TEMPLES GALORE

14/09/07 - 17/09/07 Victory Guest House - Intrepid Tour

Met up with our tour group in Bangkok on 13th Sep. There are seven of us all together, but the 3 aussies weren't flying in til late so me, Mel and the other two english peeps Hazel and Raj went out for tea with our tour leader Con. Went out for one or two (turns out this was one or two towers!) of beer down Khao San road to get to know our new friends abit better.

Woke up on 14th feeling a little worse for wear... always good to go out drinking when you have an early start... then fell over in the shower and shredded my elbows... good start, but at least it got my first inevitable clumsy injury out of the way!

Spent most of the day travelling across the border to Cambodia and to the lovely Siem Reap. Managed to dehydrate at the border crossing which was pretty scary as I lost the use of both hands and they felt like they'd turned into wisened claws. Not good.

The crossing itself was pretty wierd as the difference between the two countries and their wealth, etc is obvious within feet of crossing the border.

We travelled down the "bumpy road", which I'd heard so much about before setting off on the trip... but if I'm honest I didn't really think it was that bad. Yes there were some parts where you were pretty shaken and bounced about, but it wasn't half as bad as I expected!

Siem Reap is really good and full of friendly (rather than harrassing) tuk-tuk drivers. "Bar Street" in the town is kind of touristy - but not in a horroble way. It's just a nice street of bars to hang out on.

Went to see the famous Angkor Wat Temples, which was really cool, as you actually get to wander around inside them, whereas in England you'd have to stand 10 feet back behind an ugly barrier as they'd be classed as dangerous. We also saw the temple where Tomb Raider was filmed as I think our tour guide had a bit of a crush on Angelina Jolie. This one was amazing... it's the one you see in all the guidebooks with massive trees growing within it, half being held up by the temple and half holding the temple up.

We also went to see the floating village, where whole communities, including churches, schools, medical centres and everything float in and out with the tide, getting from one place to another by boat. On the way back from there we stopped off to laze around in hammocks drinking beers. The idea was that we would watch the sun set, but it was too cloudy. Oh yeah... and Hazel ate some snake... a local dish that smelt amazing... but I'm sorry guys I just couldn't bring myself to try it!!!