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Published: December 11th 2008
Angkor Wat at sunrise
well worth the 4.30am alarm!Siem Reip
We loved Siem Reap right from the start from the Tuk Tuk ride from the airport to sitting down and having a nice cold beer watching the world go by on Bar Street to the Cambodian food (mmmmm Amok and Khmer curry, how we love you!) and of course Angor Wat.
The town itself has quite a European feel to it with a couple central streets lined with bars and restaurants. With so much good food available a splurge night was in order so we treated ourselves to a glass of wine and a BBQ at our table. They bought us out a plate of beef and a plate of squid which we cook ourselves, it was so good and it also was nice to not be eating budget for a change…..whilst we love noodle soup in its many forms (same same but different wherever you are) it can get a little boring.
The highlight (obviously) of Siem Reap is Ankgor Wat (and the many other temples) and we were not disappointed. The Tuk Tuk driver Thomas who drove us from the airport of course offered to take us to the temples for a ‘good’ price.
Bayon Temple
One of our favourites He was a nice guy and after agreeing the price which was lower than the ‘good’ price he picked us up from our hotel at 5am (groan…) to catch the sunrise over the largest temple Ankgor Wat.
We must say that he was great as he recommended not hanging around that temple to check it out but to high tail it to the others and to beat the crowds. Listen to the locals! He was right we had Bayon and Ankor Thom pretty much to ourselves and got some great snaps. We will let the photos do the talking and would recommend anyone who is in SE Asia to make it part of their journey if they can. Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples was one of our big ticket items before we left the UK so we are pleased to put a big tick next to that one, we had such a great day.
Phnom Penh
We had heard a lot of negative things about Phnom Penh before arriving re dangers and annoyances but we were pleasantly surprised. After a good bus journey from Siem Reap we started the search for a hotel around the lakeside
Angkor Thom
Our favourite temple of them all and we have seen lots! area. It was a little late so we had to settle for an average room but changed the next day. The change of hotel worked out well for us as they were able to get our Vietnam visa the same day ($40 USD each which we thought was pretty good) for us meaning that we could leave a day early rather than wait until after the weekend.
We spent most of the first day exploring the markets and bought a couple of scarves each. The only other thing of note that we did was to visit the S21 museum which was a Khmer Rouge prison / torture facility. To say it was horrific is an understatement. It was a sobering morning and left us both pretty shaken up and reflective. Not all travel is about beaches and good times and I would recommend this to all visitors to the city.
We also met up with Niamh, Daragh and George for a final boozy night before taking off to Saigon on 30th November... Vietmam blog to be posted soon (when we have another free day as the internet is sooooo slow here and uploading photos takes an age).
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Lesley &don
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from a backpack
You both look very stylish considering your living out of your packs. l0ve xx