Siam Reap (Angkor Wat)

The journey to Siam Reap wasn't too bad. It was a bit hot and the A/C wasn't all that, but I'm well used to it now. There were a few too many stops but we spent those watching the locals tucking into their favourite snack food - fried grasshoppers! Yuk! After much staring we were offered some too. None of dared munch on a whole one but we all had a little leg each. I just couldn't imagine crunching on an insects head, they're huge over here!

When we arrived in the town the commotion was intense. There were tuk tuk drivers everywhere trying to get us to go with them to guesthouses. There were cops there literally beating them back with sticks! We went for a cold soft drink and chose one recommended by the guide book which turned out to be very nice. We all hit the hay early for a ridiculously early 5am start to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat.

Next morning we clambered into the tuk tuk with bleary eyes and high expectations for the day ahead. The Angkor Wat temple complex is so called after the biggest temple there, however there are loads of smalller and temples for miles around. They were each built by the king at the time trying to outdo the previous king. We started off at Angkor Wat itself, watching the sunrise over the magnificent 800 yr old structure that's taller than Notre Dame cathedral. Once the sun was fully up we started to wander around and climbed up the steepest, slipperiest steps I've ever seen to the summit of the building. It's very impressive, every inch of stone has some sort of elaborate carving on it.

After Angkor we ate breakfast and continued round in our tuk tuk to the next set of ruins. Some of them were interesting but some were little more than a pile of rubble. We carried on round for 7 hours in total and saw all the main sites. All of us were all shattered by the end of it. It was a good day out and I'm glad to have seen what is sometimes called one of the wonders of the world... but I can't really understand those who get 3 day or week long tickets! You'd have to be really into either architeture, history or religion to do that.

After a good afternoon's sleep it was time to hit the town. What we'd seen of Siam Reap the day before looked good and were eager to try out some of the bars. We weren't disapointed. It was a quality night out. We even bumped into Matt and Katie who I'd met in Hue and and Saigon, which especially good as it was her birthday. A fun night was had by all and it didn't end until the sun came up. Just to illustrate the point, Chris was meant to get his bus to Bangkok at 8am but by 11'o'clock he'd already decided it wasn't happening!

Next day was a write off with none of us waking up until 3pm. But we needed the rest as the day after we were all getting the bus bound for Bangkok together. The journey is notorious with every backpacker as it is rumoured that Bangkok airlines pays the Cambodian government to keep the roads in bad condition so people prefer to fly on a route they have exclusive rights to! Ten hours of fun ahead!