Ankor Wat

After a four hour ride in a very comfortable coach we arrived in Siem Reap for one of the big highlights of the trip see Angkor Wat.

We stayed in one of the Raffles Hotels - very colonial. The service level was outstanding throughout the hotel and we even had a butler to perform tasks such as drawing the perfect bath for us to our personal specifications, bringing us tea or coffee if we requested a wake up call and packing for us before we leave! Never took advantage of this perk, but it was nice to know we could have!

We got up at 4am the next day, in order to get to Angkor Wat to see the sunrise. (Some grumbling from Anne that it better be worth it!) we arrived by Tuk Tuk in complete darkness, and then walked quite a ways onto the site. There was us and about 2,000 other people, all there awaiting the moment when the sun would rise behind the famous temple. Unfortunately there was quite a heavy haze that morning, so by the time the sun appeared, it was well up in the sky. However we were still able to get lots of pics as it got lighter and the temple appeared out of the darkness. Angkor Wat is the best known of the temples in this area of which there are many. We did a full tour around the temple and admired the bas relief carvings that covered many of the walls, quite fine and detailed work depicting life and activities at that time.

Photography was challenging for the whole day, as every scenic spot was usually spoiled by some young lady who was posing in front of it in a pseudo- model way - very irritating! Did I mention that there were many Chinese there as it was their new year and they are on holiday?

After having a good tour round Angkor Wat, we retired to a local cafe to eat the very nice breakfast that our hotel had packed for us. Thus refreshed, we went through the Victory Gate to the Bayon Temple in Angkor Thom, which had once been in the centre of a large town. Apparently they built for their temples for their Gods in stone, but built for man in wood, so nothing remains of their towns. This temple is noted for the faces that are carved into many of the towers of the temple - quite atmospheric apart from the aforesaid posers!

On we went to Preah Khan, a temple that is a little overgrown by the jungle. As a UNESCO site, different countries have elected to renovate or restore different temples. We think this one may have been worked on by the Japanese. Each temple we visited was surrounded by a moat around the four sides.
Our final visit was to Ta Prohm maybe one of the most famous temples as it features many large trees growing out of the stone work and gradually reclaiming the site. Very interesting to see the extent and size of the roots of these large trees.

While the whole site is very interesting it is in a flat area so it does not really compare to the great sites of the world such as Machu Picchu, Petra or the Valley of the Kings in Egypt.

During our visit we had the services of a Tuk Tuk which moved us around the large site and certainly beat trying to walk around it, despite this, we still managed to clock about 7 kms of walking plus lots of flights of steps - quite a feat in the heat of the day.

After lunch we took a Tuk Tuk to the downtown area where there are many cafes, guesthouses and hotels, catering for tourists and backpackers. We sampled some of the local beer and visited a craft workshop which produced quite interesting work.

Finally a pleasant swim in the hotel pool to recover from the exertions of the day - it was like getting into tepid bath water - brilliant!Read more