Siem Reap

We booked a cozy place called "Casa Angkor Hotel".  The staff is very nice and friendly, although in the beginning they couldn't figure out how to split 5 people in 3 rooms.

The tour guide picked us up around 4:30pm.  His name is Mr. Vichet, and if anyone is coming to Siem Reap, let me recommend him as your tour guide.  He is very easy to work with, flexible with your needs, and of course knowledgable.  And not just knowledgable when it comes to talking about the temples history (I guess that should be a requirement for all tour guides), but also when it comes to doing the actual tours - taking us to the places where there's less people, and thus allowing the group to have more time to themselves and take more pictures.  Of course, you are bound to eventually bump into a large annoying tour group from Japan or China (sorry, no offense - but speaking strictly from personal experiences).

We set out a plan for the next 2 1/2 days.  One of the proposals included waking up at 4:30am to catch the sunrise over Angkor Wat but that one was quickly vetoed :) 

The plan for the rest of the day was that he would take us to see the Ta Prohm temple, and then at night would go attend the Apsara Dance show with buffet dinner.  The Ta Prohm temple is perhaps the 2nd famous in the Angkor complex, thanks largely to Angelina Joalie filming a scene from "Tomb Raider" there.  I can not unfortunately remember all the detailed history of the temple itself (thank god for wikipedia!) but I do remember that it used to be Buddhist then changed to a Hindu temple (this I think applies to all the temples actually).

The Apsara dance show was mildly entertaining and the buffet dinner average.  But good things was we were not too far from the famous Pub Street, where we found ourselves a nice bar and had some $0.75 beers.  What a great country!