Siem Reap, Cambodia

Last day in Saigon! I was a little hungover this morning it seems and it was a bit of a rush to check out but managed it ok eventually. We ducked over to the next street for a quick breakfast and then decided to make a quick dash to the market to pick up some knock-off North Face jackets for the potentially cold nights ahead of us in Southern Africa. It was hot and hectic and a bit of a tight timeframe to get there and back but we managed somehow and made it the the airport in time for our flight to Siem Reap.

Arriving in Siem Reap we were ecstatic to see that there was a guy (Sock) waiting to pick us up as planned...off to a good start! Sock gave us a lift to our guest house in his tuk-tuk and after quickly settling in we went for a wander down the main road which leads back into town. Eventually we stumbled upon a very nice, very quick and very cheap little restaurant called Khmer Kitchen. What a great meal we had! Afterwards we headed back home on foot and called it stumps pretty early.

A quiet day today to figure out our plans for Siem Reap starting with our free breakfast at the guesthouse, then a tuk-tuk with Sok who dropped as off at the Royal Gardens. From there we walked south along the river and had a quick lunch and checked out the markets. As it grew dark we headed to the aptly named "Pub Street" to check out some of the local restaurants and nightlife. Sandra eventually convinced me to join her for a fish spa - where you dangle your feet into a big fish tank and scores of fish nibble away at the dead skin. A novelty for sure but not sure there is much value to ge gained apart from the "Dr Fish: happy and funny!" catchphrase.

For dinner we headed upstairs at a cheap local place with a view from the balcony and eventually grabbed another tuk tuk back to Golden Mango for an early night ahead of our big tour of the temples tomorrow.

Big temple day! We started extremely early by heading to Angkor Wat for sunrise which was very nice by slightly marred again by all the people trying to sell you books, food or souvenirs! We didn't stay too long before heading down the road in our charter tuk-tuk along the Grand Circuit. Next stop was a much smaller temple but it was all but deserted and actually pretty cool. After that we took a long drive northwards followed by a hike to get to the famous river carvings. They are bascially stone carvings etched into the stone river bed which are who knows how many years old...but after the long hike and long drive it was a let down it must be said. Back on board the tuk-tuk, next stop was the Temple of Women (Bante Srai) whcih had been previously recommended to us by fellow travellers back in Luanng Prabang. Still a bit disappointing we both agreed.

By now it had already been a long day but we still had plenty of ground to cover. We altered our route and headed towards Angkor Tom via Tah Prom. Wow, this one did not disappoint! It has been left pretty much untouched and it is breathtaking the way that the jungle has moved back in to reclaim the landscape over the past few hundred years (at least?).

Angkor Tom next - pretty cool but getting tired by now. Last stop was back at Angkor Wat where we spent another half hour or so purusing the carvings and venturing inside the main walls. Two separate polcemen offereed to let us climb up the closed of central tower for US$20 but we declined.

In the evening we went again to the Khmer Kitchen which was just as good for the second time!

Yesterday destroyed us so today we had a much more relaxed schedule. After breakfast we rode bikes into town and checked out the main market again before eventually buying two little North Face knock-off day packs for our upcoming African trip. After riding back we had dinner and lined up our accommodation for Phnom Penh via telephone and had a few games of cards and a few beers.