Day 45 - 31st Mar 2009

Today we had arranged for a tuk tuk to take us around the Temples of Angkor. (Technically speaking it's not a tuk tuk but that's what everyone seems to call them round here, it's a moterbike with a trailer attached and the trailer is a kinda carriage, you can fit up to 4 people in them but it's fairly comfortable with 2.) We had a nice breakfast at the hotel, the hotel has been finished very nicely with lots of cool statues and ornaments. The tuk tuk picked us up at 9am and we had arranged for him to take us round for the whole day, which I think can be up to 8 hours! First we headed to the ticket booth to buy our passes. This is extremely hi tech as they take a photo of you on a web cam and print it onto your pass. There was quite a queue but luckily for us only for the 3 day passes so we were straight through. We then went to the first temple on the tour, Angkor Wat, this is the biggest and probably most famous of them all. It is huge. We were dropped off at the entrance which is a causeway over the huge moat that surronds the grounds of the temple. Then there is a wall which is the first part of the temple, which was pretty impressive but as you walk through this you can then see the main part of the temple. It is so impressive, words can't really describe it. There is quite a distance to walk between this first wall and the main part and it is quite exposed so the sun is beating down with no relief from any shade. Thankfully the inside of the temple is cooler. Hopefully we will be able to put some pictures onto the website soon so you be able to see for yourselves as it is hard to describe the place, but it is definately a major highlight of the trip.

Next we went to Angkor Thom which is a much smaller temple but still impressive in a different way. This temple is made up of lots of bricks of stone which to start with just look a bit of a jumbled mess but as you get closer you can make out faces carved into them. Around the Angkor Thom site there are also several smaller sights to see including the Terrace of Elephants. Across the road from here are loads of souvenoir stands and stalls for food so we decided to eat here. Everytime you get near to these stalls people start shouting at you to try and sell things, so as soon as we started to cross the road a lady came across with a menu and starting talking to us. We went with her to eat at her restaurant/stall. It was all pretty cheap and the food was very good considering their kitchen is a tiny area and it's kind of like a camping kitchen. In total we had a rice dish each, 2 cans of coke and a 1.5litre bottle of water to take with us, all for $8 (US dollars). I'm not sure if we've mentioned this but the countries main currency is US dollars, except when something is less then a dollar and they use riel.

It does get kind of tiring always saying 'no thanks' to these people consistently trying to sell things, but the kids are worse. Generally speaking once you've said no to an adult they will leave you alone but the kids keep trying to put the items in your hand and follow you. Mostly this only happens outside the temple so at least you can enjoy the inside in peace.

We went to a couple of smaller temples on our way to Ta Prohm. At Ta Prohm they haven't cleared away all of the jungle so there are still trees growing from the walls of the temple. It is really weird how the buildings and the trees are joined together. Quite a bit of the temple is closed off as it is too dangerous to walk around it but some is still accessible. I think it was this temple which was used in Tomb Raider.

Like the first temple there is quite a walk to get out of the temple grounds and at the gate where our driver said he would meet us there was loads of people selling stuff. The gate to walk was pretty narrow and everyone was ready and waiting on the other side to try and sell things. Two kids even came to the Tuk Tuk and kept trying to sell us stuff as we drove off. We decided that we were all templed out after this so we got our driver to take us back. We drove a different way back to the hotel and saw some interesting sights on the way.

We were pretty tired after our days temple sight seeing but headed out to get some dinner. Adam headed into the market to buy a surprise birthday present for me while I had a beer at the cheap beer place we went to the night before. We decided to try the food there as well, and learnt that fresh spring rolls are nowhere near as nice as the fried ones!