Temples, Tuk-Tuks, Tourists and Tomb-Raiders

After 24 hours in Bangkok (still managed to fit in a quick selfie-tastic trip to a golden buddha), we hopped back on a plane for the short (~35 minute) flight to Siem Reap. We figure we are back in Bangkok at the end of our 4 weeks in this part of the world and we have a few things higher on our priority list than those in Bangkok.

Siem Reap is the destination if you’re keen to see the ruins of the temples of the ancient kingdom of Angkor but the retired Canadian pilot we are sitting next to on the plane (now lives in Thailand) seems pretty excited about the nightlife too ($0.50 per draft beer he tells us).

After the fast-paced and highly (kayak) activity focussed last few weeks, we’re ready for a slightly lazier start and so the sunrise tour of Angkor Wat which leaves at 4:30am isn’t that appealing on day 1. We settle for an afternoon tour of some lesser known temples, promising ourselves that we’ll do the sunrise tour another day. The ones we do see are incredible, it’s a testament to the restoration work of the international teams who have worked on them, but also the power of nature, the jungle has surrounded the stone structures and the trees in some cases have grown in and around the temple walls, exposing some interesting root structures which causes Mel to declare at least 3 different trees her ‘favourite tree’.

We meet some fellow tourists on the tour, who are sharing our tuk-tuk and enjoy an evening sampling the $0.50 beers and some local food on ‘pub street’ with them. A good night, which still leaves us in no mood to get up at 4:30am the next day! We do not, however, completely waste the second day and have a very interesting time at the War Museum (more on Cambodia’s recent tragic history in a separate post), and finally manage on day 3 to get up at 4:30am to head out to Angkor again to catch the sunrise.

Angkor Wat just before sunrise is already packed with tourists trying to get the ‘classic’ shot and we oblige and snap away as the sun rises. The sunrise tour that our hostel has arranged is certainly much more the ‘mainstream’ temples than the ones we’d seen on the first day, but despite the crowds we enjoy the additional info the tour guide provides us with and indulge him when he describes Ta Prohm temple as “Angelina Jolie temple’ (it featured in the Tomb Raider movie where she stars as the protagonist Lara Croft).

We took the opportunity of the hostel wifi to book the next few days of accommodation and travel, and took the Giant Ibis bus down to Phnom Penh yesterday, have spent the day here and are leaving for Ho Chi Minh City tomorrow. Cambodia it seems has lots more to offer but we’ll have to content ourselves with what we’ve managed to see so far, and are looking forward to exploring Viet-Nam next.