Angkor Temples & Siem Reap

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The bus journey was not half as bad as we expected and it was lovely to see more of the Cambodian countryside. We had one stop on the way and Dim tried a cricket for his dinner, he said it wasn’t too bad but again my wimpy side kicked in and I decided against it!

We arranged to couchsurf (this is an online community of people who put you up in their home for free) in Siem Reap, this home was a guesthouse and Moun (the host) let people stay in a room that had 4 sunbed mattresses on the floor which had a big opening for all the mozzies to get in! It was still a free night even if we didn’t get a great night’s sleep… Anyway we stayed at the guesthouse for the rest of our time in Siem Reap and became really attached to Moun and his family and most of all Sambo and Oun who worked for him who were really sweet guys. These guys work for $50 a month and Sambo sends $20 a month to his family, leaving himself with not much to do things but he has a roof over his head and food.

We visited the Angkor Temples from here, we got a 3 day pass which was enough – Dim could have probably done more but on the 3rd day I was templed out!! We saw a sunset at the temples and did sunrise at Angkor Wat which was tough to get up for at 4.30, but was worth it all the same; the stars here were absolutely amazing thousands for miles.

We met up with Willem and Sophie in Siem Reap and discussed our plans to do some travelling together around Thailand. We had a good send off on our last night from Moun and his family; lots of beer and some food bits from his Mum, we were dancing with the 2 kids and it was a good way to end our time here.

We then headed to Bangkok on Christmas eve and Willem and Sophie joined us on Christmas day night.

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Photos

Cambodian countryside
on the bus from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap

mmmm dinner
Dim ate this cricket and I was too much of a wimp to try he said it was nice!

Anyone for toast and James?
They called Jam James!!!

loved Mary's feet...
The fish ate all of the dead skin on your feet and there were loads more around my feet than Dims.

Angkor Temple 2 - Bayon
The whole temple had tons of these faces carved into the walls

Big Buddha
1st of many we have seen on the trip

Ant Bite
Mary got well stressed cos a massive ant crawled up her trousers and bit her

Angkor Wat
The Bridge over the massive moat

Angkor Wat 3
See the stone carving behind - every piece of wall was carved to this detail - amazing

Angkor Wat 3
This was the middle part

Comments

[Judith M]

Happy new year
Happy new year to you both. Simon is interested to see what he would look like with a beard!!!!. Still having amazing experiences I see. Including travelling to the future.............23rd of Jan! Where next? Love Judith

[Bryony]

Happy New Year!
Merry Xmas and Happy New Year - hope you had a good one in the sun! I have the blog emailed to work and couldn't remember my passwords over Xmas to access it, so sorry it's a bit late. Loving the pics, they're bringing back lots of happy memories and giving us itchy feet. How was Xmas in Bangkok? I had a chilled Xmas at home and then came back to Leeds and went to Lee and Kelly's for New Year (and got pissed and was in bed by 12.30, but we won't talk too much about that, lol). It's Chap's last night in leeds so we're off to Lizzy's for tea so better go. Have fun and take care, B xx