Siem Reap and Angkor Wat

Last Thursday Anna and I caught a bus to Siem Reap, we chose to take the public transport bus rather than the limosuine option, this led to an interesting 5 hours! Families of 4 or 5 crammed onto 2 seats and babies throwing up everywhere! But at least it was air conditioned! At the stops, there were all sorts of delicacies to try spiders, cockroaches, large pots of 'stew'! Made it up however, found a beautiful hotel with air con and 2 beds in one room for all only $13 a night!
The next morning we woke early and caught a tuk tuk to the airport to pick up Andrew (one of my uni lecturers). The photos are a little mixed up but will try to explain as I go through, the one above is Andrew and Anna in front of the 1st wall of Angkor Wat, with the moat on either side of them.

This is Angkor Wat, largest temple in Cambodia, built originally by the Hindu's but taken over by the Buddhists, was constructed around 900-1100 AD.

This photo is taken on the first day we spent around $15 and an hour on a tuk tuk on a dirty pot holey road to get out to some of the further away temples. This is the first one we visited called Bantey Srey, this was one of the only doorways I found that I could fit through! Gee they must have been super short back in the day! Anna was fine, but Andrew who was even taller than me had many probs!

Here is the one and only photo from Phnom Penh, I got sick on the last day of Siem Reap and Andrew had his ATM card swallowed by the machine so Andrew and I stuck around for another day longer, and caught a cheap bus back on Monday instead of Sunday with Anna. This bus was nice and not too crowded however the air con broke! 6 hours on a bus no air con! Possibly the stinkiest I have been since I've been in Cambodia! mmm so attractive!

After we got back we showered and went out to dinner on the river front in PP, ate fish amok (Cambodian national dish a type of coconut curry that comes in a banana leaf) and mixed veges and vegeterian lasagne, was amazing food and amazingly cheap! ahh i love cambodia!

As I was saying before, I did not always fit into all the doorways! this is a prime example!

The second temple we visited we got to climb to the top of up some amazingly narrow stairs, made only for people with size 2 feet! This is the view down onto the ruins, while we were at this temple one little boy trying to sell us postcards said "where are you from?"we replied NZ and he said "ahh Wellington is capital city.... 4million people.... and 16 million sheep!" hehehe, plus when Andrew said he was from Australia the boy said "A dingo stole my baby", very amusing, he couldnt work out which country ''Mars" was!

This is the second temple we visited called Prey Re, I think!? Massive and huge! long way up! and down for that matter!

These two beautiful litte girls were giving away Lotus flowers at Bantey Srey, I put one in my hair, I was quite suprised as they weren't asking for money just giving away flowers and drawings, quite novel!

Me in the tuk tuk on the trip out, I got the worst seat with no back! The second day however we rode pushbikes out to Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom (the walled city), It was only about 30kms that we rode but in the searing heat, went through around 10 L of water each! Saw some amazing sights because you go a lot slower so get to play with all the cheeky monkeys and chat with the locals.

Andrew in front of Bantey Srey , you will notice I have more photos of Bantey Srey than the others because my camera batteries died, and of course I forgot my charger! oops.

This last temple is Ta Phrom, it is the one that is covered in trees and vines, that Lara Croft Tomb Raider was filmed at, one of my favourites! Except very busy with heaps of our groups so you never got anytime to yourslef to just sit and reflect.

Back at Bantey Srey again, with my Lotus flower and my new ''Dior" sunnies, apparently they are genuine and made in Italy!? For only $3!

So that was the majority of my trip, on the last day when we were stuck in Siem Reap, Andrew and I caught a tuk tuk to Chong Kneas where we caught a boat to the floating villages! Everything possible floating! like a church a school and police station houses everything! We stopped at a fish and croc farm for lunch, it was sad really around 50 crocs crammed into a space of around 10m square!

Made it back to PP fine, however and I've been to the doctors so am getting better! Off to Svay Rieng Monday, to try my hand at the country life!

... more soon.... thanks to everyone who is looking and appreciating! Makes me feel like my hours spent arguing with the technology are not all a waste! xx