Siem Reap and Angkor, the most amazing place in the world
Our journey from Phnom Penh was pretty smooth and uneventful, although Chris felt we stopped too frequently along the way. However our arrival in Siem Reap was more interesting. I'd slept most of the way and stepped off the bus into a sea of tuk-tuk drivers shouting at me and waving placards for various guesthouses all around town. Chris forced his way through to get the bags but I was completely baffled and just stood and blinked at them all in astonishment. Eventually Chris had to reach in and physically pull me from the throng to the waiting minibus provided by the bus company.Unlike in Phnom Penh we went with the easy option and stayed in 'Popular Guesthouse' where our bus dropped us - although we didn't feel too bad as it was in the Lonely Planet. For the first time since China we opted for the cheaper fan room ($6) rather than air conditioning, but didn't suffer too much as the heat wasn't bad at night; we are becoming quite acclimatised I think.
The travel agent who had picked us up from the bus stop also turned out to be a tuk-tuk driver, and was unsurprisingly very keen to offer his services for our visit to the temples. He became even more keen (although took very little off the price) when I expressed a desire to go by moto, presumably as this would save him considerable time and petrol. So the first day we set off squashed on the back of his motorbike, which was great fun (especially on the corners!) and much quicker than the tuk-tuks so we had more time to spend at the temples.
'Angkor' is the name given to an area just north of Siem Reap which was the capital of the ancient Khmer empire. In fact there must be more than 100 temples all around the town, dating from the 9th to the 13th centuries. It was a period of much civil war and each king seems to have aimed to better the last with massive temples to the gods (at first Hindu, later Buddhist - the Khmer adopted their religion from India and combined it with local deities). Each temple was the centre of the capital city, although sadly little of the rest of the civilisation remains as only houses of the gods could be built in stone.
We decided to buy a three day ticket and fit in as much as possible. On the first day I hadn't been able to do much research so I allowed the tuk-tuk driver to take us around the principle temples. I won't go into them all in as much detail as I could as Chris informs me that this would be mind-numbingly dull, so I will just give you the highlights. Our first stop was Angkor Thom, the largest city. The entrance is through an enormous stone gate with a face on each of the four sides, very Lord of the Rings; our experience was enhanced by the fact that we had to dodge the elephants to pass through (elephants and pony carts were an alternative and expensive way of seeing the temples, although anyone with half a brain could see that the animals were in terrible condition and not fit to carry people. So in short, only the Japanese tourists took them). The principle temple in the city is Bayon, which took my breath away; it is huge and each of the countless towers is similarly decorated with a face on each side, staring down at you. Unfortunately Chris didn't appreciate it this visit as he was suffering from food poisoning, presumably the egg in his pancake at breakfast (for those of you that don't know, since going out with me we have discovered that Chris is allergic to eggs and cat hair). Don't worry, we went back later so he could fully appreciate the temple.
Other stops that day included the Terrace of Elephants (decorated with elephant sculptures), Ta Keo (an unfinished pyramid which looks like a giant lego building) and Ta Prohm, which has been left as it was discovered at the beginning of the 20th century and is covered in enormous trees eating through the rock. The afternoon was taken up by Angkor Wat, by far the most famous temple largely because it remains the most complete. As a result it was also the busiest temple, but had some fantastic relief sculptures running all the way round the outside wall. I bought a book on the temples and so we learnt alot about Hindu mythology during our visit.
The second day I had decided how I wanted to do things so our driver rarely got his own way. We started by heading an extra 14km outside Angkor to Banteay Srei, a small temple but very highly decorated. We raced back (it was great, although at times I nearly flew off the back of the moto!) to do some of the smaller temples, including one in the centre of a dried-up reservoir created by the Khmer. We finished off at Phnom Bakeng, which is on a hill and reputedly a good place to watch the sunset. However the sunset was terrible that day (and it was seriously overcrowded) so we headed back to Siem Reap early.
Our final day temple-spotting we opted to abandon our moto driver and rent bicycles. We set off east to the earliest temples in the former capital of Roulos, although our plans quickly seemed to go wrong. None of our maps were accurate and the start of the ride was not much fun as we were riding along a national highway (although I should emphasise that highways here are not the motorways of England - two lane roads with little traffic, but quite wide). We thought we had gone too far when we reached a river and so tried turning off, but ended up cycling in the boiling heat down wide dirt tracks in the middle of nowhere! In the end we decided to look out for tourist-laden tuk-tuks and follow these as much as possible.
Eventually we found the temples and felt pretty pleased with ourselves; they were in the middle of nowhere and no-one else was around. However our typical bad luck kicked in, and just as we were tying our bikes to a fence a bus full of Japanese tourists appeared! However we waited around until it was quiter and really enjoyed our visit - Chris decided that Bakong, the grandest of the temples in that area, was the best he had visited.
Our route back was more interesting. We decided to try and avoid the highway despite our rubbish maps, and cycle through the small villages surround by rice fields the stretched from the temples to Siem Reap. However this involved alot of guesswork as we had no idea of the roads, so just tried to head in the right general direction. For the most part the ride was lovely. We cycled along pretty decent dirt roads, and all the kids would come running out yelling 'hello' as we went past - they clearly saw few tourists. We only got lost a few times but loved the houses on stilts and water buffalo keeping cool in the ditches by the side of the road. In fact we managed to stay cheeful all the way back to Siem Reap - pretty remarkable as our lunch had consisted of one pineapple between the two of us!
Other than temples we also enjoyed the atmosphere in Siem Reap. Although touristy, there were some great restaurants and bars to hang out in when we'd had enough culture. We also met up with an English couple from the Vietnam-Cambodia trip, Alex and Jenny, and re-met Donell and Deirdre, our Irish friends who we seem destined to bump into. We left feeling it was definitely time well spent - and in my case feeling that a return trip was definitely going to take place in the not-too-distant future!
Emily
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