Siem Reap - Doesn't serve dog, cat, rat or worm!

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We arrived in Siem Reap knackered. Our shared taxi had dropped us off in the outskirts - conveniently next to a lot of tuk tuks who were ready and willing to take us into the main town area. We had seen the name of a hotel run by a charity called Sala Baiis. When we got dropped of we lugged our bags back from the main area to this hotel. Only to find out that the place was fully booked as a Michelin star chef was there that weekend to promote the charity work being done.

Oh well. Of to the main tourist area to try and find anywhere we can stay and get our bags off our backs. We put up in a place called the shadow of Angkor. We were originally put in their only available room which had 3 single beds but most importantly air con and fan. We were a bit travel-weary by this time after covering a lot of distance since setting of in January so we decided to use this time to relax and take a breath. The fact that the local beer was $0.50 had nothing to do with this honestly....

We stayed in the city centre for the few days getting a massage and going to a place that the guidebook said had live crocodiles in the middles. This turned out not to be the case but our book is over 3 years out of date. Emma did however find an amusing sign outside this place that promised that it doesn't serve dog, cat, rat or worm..... Ok.

After a few days wandering back and forth over Pub Street, taking in the sights of the night market and even a nice walk down by the river we hired a tuk tuk to take us to Angkor so we could see the surrounding temples. Much to Emma's dismay everyone had recommended going to see this at either sunrise or sunset. As we were getting the bus to Sihanoukville that night we got up early to go and see the sunrise.

We arrived in almost pitch black (5:30am) after scoffing down some croissants in the back of the tuk tuk. Our driver was kind enough to give us a torch so we could make it to a small lake in front of the main temple - Angkor Wat. We got there to find that most other tourists had the same idea and all of them had pitched up in front of the Wat. We slotted in around the side right on the edge of the water - (Emma had a frog jump at her foot). We stayed until we realised that it wasn't that the sun hadn't fully risen, just that it was too misty for it to be truly breathtaking. A bit underwhelmed we headed into the temple itself and clung onto a few guided tours and went through hallways and rooms that were more overwhelming.

We headed back to our friendly tuk tuk driver eventually - Emma waved and smiled at a few random drivers but they were friendly enough and one eventually pointed us in the right direction. Our driver seemed disappointed to see us saying we had been took quick and can't have seen everything.

He then took us on to a huge bridge leading to an even bigger gate. The bridge was lined with faces and the gate itself consisted of several more. This led into Angkor Tom which was a collection of the major temples including the Bayon where we were dropped off. This was the state temple of King Jayavarman VII and dedicated to Buddha. It had seen better days and had a lot of people working on rebuilding areas of it. We climbed to the top over some steep steps that were a lot scarier coming back down. We then headed to a few of the major temples including the Elephant Terrace and Leper King Terrace. In between these was lots of general wandering which could either be deemed exploring or getting lost - you can decide which is more like us.

We eventually found our driver again and as we were feeling all templed out asked if he could take us to the overgrown temple near the end and then back to Siem Reap. We were dropped off again and told to meet our driver on the other side. We headed down a path into the jungle Ta Prohm which is one of the most famous overgrown temples there as it was used in a Hollywood film - answers on a postcard if you can guess which one.

These were impressive and gave a good idea of the strength of these buildings. Some of them were still standing despite having a huge tree growing in through them. We had fun in a small room that was designed to create loud echoes and eventually came out the other end and found our driver. Tired from all the culture we sped back to our hotel and took our bags to Temple bar instead and had a few beers before the night bus to Sihanoukville at 8pm.

Oh and this just wouldn't be a blog by me if I didn't mention the food!! We had all the local dishes - fish amok (a coconut based fish curry served in a banana leaf), beef lok lak (a delicious beef in a sweet sauce on a bed of salad) and plenty of rice noodles and soup as usual. But the most important thing was none of these had cat, dog, rat or worm in (we hope!)

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Comments

[z nun]

temples
you look as though you are having a fantastic time. these photos are the best yet. already lined up one to go on canvas. had a busy half term. saw chinese dragon in manchester. john and linda just gone back to dundee. very impressed with liverpool. been to monro twice this week. had fab gravy(just to make you jealous). sophie and dale werent impressed when they had to sleep in the garage. off to mays tomorrow for georges birthday. have fun and take care you two.z nun +co