Siem Reap 1.0

Some friends of mine spontaneously decided to go to Siem Reap for 2 nights and invited me to join them. After deliberating I decided to take the presented opportunity and go and I am so glad I did!

On Monday morning 6 of us piled into 1 tuk tuk and despite our best intentions arrived late at the bus stop, giddy with excitement and relief that our bus had waited for us.

Six hours later we emerged a little dishevelled from the bus and went off to drop our bags at Tanei Guesthouse.  I'm realising that aircon, a swimming pool and to a lesser degree, bicycles are very important considerations when choosing a guesthouse.

We found a Khmer restaurant with the biggest menu's I've ever seen (due to the inclusion of photographs of each dish).  A meal and fruit shake for $2,50 went down very well!

I'd heard about the great night markets in Siem Reap and they did not disappoint.  We meandered among the stalls, enjoying the surprisingly cool breeze, Rocky Road ice cream and beautiful things for sale.

 

I love these Tintin prints!

The next day was a very early start. Armed with our packed lunch of fresh French loaf, butter and jam my friend Ang and I joined hundreds of other people to watch the sun come up over the temples of Angkor Wat and then explore as many of the ruins as we could manage.  I thought Angkor Wat was one of the 7 wonders of the world, as as far as I'm concerned it should be.  The grand scale of the buildings, the intricate carvings are incredible and must be seen to be fully appreciated.  We visited a few of the other ruins including Bong Thom and Ta Prom which was my favourite.  It's the one which has the trees growing amongst and through the buildings and even though the trees are destroying the buildings, i found it quite beautiful.  Sadly, my camera battery died about an hour after arriving so I have very few pictures but here are a few: