Siem Reap/Angkor Wat

I've been a bit lazy about this one, but here goes.

6 hour busride to Siem Reap from Phnom Penh. The countryside is really pretty, as you can see


Arriving in Siem Reap was something else though. I didn't take a photo of it, as something may have been taken off me, if I could have moved. The bus didn't go the the terminal it was supposed to, but rather took us out of town. This is a pretty reputable Cambodian bus company, so nothing too iffy could have really happened. What did end up going on was the bus was swarmed by tuk tuk and moto drivers. Literally, dozens of them creating a wall of people, all shouting and trying to get out attention so they could get our business, or take us to the guest house of their choice so they could get a comission. It was difficult to get off the silly thing, then there are hands. Just...hands, everywhere, touching shoulders and hair, all begging for a chance to get western money. It was claustraphobic and heart breaking to see the desperate people all around. Eventually we got our bags, and made it to a quite street in town to our guesthouse (street seen below.)




At this point, Jeremy, Darren (the two irish lads) and I went out in search of food, and luckily ducked under as the afternoon monsoon started (apparently Cambodia was in the wet season when I travelled there. I believe it)



There they are, above.

So, we just took it easy and explored town a bit, then rented bikes the next morning to make it out to Angkor Wat.

So, this bit is just us going into the main wall after crossing the giant moat, then Angkor Wat itself from a distance.






Climbing up the main temple steps to get a good view is a bit tricky, as the stairs are more like a ladder. It turns out later that these steps are relatively easy and not so steep compared to many of the surrounding temples.



There are huge walls that are nothing but carvings like the one below. This wall was a depiction of the Ramayana (a Hindu story about a war between Gods and Demons). Some of the temples are Buddhist, some are Hindu. Both religions are practiced by a few folk inside the temples still, regardless of what the denomination of the temple is. The temples used to be part of a city in an old empire, but only the temples were allowed to be made of stone,so only they have survived the centuries.








You knew I would be able to get in another elephant shot in there somewhere.

The next temple is a Buddhist one, called Bayon. Angkor Wat is a specific temple, but the whole area of temples is alos collectively called "Angkor Wat", though all of the temples have individual names and such.

This one is one of the prettier ones, especially after you notice...



...look below. Ignore the scads of tourists in the above...



...Faces! 4 of them on every tower, and there are a LOT of towers. it makes for a neat effect.

The next day, Darren took a day off touristing, so Jeremy and I got our bikes again, some flashlights (thanks for the headlight Dad), and made our way to Angkor Wat for teh sunrise.



Hooray being a backpacking hobo!



That's another temple up on a hilltop (they DO exist...they're just rare)



Jer and I ended up biking at around 30-40km that day, and we definitely got a lot of temples in on it. Bike riding in temperatures of about 35C and dealing with the humidity...thank goodness there were no hills.



But yeah, we ended up seeing alot, but showing each temple would be boring after a while.





So after a hard day of riding, a shower and a nap were in order (two long days of temple seeing is enough to temple out/tire out anyone.) We ended up just going for dinner later and enjoying some local beer before everyone was going their seperate ways the next day. Jer and Dar were off to Phnom Penh again to try to get to Vietnam, I was going off to Bangkok. Though I'd heard rumors of how bad the road between Siem Reap and the Thai border at Poipet was...but the ticket was dirt cheap,so I figured a 12 hour busride wouldn't be all that bad. More on that later. Instead, I get to leave you with the only guys with any kind of belly I saw in Cambodia (they show it off if they have it) in front of the moat around Angkor Wat.



Hope everyone is doing alright back home, remember to leave comments and e-mails,as I love to hear from you guys. Take care now