We had six days to go from Si Phan Don in southern Laos to deep inside the Cambodian jungle. All we had to do in that time was see everything that Cambodia's two largest cities have to offer, check out a temple complex that's way off the tourist trail, pay our respect at the Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre and Tuol Sleng (S21) Museum, sort out visas for Vietnam within a day, squeeze in 24 hours of travel, keep you needy lot updated on our movements and sleep, eat and have the odd beer.
We arrived in Siem Reap way beyond beer o'clock and broke one of our main travel no no's - eating dumbed down local food at foreigner prices at your guesthouse. However, after thirteen hours of travel a cold Angkor was a slice of heaven and helped to soften the blow.
After less than a day in Siem Reap we were nailing it. We'd seen markets, eaten some great street food, organised a tuk-tuk to go and see that little temple the following morning and had bus tickets to get us to Phnom Penh the day after. We were nailing it until this guy sucked us in.
It was mid afternoon and we had time up our sleeve to squeeze in a pizza, chill for a bit and then head out at night. Unfortunately for us the restaurant owner had different ideas. He took a bit of a liking to us and wanted us to be happy that day. EXTRA happy in fact. "Have good sleep", he beamed as we began the journey back to our guesthouse.
6pm came and went. 11pm came and went. 4am came. Oh no, 4am!! Time to get up, time to get up, time to get to Angkor Wat for sunrise. "Nix? Nix!! You getting up?" A little green monster rolled over and stared back at me and I knew Angkor wasn't happening. You go back to sleep my love, I'll go and have a conversation with our driver and try to explain that you're not well, at four in the morning, through extremely broken English.
Time to reconsider that grand plan.
The temples of Angkor would have to wait until the following morning. They haven't gone anywhere in a long, long, long time so that was fine. But Phnom Penh would need to be compacted down into one very hectic afternoon and night.
So, we again woke at 4am and this time it seemed infinitely easier to get out of bed. And safe in the knowledge that we were getting up for this -
it was a breeze.
And we pretty much had the sunrise to ourselves so that was nice.
After witnessing one of the world's most famous sunrises we spent some time wandering around Angkor Wat taking it in in the cool morning air where despite the grandeur of the temple, it was the macaques warming up to a day of mischief that stole the show.
Oh the pleasure in watching a tourist with no understanding of the type of monkey that they had on their hands steal their Oreos from their unsuspecting, weak as a wet hankie, grip.
Oh the pleasure in watching a tourist with no understanding of the type of monkey that they had on their hands steal their Oreos from their unsuspecting, weak as a wet hankie, grip.
Next stop was Angkor Thom and Bayon - the one with all faces
We found our fearless tuk-tuk driver, Mr Dorn, amongst an ocean of tuk-tuks and off we went. The approach to Angkor Thom is quite surreal with 54 gods and 54 demons facing off on the bridge over the moat and it was made all the more surreal by the elephant sauntering along alongside as us we crossed.
Here are some pictures of serene Bayon.
Final stop was Ta Prohm - the jungle one. The one that was used in Tomb Raider
Ta Prohm has been left to continue its battle with the jungle to the point that some trees within the temple are the sticky tape and chewing gum that hold the place together. Some of the roots of the centuries old trees have more heft about them than most other trees can ever aspire to.
It's a lovely, green temple and was a nice one to finish on. Those three epic temples are part of the Small Circuit and to temple buffs it's pretty much sacrilegious to only do those three and to only spend a day at the complex but to us non-temple buffs that was enough. "The Eighth Wonder of the World" (hmm...) had lived up to its billing and we were more than satisfied with our experience. Time for another ice cold Angkor.
CLICK HERE for Phnom Penh and the Killing Fields.
