Hello from Siem Reap!

Wow! What a whirlwind Cambodia has been for us! We got to Siem Reap yesterday at 12:30pm and we are leaving at 5:30am tomorrow! However, that doesn't mean we wouldn't love to stay longer. Our time here has definately been short, but it has been very sweet indeed.

After arriving yesterday we decided to explore the small city centre which we found to be very charming. We wondered around the old market and the many streets of shops, restaurants and bars surrounding it. A warm welcome after the chaos and unfriendly (and sometimes scary!) streets of Phnom Penh. After a lazy afternoon we found ourselves a tuk-tuk driver and headed for one of the many temples of Angkor at sunset. You can get a one day, three day or one week ticket for the temples. There are a lot of temples!!! We got the one day ticket which lets you see sunset the day before, and crossed our fingers that we could fit it all in after speaking to people who said you need at least 3 days! Our driver took us to the most popular temple for sunset, which although was very beautiful, was also full of quite literally thousands of tourists! Was pretty awesome though!

That night we realised just how amazing Cambodian food could be! We had a gorgeous meal that could surpass even some of the best Thai food we've had! Has anyone seen Cambodian restaurants in the UK? We need them! Then we headed back for an early night as we were getting up very early for sunrise at Angkor Wat, the most famous of the temples of Angkor.

Sunrise was amazing as you can see from the photos! Although there were lots of people there, Angkor Wat is so huge that you dont really notice them and you can often find yourself alone which makes it a much more awe-inspiring experience. We wondered around for a while and got breakfast inside, trying politely to get rid of the hordes of children trying to sell postcards, t-shirts, books, bracelets... It got very annoying very quickly-they were at every temple! We went to about seven different temples in the end. The lonely planet says that to do more than the three main temples in one day is "sacrilege"; we did those and a few more by 2:00pm and we didn't feel rushed at all! My favourite was the Bayon with hundreds of huge stone faces staring at you from the walls; it was beautiful and excellenly preserved. Rich liked Ta Phrom the most; it was used in Tomb Raider and is very famous for the huge trees which have completely taken over. It looks incredible, but eventually the trees will destroy it as they grow or die :( A lot of it has been destroyed already and a big restoration project is taking place to save it. We were lucky with the weather too considering its the rainy season; it was a beautiful day of gorgeous sunshine and blue skies which our cameras loved! By 1:00pm Rich was definately getting templed out, and it was so hot, that after one last trip to Angkor Wat to see it in the bright light of day, we headed back to town. We had a traditional Cambodian lunch at Pizza Company, and had another chilled out afternoon wondering around.

Although we havnt been here long and could probably stay a lot longer, we feel we have definately experienced Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor fully. Siem Reap is great place to just relax and wonder around the pretty streets, but time is running out and the beaches of Thailand are calling!!! We've been so busy these last two weeks that we definately need a holiday from travelling! Especially considering the hard work we'll be doing when we get home (particularly Lisa)!

We've booked our taxi for 5:30am to take us to the border tomorrow. Apparently the government has a deal with an airline to ignore the appalling state of the road from Siem Reap to Poipet (the main border with Thailand), to encourage travellers to fly. Governments in this part of the world seem to be good like that! If people would rather fly it must be bad, so I guess we'll find out tomorrow. We're also going to travel on public buses in Thailand as we've heard lots of tourist scam buses opperate from the border, hence the very early start! We're either heading to Ko Chang or Ko Samet, havn't decided yet!

We're going to the night market now and then for our final delicious Khmer (Cambodian) meal. The rainy season hasn't caught up with us since Laos so we're hoping it doesn't find us on the beaches of Thailand!

See you soon!

Bye!!!