Cambodia - Siem Reap

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Originally uploaded by theslaad.

Having decided that the border crossing all looked like a bit too much hassle, we booked a cheap flight from Bangkok to Phonm Penh and arrived on the afternoon of 6th October. We had booked some accomodation in advance and decided to get a taxi for the 5 hour drive from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap ($50).
The ride was scary! The roads are a lot better than they used to be but it still isn't great tarmac. The vehicles tend to stay in the middle of the road until there's something coming at which point they get over at the last possible moment! There are also quite a lot of large pot holes to avoid, cyclists & pedastrians to manouver around and cattle & dogs to steer clear of!
The cattle are working animals here and we couldn't quite believe it when we saw several carts being pulled along the side of the road by pairs of cattle (so skinny that you can count their ribs).
We had our most socially awkward moment of the trip so far when we stopped for something to eat a few hours into our trip. The driver sat with us but we assumed we'd all order our own food so Chris & I ordered 2 dishes and rice. The driver spoke in Cambodian to the waiter and all was good. When our food came the driver moved it towards us and after we took some, helped himself! Some other food came but none of that really got eaten! At the end of the meal we paid. Not really sure what should have happened but it was okay!

We arrived at our Guesthouse in Siem Reap at around half past 9 after driving through some torrential rain. A man and a lady took our bags in for us and once in our room the man said - 'Hi, I'm Booni and if you want to go to the Temple tommorow I'll be your driver'. His English seemed quite good so we said yes please and arranged to meet him at 5am the following morning. A quick drink and then straight to bed!

Getting up when it's still dark just isn't very natural, but I doubt we'll ever come back here so we wanted to see the sun rise over Angkor Wat. We met Mr.Bunny and rode our TukTuk to Angkor Wat.
Quite a few other people had the same idea but that was the only time during the day that it felt busy.
Unfortunately it was a bit cloudy to see a good sun rise so we waited until it got light and then got back in our fab tuktuk to see where Mr.Bunny would take us next!

We went to the Bayon. It was incredible! You look up at the towers and gradually notice all the heads looking at you, welcoming you to the temple. It is all quite erroded as you would expect but it's still possible to see a lot of the carvings. It must have been so amazing when it was first built.

We spent the day looking around the different parts of the Angkor complex. It was truly stunning in a lot of places - particularly the Bayon and Angkor Wat.
There is one temple where lots of Banyan trees have broken the walls - it looks as thought he temple is growing out of the jungle.

At Angkor Wat we spent a lot of time looking at the bas reliefs. It's the longest collection in the world and tells the stories of Vishnu, Sita
and other stories of HIndu origin. Most importantly (for boys)- it show the churning of the sea by the gods & demons to make ambrosia and create the apsaras (pretty ladies who make your stay in heaven quite pleasurable!).

We were very pleased that we took a tuktuk around the area - it's too spread out to be able to walk around, and it meant that Mr. Bunny told us interesting things about the temples and was able to show us the head in the photo which you wouldn't notice if you just drove through the gate in a taxi.

We spent the afternoon and evening relaxing in our lovelly $12 a night guesthouse and are spending the day today taking it easy before our bus ride back to Phnom Phenh tomorrow.

PS.
As we've been travelling one of the worst things we've seen has been the begging children. It's heart breaking to be asked for money by a child too young to be in my class. Quite often they are selling things but you know that there's a fagan style adult waiting around the corner to take the money. Particularly in China - the children we saw had probably been sold by their parents to these people.
We ve mostly avoidd buying anything or giving money for this reason, but did give a lad $5 yesterday when he pounced on us to guide us through one of the temples. He told us he needed the money for school and did we realise how poor he was, but that he was learning 3 languages so had to pay his teacher! How can you refuse?

So, we were thinking, as it's both Chris & my birthdays soon, if you would normally buy us a present, perhaps you would think about giving the money to a children's charity that works in SE Asia or China. It would help us to see the children and know that we are helping in a small way. Thanks xx