Cambodia (Siam Reap) - Angkor Wat

Siam Reap the Magaluf of north Cambodia except no beach, thousand year old temples and less topless women. Upon arrival from Battambang we jumped straight on a tuk tuk to a guesthouse a friend back home had recommended. We arrived at the guesthouse and our tuk tuk driver got a phone call from someone who claimed they were supposed to pick us up for free, what we had forgotten was we had arranged two days earlier that our guide around Battambang had a friend who he had arranged pick up and then he would pitch to us his tour of Angkor Wat. Well the guy didn't sound too happy and shouted at the other tuk tuk for stealing his fee, understandable I suppose not that we meant any harm by it. The guesthouse was pretty poor compared to our "flashpacker" past and seemed to cater to lone travellers who want to stay in dorms. Our first impression of the room seemed okay, away from the bar so quiet, a/c and a fan, big and with hot water shower however we soon realised things weren't as we first expected. Firstly the a/c didn't work other than making a noise, the room was for some reason always hotter than outside which is unbelievable and the shower wasn't hot. Also as we soon realised the bathroom sink pipe had completly come off and when you turned the tap on the waste went straight on to the floor. Later that day we mentioned it and someone attempted to fix it however after leaving what they had actually done was fix the pipe but now water constantly dripped and was highly irritating. The next day I complained and they moved us to another room. The room was smaller but everything was working even if it was unclean and ditty.

Day one came and went and we just explored and ate some food. The best thing about the guesthouse was the roof top bar, always busy with other travellers with music and a pool table with cheap $0.50 beer all day everyday. We arranged the next morning for a tuk tuk to pick us up at 4:30am to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat. That night we went out and had a few drinks and some food then coming back to the guesthouse bar and meet some really pretentious pillocks, we soon left after an hour or two as there's only so much you can take, they didn't once ask us anything about ourselves.

We woke at 4am got ready however izzi was ill, she had eaten something bad and hence we had to cancel, I didn't enjoy going to meet the tuk tuk driver and let him down and try to rearrange but he was fine and understood which was good. That day we didn't do much and izzi rested. The next day we woke again and headed out for sunrise, we saw several groups of people still up partying from the night before en route to the temple!

Angkor Wat is spectacular, the sunrise wasn't the best, we got better pictures at other points during the day to be honest, however it was still good to see the sunrise and tick it off the list. We headed on what is referred to as the small circuit, even if it took us nearly 9hrs to complete, a lot of temples are involved. There are too many to really talk about in great detail bit some of our highlights were Angkor Thom and walking through the abonded and jungle temples with no other tourists around. The place is big on a scale we havent seen yet, it cover tens of square kilometers and many parts have not be cleared or restored which we thought is the best way. One temple nicknamed the 'Tomb Raider' temple as it was used in several scenes in the films was also one of our favourites. The temple has been left to the encroaching and engulfing jungle and the trees grow interwoven into the temple walls giving it an ancient and mystical feel. Inside the main Angkor Wat temple you can scale the several layers of the temple and once at the top the views over the jungle and ancient city are breath taking. In general it was very good and very interesting. As you travel around the temples at most major junctions and stops you are hounded by children selling souvenirs, bracelets, drinks etc which can get annoying. We bought a book to help us walk around but in hindsight we probably could have had a proper guide all day which may have been easier and meant I didn't have to stop and look up what stuff was all the time.

The next day we headed out shopping around the market and izzi got a new bag and we got a small souvenir, the market wasn't the best we've seem but not bad. It was very tourist driven with stall owners pleading with you buy something as its low season and not that busy. We had arranged to meet some friends that night, the couple from Ireland who we meet in Mekong Delta in Vietnam and Francesco from Italy who we meet in China. It was really good to see them all as we had being trying to meet with Francesco for weeks but always missed him as our plans didn't cross paths. The eel I had for dinner however was like eating a bowl of bones so I didn't manage much. We went out with Nicola and Kieran after for drinks and even ended up having a few shots, the next day I didn't feel so fresh.

The guesthouse did good burgers and had sausage and mash on the menu so we ate there. The bar was two stories up and looked out over the town which was great and the way they brought food up and down was ingenious. They had a simple but effect contraption made from steal wire, various cables and old tyre wheel. The food glided up and down effortlessly and was a prety neat invention, however we noticed they often got food wrong and took it to the wrong table but I guess that's the problem of eating far away from where the orders where taken. Izzi got 'English Sausage' mash which turned out to be more like a fish sausgae with herbs and smash potato, she was disappointed to say the least.

The next day we booked on to a bus down to Phnom Penh, the bus was advertised as 5hrs but as all buses are local buses the driver tends to stop to let people on and off all day to make an extra dollar or two so actually took us 8hrs. We arrived back in the guesthouse we stayed in last time as we know it was nice and booked a bus to Kampot.