Back off!

Today we took the bus to Siem Reap, in the North West of Cambodia. The journey took around 5 hours. We were NOT prepared for what followed immediately upon our arrival.

Tuk-tuk drivers surrounded us like, to be blunt, flies around s*** (sorry). We must have had 15 of them, all showing us cards from different hotels, all shouting different things and lightly pulling on us. Even when we both shouted at the top of our voices for them to back off they didn't relent. Not being sure whereabouts we were, we randomly picked one guy who took us to 4 different hotels to have a look. The scam here is that these guys are on commission from the hotels they take us to; we asked to stop at a couple but were told they were full. Basically this meant he'd get no commission off them if he took us there. Too knackered to argue we went with the flow and found somewhere nice, if a little expensive at $17 a night (did include breakfast and AC though).

One of the main reasons visitors come to Siem Reap is to see the temples of Angkor, Angkor Wat being the most famous and celebrated. It's the capital of the ancient Khmer empire. There are actually hundreds of temples in the massive complex from between the 9th and 13th centuries. Cambodian people are fiercely proud of Angkor and make the pilgrimage here. With help from the guy at our hotel we organised a tuk-tuk and driver for the next 3 days to visit some of the sites.

Siem Reap itself is a small-ish city. Our hotel was a little off the beaten track down a residential street with chickens and dogs roaming around. The centre is geared up for tourists with some nice restaurants and bars. We ate mainly Khmer food again, which is great, a bit like Thai food but not as spicy.