Siem Reap, Cambodia. Wat, Wat, Wat!

I arrived in Siem Riep expecting the temples of Angkor to be the biggest highlight of my trip. Still with a poorly stomach I decided no food, a couple of vitamin waters and an early night would do the trick.

It worked the next day I was feeling almost human again. I had three days left so headed to the temples and got a three day ticket which was the same cost as two one day tickets.  

Day one I did some really impressive temples but saved Angkor Wat until a later day.  I did what was described as the small tour and planned doing the big tour either the follow day or the day after.



The start of the temple ticking

Some of the temples on the small tour were incredible.  Mind blowing in fact. My favourites had Buddhist heads sculptured into the temple, at first it was hard to see but when you looked around they were everywhere.  Another temple I liked had trees growing through it, remarkably (and no doubt with a little help from restorers) the temples remained intact.



Temple with Buddhist faces

Temple with tree growing through it

Still feeling a little gentle I decided to try out a local restaurant that always seemed busy. Genevieve's restaurant was created by an Aussie in memory of his late wife employing locals with no skills, training them up to give them a chance in life. The food and service was immaculate. I went on tripadvisor to leave my review I was that impressed but I'd been beaten to it by hundreds of other customers that made it number one choice in Siem Reap.

A mate of mine was in town, but a combination of a bad stomach and a very early start to see sunrise over Angkor Wat I declined to meet him for beers, as I felt the inevitable would have happened.

The second day temple ticking was as good if not better than the first. Watching the sunrise over Angkor Wat was glorious, but as soon as the sun had made it light enough to get photos, it was then shining directly on the camera. People with decent SLR cameras were getting great shots, almost better than the naked eye, but my photos were average at best.



Angkor Wat at dawn

One of the temples you had to cross a lake

Cows cooling down from the intense heat

The rest of that day I must have visited 6 or 7 other temples all great, but by the end I was flagging and a little bit templed out.

After a busy day and a few beers down the aptly named pub street.  Battenbang tourist board should visit Seam Reap to see what a real pub street should look like.   To be honest I didn't really like it down there preferring to find other cheaper bars or find bars with live bands. 


This is more like it, Battanbang take note

I took it easy the next day, deciding not to rush too much and slow things down.  I found out that the water festival was on in town in a couple of days so I extended my stay to 6 nights. Other than for test matches I rarely stay so long in one place. As I mentioned in my first blog I now had time to do this if I wanted, I needn't rush as I've got nowhere to rush to. 

Still in take it easy mode I spent the next morning by the pool updating my CV.  I had almost made up my mind to try an IT role again, but talks with 2 people who were teaching in Cambodia and Vietnam.  One a retired Doctor who did it for fun, but still had a reasonable salary, the other about my age took it more seriously and made a decent living from it.  The Doctor had done the TEFL training the other lad had no qualifications.



Office for the day

I had been told and shown some great photos of Angkor Wat as the sun set making it a better light to get good photos. I used my final day of my 3 day ticket to go back and get one last glimpse of the magnificent structure in the late afternoon.



Angkor Wat in better light

That night I found a cracking little bar out the back of the night market, it was selling very cold reasonably priced beers and had a guy doing an acoustic set which was very good and relaxing.  I liked that bar and stayed until the music finished.

My final day was at the river festival, which is to celebrate the end of the wet season (not that you would have known it) where the river changes direction for 6 months of the year. I'd never heard of such a thing and was sceptical but research on the Internet confirmed this.  I think it is the only river (Tonle Sap) in the world that does this. 

The festival was boat races along the river with thousands of locals lining the banks cheering the rowers on.  Hundreds of food outlets, stalls and fairground rides made it great to see locals letting their hair down.


Water festival boat races




It looked like it was going to be a proper party scene down at the festival at night and sure enough it was.  Loads of bands and stereos lined the river banks with impromptu bars set up selling cheap beer cooled in ice baths.  I was told to watch out for pickpockets and trouble makers but been twice the size of any local I never encountered any problems.




Water festival party at night

It appeared I had messed up my itinerary, all the tour agents were only selling bus tickets to Laos where you had to travel 6-7 hours in the wrong direction back to Phnom Penh making it a 14-15 hour monster bus journey.  After a bit of research I cane across a company that took a near direct route across a new road, doing the journey to Laos in about 8 hours including my ferry across to my first stop in Laos on (one of) the 4000 islands.  Anyone doing Siem Reap to Laos I'd recommend Asian Van Transfer, the minibuses are OK the information and timings are excellent. Been a single traveller I got to sit in the front all the way which meant I could stretch out and relax.

At the border I had to pay $2 to get the exit stamp from Cambodia. Pay a $1 visa handling fee in addition to the $35 visa fee and then also pay a $2 for my entry stamp into Laos.  The $35 was the official price but the other $5 had an air of been unofficial, however not much you can say when you want to get in but still leaves a bad taste.

With another full page visa stamp in my passport I was in Laos, another new country for me.