are atrocious. They seem to be more dirt and potholes then actual cement. The entire trip was extremely bumpy, dusty, and loud. In all directions the land was completely flat. With ... read more

bBorder Crossing:/b This, by far, was the most amazing experience of our trip so far. Everything about Cambodia is mind blowing. Our purpose for heading into Cambodia was to see Angkor Wat, the ancient temples built in the 11th century. We hired a car in Bangkok to drive us the four hour trip to the border of Thailand and Cambodia. We arrived at a dusty, noisy, hectic, HOT make-shift town where it was promptly discovered that Jennifer, the Jordan's daughter had forgotten her passport! It's never boring when you're travelling in a pack! Unfortunately, the Jordans had to head BACK to Bangkok and forgo Cambodia as the Kiddney clan forged ahead. Crossing into Cambodia was a lesson in Asian efficiency (doesn't exist) and true poverty. Thailand may be a developing country but, it is DEVELOPED in ... read more

Last day in Siem Reap Magnificent sites to see Almost "watted"out Today we only went temple hopping in the morning. First stop was to Banteay Srey (roughly translated as Citadel of the Women). There are many delicate carvings still in tact and many examples of classic Khmer art to be seen. A lot of restoration work is currently going on so there were a lot of roped off areas. The second temple we visited was Banteay Samre. It was built around the same time as Angkor Wat therefore the style of the towers and balustrades look similar to the towers of Angkor Wat. Then Penny and I spent the afternoon at the pool again. I managed to get some more reading in and am glad to report that I only have about 100 more pages to ... read more

Early morning start. Sunrise over Angkor Wat. Image stuck in head. The agenda for today was to check out Angkor Wat at Sunrise. Hmm, that meant having to wake up at 4:50 this morning in order to be ready for our 5:15 bus to Angkor Wat. It was definitely worth getting up at such an ungodly hour to be able to experience seeing such an orange/red sun rising over the Temple...even with such a hazy/dusty sky. It's too bad that the sky wasn't more "colourful" but that's okay because it was still amazing. Especially the views over the Reflecting pool...thank goodness there is still water there! Sadly my pictures can't do what I saw any justice. By 7AM we were ready for some breakfast. We trekked over to a nearby restaurant but of course not before ... read more

Temples of Angkor Forty years. Forty-nine wats. Can't see all of them! First day of checking out the temples of Angkor. We have a three day pass which should be good. First thing we had to do was take our picture for our passes. Angkor Wat will be saved for day two of temple hopping since seeing Angkor Wat at sunrise is supposed to be spectacular. We met up with our tour guide Mr. Yous Sa at our hotel and then our bus arrived...a bus that could easily accommodate 24 (if not more people!) Too funny since there are only 8 of us. lol It is interesting that Mr. Yous Sa has a South London accent especially since he has never left Cambodia in his life. We were also told that Mr. Yous Sa may be ... read more