Sorry for a lack of updates-offexploring seems to have fallen apart or maybe it's just dodgy Cambodian internet connections...
Our first outing in Siem Reap was to Kompong Phhluk which is a floating village and flooded forest and was absolutely amazing. After an incredibly bumpy and dusty tuk tuk ride we arrived in a little village to get a motor boat to the village. It looks like something from a film set or a purpose built tourist attraction - an entire village built up on stilts over the water and everyone just goes about their lives by boat. It was really strange to see tiny children rowing themselves around between school, home and friends' houses.
Then from the village we took a couple of rowing boats out to the flooded forest which was absolutely beautiful. For some unknown reason all the other tourists we saw had just got off their boat and were eating lunch in the village without bothering with the forest so it was absolutely deserted (apart from a lot of very big spiders and possibly crocodiles!) It was so beautiful with the sun coming through the trees and reflecting onto the water and the more snap happy members of our group (naming no names) could probably have stayed there fiddling with their lenses all day...
But sadly we had to head off again and, after a quick detour onto Tonle Sap lake, made it back onto the tuk tuk for our trip to Angkor. If you buy a one day pass, sunset the day before is free so off we went with hordes of other backpackers to watch the sun set behind Angkor Wat. It was such a good first glimpse of the ruins - the evening light is so beautiful on the stone and even though it wasn't the best Cambodian sunset I've seen it was still pretty spectacular.
Sunset left us all very excited for the next day so it wasn't too traumatic getting up at 4.45 to make it back there for sunrise. After a lot of discussion we decided to go back to Angkor Wat along with thousands of other tourists but it was well worth it. Zoe and I took ourselves away from the camera-weilding tour groups who were all fighting for the best spot and found a (moderately) quiet corner to sit in and watch the sun come up. It was actually a better direction than sunset because the sun almost comes up behind the ruins so once again was very spectacular.
Then it was a race back to the tuk tuks before all the other tour groups followed us around for the whole day. Somehow we managed to get to the Bayon and found it absoutely deserted. The Bayon was definitely my favourite of all the ruins, no-one seems entirely sure why it was built but it has over 200 huge faces looking out in every direction. People think it's the face of the king who built Angkor Thom which is the main city of the ruins and it was a centrepoint to remind all his subjects that they were always being watched...
Unfortunately, being on our own didn't last and the rest of the day was pretty busy. Although it's obviously a really good thing for Cambodia to have so many tourists visiting, in a selfish way it would have been much better to have the place to ourselves! The worst was Ta Prohm, one of the temples which has trees growing up through the ruins and was used in the making of Tomb Raider. We arrived at peak tour group time and had to stand and watch a group of about 30 take it in turns to all have their photo taken in front of the same tree...
Sunset was another circus. To the amusement of our drivers we decided to follow the hordes up Phnom Bakheng hill where you get a view of the whole area. It felt like being back in London in rush hour but we managed to elbow our way through to a good sitting spot where we could pretend we were the only ones...
And that was Siem Reap - a bit rushed but the most amazing day. The scale of all the ruins is like nothing else I've ever seen and definitely one of my best memories so far...