Sua s'dei,

Our journey to Cambodia started with an early morning bus from Bangkok to Aranya Prathet where we could walk across the border into Cambodia. The border is very busy with tourists and locals alike; and where there is such a craziness a scam can't be far; awfully nice and helpful locals tried to get us into an office to get our visa "quicker" but luckily we noticed soon enough and saved ourselves money and time. Another 2 hours bus ride later we arrived in Siem Reap, the gateway to the temples of the Angkor Region.

Due to miscommunication between rickshaw drivers and some apparently "rude" comments from us (totally justified, especially after a long day), we managed to get thrown out from our rickshaw and left stranded on the road side for maybe 3 minutes. This was definitely a first and it seemed like the driver didn't have to rely on the business. After settling into our guest house we headed out to explore the town. Siem Reap has everything it takes to attract and entertain tourists: food from all over the world and always a "happy" version available, locals who speak perfect English so nobody even has to try to learn some local language, free wifi everywhere and heaps of night clubs and bars.

In order to get to the temples which are 8km away from the city center, everyone has to go through pass controls. There are 3 types of passes available: 1 day pass, 3 day pass (can be used over a period of 1 week) and 1 week pass (can be used over a period of 4 weeks). We chose the 3 day pass for 40$US. Pass controls are taken very seriously (check points at every temple) and the passes even come with photos. Motor bikes and scooter rentals have been banned in the greater Siem Reap area due to too many accidents in the past. Therefore we had 2 options left to explore the temples of Angkor Wat: bicycles and rickshaws. 2 out of the 3 days we rented bicycles and biked well over 20km each time. In order to get to some of the temples which are further away we rented a rickshaw one day and started early to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat.

Over a period of 300 years, between 900 and 1200, the Khmer Empire produced some of the world's most magnificent architectural masterpieces in the area known as Angkor. Most are concentrated in an area approximately 24 km east to west and 8 km north to south. The temples of the Angkor area number over one thousand, ranging in scale from nondescript piles of brick rubble scattered through rice fields to the magnificent Angkor Wat, said to be the world's largest single religious monument. Many of the temples at Angkor have been restored, and together, they comprise the most significant site of Khmer architecture. Visitor numbers approach two million annually, and the entire expanse, including Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom is collectively protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The temples of Angkor are magical and hard to describe in words. Looking at those thousands of years old monuments with detailed carvings, wandering through ruins that make visitors create their own imagination, exploring firsthand the power of nature, time and humans and seeing statues which have half of the body or face missing left us in awe. Though the one negative thing nobody ever talks about is the crowd of people who explores alongside you and somehow that takes off some of the flair. This was definitely something we enjoyed a lot more in Bagan, Myanmar where we had most of the areas for ourselves.

After these adventures days we took a bus to Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital. Since big cities never really attract us we kept our visit short with only 2 nights. The Royal Palace was definitely worth a visit and walking along the shore of the Mekong River a nice way to enjoy sunny days.

Further south we had 2 more stops, Kampot and Sihanoukville where we enjoyed bike rides in the countryside (Kampot) and lazy days on the beach (Sihanoukville) with delicious food and amazing shakes. Only one incident is worth mentioning when we had to look for new accommodation at midnight because it turned out that our room had bed bucks and the guesthouse had no other rooms available. Luckily we found a different place, did laundry at 2am and got to bed completely exhausted at 3am. The hard life to backpackers...

Cambodia was a short but definitely worth while visit. Exhaustion had kicked in so besides the days in Siem Reap we were quite lazy, slept in and took it easy. But hey, after being on the road for 8 months we deserved that.

Cheerio,

Ann & Sabrina