Angkor Wat!
The day we arrived in Cambodia we were met with extreme heat. With this in mind we asked a worker at the guesthouse what the best time to go to the Angkor Wat temples would be. To our horror she replied with the number 6 followed by an a.m.
We were exhausted and the thought of having to get up that early filled us with terror. So we completely ignored the advice of an experienced local and opted for 8.30 instead.
This was an error.
We didn't reach the temples, in our Cambodian tuk-tuk, until 9.30 at which point the sun was already quite hot.
In Siem Reap there is the main temple Angkor Wat, but there are also many other temples in the area. This was going to take all day to see - some take two days to see it all - we were confident of seeing it in one.
The first temple we visited was the biggest, main temple, Angkor Wat. This was absolutely stunning. To reach it you have to walk over a bridge that takes you over a huge lake. It was very impressive, so much history.
We made our way through the sea of tourists and explored the inside of the main temple and the dozens of others situated in the grounds.
There were more tourists here than anywhere else we had been so far. The majority were Japanese, taking photos of everything and anything. Watching people take photos can be a very odd experience.
The Beatles seem to have left a lasting impression in the minds of Japanese people when it comes to photographs.
What is it with the peace sign? I'm all for peace but it's just weird. It's not 1967, you're not John Lennon, you're not even Yoko Ono, and she was rubbish. What's going on? Weirder still is people who take Avon Catalogue type of photos. Leaning back, posing or looking into the distance in a Channel 5 soft porn/David Brent-on-a-table kind of way. For some reason these type of pics seem to be taken by Germans, not sure why?
Alex, the photographer on our trip, hates all of these things. In fact I think she may be a bit of a photo Nazi. Any photo she takes that is deemed to be flawed gets deleted within seconds. No questions, just boom, gone. I always ask if she wants me to take a photo of her infront of something but this is usually a no. I take the camera off of her just to see the look on her face. At least she hasn't got a digital SLR like the rest of the travelling world. Everyone thinks they're David Bailey when they've got one of those beasts. Laying on the ground at quirky angles, not taking in any of the scenery just spending an hour taking photos of a shoe and a rock 'all up close and focusing and s***'. Give it a year and I'll probably have one.
Anyway, It took a good couple of hours to walk around at which point my face was melting, so we decided to move on and into the breeze of the tuk-tuk.
We stopped about 6 or 7 times throughout the day at different temples, some were very small and similar to the smaller temples in the Angkor Wat main grounds, but there was one in particular that stood out.
Our favourite was Ta Prohm, a temple, set in the forrest, that takes about half an hour to walk through the building and the grounds.
The temple itself is surrounded by tree roots that entwine themselves around the temple stone. It really is a special place and you can see why people may want to find peace here.
What should have been a calming moment to cleanse the soul became a frantic moment to get out of, what was now, a maze. Seriously, we could get lost in a queue. The only thing being cleansed were our pores as sweat was gushing out at an alarming rate. It was hot. I felt like a Whale had just given birth to me.
Thankfully, we eventually found our way out and slithered back to the tuk-tuk.
We had been visiting temples all day in the severe heat and were exhausted...and wet.
So we called it a day and headed back to the guesthouse.