Siem Reap - Angkor Wat

Taking an overnight bus from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap was a lot better than our 15 hour bus in Laos...so we arrived in Siem Reap, the epicentre of the new Cambodia, a pulsating place that's one of the most popular destinations on the planet right now. At the heart of town there is old French shop/houses, shady tree-lined boulevards and a slow-floating river. Despite the fact that around 2 million people now visit Angkor every year, the people of Siem Reap are among the poorest in Cambodia.

The day we arrived with limited time in the area we checked into our nice hotel by the river and hired our tuk tuk driver for two days to drive us around and be our guide for the next two days. We headed out to Angkor Wat, the heart and soul of Cambodia. It is the largest religious structure in the world, it is the Khmers' national symbol, the epicentre of their civilisation and a source of fierce national pride. Unlike the other Ankor monuments, it was never abandoned to the elements and has been in continuous use ever since it was built.

We spent an very warm day touring all the temples before finishing at Angkor. Some of the more memorable and beautiful temples were Ta Prohm which could have been directly out of a scene of Indiana Jones. Walls are carpeted with moss and creeping plants, shrubs sprout from the roofs and many corridors are impassible, clogged with jumbled piles of delicately carved blocks. We then headed to Ta Keo and climbed a very steep staircase to the top of the highest temple in Angkor, the view was actually nicer from the bottom looking up at the temple...Terrace of Elephants and Terrace of the Leper King was the next stop before heading to The Bayon which epitomises the creative genius and inflated ego of Cambodia's legendary king. Its 54 Gothic towers are famously decorated with 216 enormous, coldly smiling faces of Avalokiteshvara that bear more than a passing resemblance to the great king himself. This temple was probably my favourite, all of the faces smiling down on your from every angle made it a bit eery...We continued onto see Angkor Wat during the day and then hiked Phnom Bakheng to watch the sun go down while pinks, oranges and yellows filled the sky.

The next morning we woke up around 4.30am to head back out to Angkor Wat to watch the sunrise over the temple and lake in the grounds...The sun brought purple, blue and pink sky's and was the coolest temperature wise we had been in a while!

We had an afternoon nap to catch up on the limited sleep we had been getting the past few days and then headed out to Chong Kneas floating villages with our driver. We took a two hour long boat ride out to the village to see the everyday life of a fisherman and the families.

We had one last night in Siem Reap so we spent it eating at a Cambodian style bbq restaurant and watched the football with some beers. It's amazing how unified the world and travellers are when watching a sport overseas! It creates a great atmosphere in the area :)