On Saturday we left in the morning to come to Siem Reap where I happen to be now. Once again I was on another terrible bus. The bus from Kratie to some town along the way wasn't bad. We had our own seat. But we stopped for lunch and the driver said we had to wait here for another bus that would pick us up in 15 minutes. Well it turned out to be almost 45. This bus was full so I was stuck in the very back and we had to back track an hour the other way to get to the highway that goes to Siem Reap. From that point it was another 3 hours. It was like I was in one of those blow up, bounce rooms that are at fairs sometimes. It was constant back and forth and side to side. To make matters worse I was right in front of a hot air vent for the engine. The good thing was I could extend my legs out and I had 5 air con vents. We arrived in Siem Reap around 5 and got a tuk-tuk to a guesthouse that we wanted to stay at. The driver inquired about being our driver to the temples the following day. We agreed and decided on getting up at 5 AM the next morning to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat.
The guesthouse is nice. Our beds are in a dorm. Its not even really a dorm. Its a building with no doors with 8 rooms inside also with no dorms. There are curtains that act as doors. Each bed has a mosquito net above them which is excellent. The next morning almost everyone was woken up around 3:30 AM by a couple of drunk Aussie girls hooting and hollering. A number of people started yelling at them including me. It took them about an hour before they were quiet. Ive experienced some loud people at hostels but they take the cake. I was awake the whole time.
The driver arrived shortly after 5 AM. The drive to Angkor Wat is about 15 minutes or so. I guess watching the sunrise at Angkor Wat is a popular thing to do. There were lots of people there. Unfortunately it was cloudy so it wasn't really a sunrise. It just gradually got lighter. Angkor Wat is massive. A lot of it is being restored. After that our driver took us to Angkor Thom. Angkor Thom is an ancient walled city with a 100 meter moat surrounding it. Inside there are some monuments. The whole day we spent looking at various temples. The coolest one I think was Ta Phrom. They have left some of the trees that are growing over it and through it alone. These trees are massive. A scene from the movie Tomb Raider was filmed there. The names of the temples have slipped my mind. I don't remember all the times because there are just so many.
The yesterday we didn't get up so early. We went back to Angkor Wat complex but went on the east side to see some temples we didnt see the day before. The coolest thing about yesterday was going 30 KM outside the complex to see Kbal Spean. There you hike into the jungle 1500 meters to see a bunch of carvings in the rock in a stream. They had to have damned the stream to be able to carve into the rock bed. They quality is amazing. Tomorrow I'm off to Phom Penh, the capital. I don't really want to go there but it does have a really good museum and the Pol Pot killing fields. As depressing as its going to be it is one of those must things to see. After a couple of days I'm heading to Sihanoukville on the ocean. Its been so hot the last 2 weeks that I need some beach and water really bad. After that its back to Bangkok for two days and then back home. Its weird to think I will be freezing my butt off instead of sweating it off in 11 days. Enjoy the pictures. Cheers.
J
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