Siem Reap

Day 5
Wow today was pretty jam packed! The alarm went off at 4.30am this morning once again I was very unhappy about this and we packed into the mini bus and sped towards Angkor Wat for sunrise. Finding a good spot we waited shrouded in the darkness for the sunrise. Unfortunately it was pretty cloudy so there wasn’t much of a sunrise but it was still very majestic as the outline slowly became more visible and then eventually the detailed towers loomed in the distance. To think it was built in the 12th century is incredible! The level of architecture and precision throughout the whole Angkor Wat complex is extraordinary and we don’t build anything nearly as hauntingly beautiful anymore!

After a non sunrise we headed into the temple and enjoyed exploring the many different areas whilst our tour guide explained to us more about the history and background of Angkor Wat. It was built by the Khmer King Suryavarman II and only took 30 years to complete considering the scale of it this is seriously impressive. They used elephants to pull the stones from local quarries and built the inside first and then the outside to make it easier to get the stones in by using the elephants!

As the hours progressed it was getting increasingly hot and it was only 8am! After about an hour and a half at Angkor Wat we felt we had seen all we needed to, so we headed to another two much smaller temples one nicknamed the “nature temple” as it was only found in recent years and nature has started to take over.

Massive trees were clinging to the temple walls stretching high into the sky it was seriously impressive! The other temple had large towers with four Buddhas carved onto the sides and after lots of water and suncream later we finally climbed back into the minibus at 11am with the temperature already at 34°c!

Arriving back at the hotel we went for a swim in the pool where we played some “basketball” which was so fun and a really nice way to get to know the group a bit better in a chilled environment and just have a good time.

Then the girls and I headed to the spa for a massage - $8 for 30 minutes is a bargain I think! I got a head neck and shoulders massage and it was glorious, so relaxing and we came out feeling very limber!

I had a short nap and then got ready for our “big night out”. We all met at a bar on the “pub street” with our CEO who bought us all a shot and a beer tower so I think that’s encouraging bad behaviour! We were out all night dancing in bars and playing pool and we met so many people from different tours and general backpackers it was so much fun and a really fun moment for our group! Eventually getting back at around 2am we went straight to sleep but a really fun day!

Day 6

Today we set off to travel to Cambodias capital Phnom Penh which is a 8 hour bus journey! Luckily stopping every few hours to stretch our legs and to grab some lunch helped the journey pass by. Some people were definitely struggling on the bus today after a heavy night last night, I was just shattered so I had a nice long nap!

Our last stop before arriving in Phnom Penh was a small market by the side of the road, Lee our CEO had warned us that they will try to sell us lots of fried bugs but that he would buy some for the group for a better price for us to try. Not feeling very convinced that I wanted to eat fried bugs I was still curious to see the market so I hopped out the bus and straight away a child holding a live tarantula came up to me putting the spider right in my face. I squealed and jumped right out of my skin to which the young girl was very confused! The market sold everything from live spiders which really freaked me out and once the children learnt we were scared of them it became a game for them to pretend to put it on us! I was really not happy about this in the slightest! Making a quick escape back onto the bus Lee came around with fried spiders, crickets, scorpions, frogs and worms for us all to try! Feeling really really strongly that I didn’t want to eat any of it but knowing I had to try something I managed to eat a cricket and a spider leg which really gave me the creeps! But it didn’t taste bad in all fairness just very crunchy and hairy.

Arriving in Phnom Penh in the pouring rain we checked into our hotel and collapsed, moving around every two days is very tiring! I then nursed my mosquito bites which had blown up massively with a good dose of antihistamine and they quickly went down before relaxing and in a few hours we are going to go and have some dinner by the riverside.Leia mais