Angkor Wat

Myself and Yan got up at 8 o'clock to meet our keen tuk tuk driver (keen for your money as they all are) for the day. We paid him about 5 US Dollars each to take us around part of the huge Angkor Temples as we thought it was a fair price. In was a roasting hot day as we trundled through the town on the busy roads full of scooters, bikes, cars and tuk tuks. Clouds of dust were in the air as our tuk tuk driver displayed a unhealthy cough as we continued out of town towards the entrance to Angkor Wat.

Many people come to Cambodia simply to visit Angkor Wat. Instead of trying to give you a summery of what the place is (if you don't already know) I have quoted a website below:

From http://www.sacredsites.

com

"There are two great complexes of ancient temples in Southeast Asia, one at Bagan in Burma, the other at Angkor in Cambodia. The temples of Angkor, built by the Khmer civilization between 802 and 1220 AD, represent one of humankind's most astonishing and enduring architectural achievements. From Angkor the Khmer kings ruled over a vast domain that reached from Vietnam to China to the Bay of Bengal. The structures one sees at Angkor today, more than 100 stone temples in all, are the surviving remains of a grand religious, social and administrative metropolis whose other buildings - palaces, public buildings, and houses - were built of wood and are long since decayed and gone."

We spent the day walking and climbing around various amazing temples before visiting the huge Angkor Wat itself.

What struck me from visiting all the temples was the way you can climb all over the temples and ruins (many of which looked far from safe). It was great to have this freedom but I couldn't help thinking that it must do some great damage to the temples over the years with so many visitors. This would never happen in the UK, there would be hand rails and steps everywhere incase someone wanted to sue. Angkor Wat itself was visually stunning and in amazing condition for such an old temple. We climbed its steep steps and sat high up cooling off from the sun with an great view over the jungle.The only downside to the visit was the number of group tours (usually Japanese) that probably flew into and out of town in a matter of days. They tend to tour around the site in huge buses and wander around with a guide in groups of 20 or 30. This would spoil the atmosphere when exploring some of the ruined jungle temples as you turn a corner to be confronted by 30 or so people chatting away, posing for football team like photos and general snapping photos of everything. Fortunately we managed to avoid them most of the time but I dread to think what it must be like in the high season.

Later on I'll post a few photos on the Angkor Wat entries but at the moment the computer at the internet cafe is not playing the game with my digital camera, so I can't transfer any photos.

In the evening we met up with some friends in the guest house (Garden Village Guest House) and walked into town, past the usual beggars and tuk tuks on the street. Siem Reap has mainly nice looking restaurants and seems to be very much geared towards tourist visiting Angkor Wat. To eat we chose a bbq restaurant where you place the meat on a bbq in the middle of the table, I went for the Crocodile as well as tasting snake which someone else had ordered. I wasn't too keen on the snake, but the crocodile wasn't bad, it kind of tasted of chicken and fish combined.

Tomorrow I will be revisiting some of the Temples of Angkor, of which there are many. I bought a three day pass for $40 but in reality will probably have had enough of temples after a couple of days, as impressive as they are you can only see so much of a similar thing.