Siem Reap/Angkor Wat

If your looking for a party, then Siem Reap is a great place to find one. I mean there is a street named Pub Street and it is definitely one of the stops on many backpackers itinerary's. There are restaurants and bars galore for some good nightlife. We had a Cambodian BBQ one night which came with pork, chicken, shrimps, fish, alligator and snake. The snake was a bit rubbery and chewy but the rest was very good. During the day there are plenty of cafes and eateries to sit and relax the hangover headache in. AND THEY HAVE HP BROWN SAUCE!!!

As well as being the entrance to Angkor Wat, there is the tourist attraction of the Floating Village near the city. Its not floating in the same way as Islas Flontantes in Peru was floating on reeds. A more apt name may have been 'Fixed Village on poles sticking out from river' but that's probably too much of a mouthful. Cool to see nonetheless but if you get there and they ask for $20 a head tell them to beat it. We got it reduced to $10 each and even then thats a lot to be paying in Asia. Its a fair sized village and it is cool passing the people in their tiny boats and kids floating past in what look no more than large soup pots. There is also a huge lake at the end of the river where the houses are located and it provides a stunning location for the sunset and a great place to go for a swim as well, just remember and wear swimming shorts for it.

The big attraction for the city though of course, is Angkor Wat and the other temples that are spread out through this ancient city. We had agreed to get up really, really early in order to get to the city of Angkor which was the capital of the Khmer Kingdom from the 9thC. The main temple was built around the 12thC and really is very impressive. I am very glad and I think the others are as well, that we got up before sunrise because what an incredible sunrise we got. The sun rises up from behind the southern side of the main temple and there is a lake in front which acts as a perfect natural mirror, relfecting the image beautifully. It really was stunning however I didn't get the same Wow feeling that I did when I saw Machu Picchu and the Taj Mahal which I thought was strange. I really felt beforehand that seeing Angkor Wat would have had a similar effect, it is one of the Wonders of the World after all. Despite this, it was still a fantastic place to visit. The sunrise was wonderful, you just had to find a spot in amongst the hundreds of people there all trying to get the perfect photo.

The main temple is huge, its the worlds largest religious monument and it really is impressive in both size and decoration. There are around 1000 temples located throughout the old city's grounds and we were glad that we had hired a tuk tuk driver for the day to take us exploring. The next temple we visited was decorated with giant faces of Buddha carved on them. They were pretty cool to see. We visited a couple of other temples that were close by and again they were cool to walk around and explore. After this though, we got back in the tuk tuk and headed for the "Tomb Raider" temple, the sight where they filmed the Angelina Jolie movie. It was very cool. Whilst the rest of the temples have been cleared from the jungle and restored, this temple has been left to the wilderness. The trees have taken over and their roots and vines have moved the huge sandstone blocks away from where they were originally placed making the temple one giant playground for big kids like me. Its loads of fun climbing over the fallen blocks and the massive tree roots that protrude from under them and pretending to be Indiana Jones or someone like that. I think Kali really believed she was Lara Croft for the afternoon.

We ended up spending about 9 hours at the city discovering many different temples each unique and special, though none quite as special as the main temple building. We all had lots of fun at the Tomb Raider temple and by the middle of the afternoon we were all completely shattered. A must see place for anyone who is going to SE Asia in my opinion.