Claire & Melanie's Global Trek

Day 24: Arrived in Siem Reap from Phnom Penh in one piece after those crazy unpaved dirt roads with potholes the size of a swimming pool! What an experience!! Our "driver" was driving in a zig-zag direction all the way! Greeted by the guesthouse representatives who would sell their soul to get you to stay at their accomodation. We were convinced to stay at Sweet Dreams Guesthouse, a.k.a. Simon Guesthouse, Happy House Guesthouse, who knows what is the correct name!! Really nice guys though and the room was only $2 each, with no a/c of course, (realising a/c is a luxury we cannot afford) but were happy with our sleeping quarters so we accepted! We met an English guy on the bus, Danny, so we all went for a wander in search of a restaurant. Danny managed to persuade us to eat some local Cambodian food and ate in the outside restaurants with the plastic chairs and where they cook your food outside. Cambodian food is similiar to Thai/Vietnamese- not very filling!
After dinner, we went for a walk around Siem Reap. Quite advanced again like Phnom Penn was. It had a nice atmosphere. We found the "city centre strip" or the "tourist" city centre strip full of bars and restaurants and had a drink in a bar on the corner. Was more expensive then our budget of 75c beer so we left and checked out some other bars. Angkor What? Bar was very lively and fun so we stayed in there for a few more and played pool. Neat bar with everyone's scribblings all over the wall from around the world. We didn't stay for long as we were quite exhausted from our travels and went back to the guesthouse and went to bed. We also had a lot of siteseeing the following day-Angkor Wat Temples!
Day 25: We hired a tuk-tuk driver for the day around the temples, definitely needed as the Temples are about a km + between each of them. He also tells you the most visited temples as there are over 100 spread over a 40 km radius! From the ninth to the thirteenth century, the Khmer were rulers of an empire that included Vietnam and much of Thailand, and Angkor was its capital city. After almost 600 years of conquest, plunder, theft, and the Khmer Rouge, the Angkor remains one of the wonders of the world.
Some Angkor temples are nearly fully restored. Others are undergoing restoration and can be viewed in various stages of this process. Some of the temples and complexes have been left totally untouched, giving the visitor a chance to explore the site. At its peak, it was a huge city that covered over 200 square kilometers, and up to 100,000 people were involved in constructing each of the major complexes, which include Angkor Wat, The Bayon, and Ta Prohm. Today, although much is in ruin, much is still standing. Enough remains to give you a feel for what it must have been like. But only after you've been there can you realize how amazing it is. It's one of the few places in the world that your imagination can't do it justice. No matter how awesome you imagine Angkor to be, it's even better when you see it.

The tuk-tuk driver drove to the first and most amazing temple- Angkor Wat. It's difficult to describe Angkor with words; perhaps the pictures will help. But the first thing that was striking was the immensity. Angkor Wat is huge, incredibly beautiful, and well preserved. It takes up a square kilometer and took 30 years to build. The compound at Angkor Wat covers an area of 4,920 by 4,265 ft and is surrounded by a vast moat 590 ft wide. Along the causeway leading to the enormous entrance gate are balustrades shaped as giant serpents, which are believed to represent emblems of cosmic fertility. The temple consists of a towering complex of terraces and small buildings that are arranged in a series of three diminishing stories and surmounted by five towers. The roofed and unroofed structures are covered with bands of finely carved stone sculptures. Thousands of feet of wall space are covered with intricate carving depicting scenes from Hindu mythology.

It was very very hot walking so advise plenty of sunscreen and even an umbrella! But well worth visiting!

Angkor Thom was was the next Temple. In the center of the walled city are the city’s most important monuments including Bayon, Baphuon, the Terrace of Elephants, the Terrace of the Leper King and Phimeanakas with Royal Enclosure. We visited the Bayon which is the centerpiece of Angkor Thom, which was the "Great City" enclosing the Royal Palace. From afar, The Bayon looks like a pile of rocks. Up close, it's a pyramid of towers, and each tower has a giant face carved on four sides. It is one of the most popular of Angkor's monuments and a place of narrow corridors and really steep flights of stairs! We have a video of me climbing them!
When it was built, the central tower was covered in gold leaf. Like much of the rest of Angkor, the Bayon is huge, and it's believed that it took over 20 years to build it.


The next temple was Ta Prohm. Probably my favorite of all the temples. When Angkor was rediscovered by the French in the 1860's, the jungle had grown back and covered many of the ruins. Huge fig, hapok, and banyan trees had grown on top of some of the buildings and walls, and their roots snaked down through the ruins. The roots had toppled many of the buildings, but in other cases the roots were what was holding them together. While most of the ruins were cleared of the trees and roots during restoration over the next few years, Ta Prohm was left mostly untouched as an example of how Angkor looked when the French found it. The combination of the jungle and the ruins gives it the feel of a lost civilization and the sprawling complex of standing and fallen buildings, intertwined with towering trees and massive twisted roots, still begs you to explore. I think to see a tree growing out of a temple has a magic of it's own. And that is why it is my favorite of them all.

By the way, there are so many pics so to view all the pictures in my gallery check under Claire and my name.
After our day of walking, climbing up steep steps and the heat, we were ready to sit down and rest our legs!! We had some dinner and rehydrated ourselves and our tuk-tuk took us back to our guesthouse. Later, we had a total chilled out evening and stayed around the hostel. Claire decided that she wanted to extend her siteseeing and tomorrow she goes on a trip on her own to see the other temples. I declined and was happy enough to stay and relax on my own! It is our first time apart since we've been travelling, but no tears were shed

Day 26 (Claire): After seeing the bigger temples the day before, I decided to do the second route, they were lesser known temples but pretty cool all the same. Adam was my guide for the day, and I had a tuk tuk all to myself!! East Mebon and Preah Neak Pean were the first two temples, had to climb up about 100 steps which gave sweeping views of the countryside and I could just about make out Anchor Wat five miles in the distance.. Photos were taken of course!! Ta Som, Pre Rup, Preah Khan were next.. Preah Khan was my favourite of the day, it was a smaller version of Ta Phrom, with the same mystical atmosphere with tree roots blending in with the crumbling ruins, pics to follow, i promise!! Amazing! I could've just sat there for hours... After that I asked Adam to stop off at Anchor Wat for the sunset... unfortunately it had clouded over, but still was a pretty cool setting to finish off my day of sightseeing!!!!! :-) Had a teary reunion with Mel (not!) and headed out for the night to a place called the Why Not bar!! Here we met two guys, Tad and Jordon, who challenged us at pool and they lost (again) of course! They were from Canada on a tour seeing the same sights. Stayed drinking with them till the wee hours of the morn. When we were ready to head home, there was a line of tuk tuk drivers waiting outside bars for custom.. Availed of the two dollar tuk tuk ride back to the hostel.. Seriously where are these guys when you need them on a sat night in dublin?!!?! ;-P

Day 27 (Claire): A few fuzzy heads that morn!! Arranged to meet Tad at 12:30. Took it handy, walked around Siem Reap, went into the markets where Tad decided to sample some of the local produce --- Fried Grasshoppers!!!!!! He had a choice between fried tarantula's, grasshoppers or cockroaches!!! Totally disgusting!!!

After that we went for a well deserved massage!! Went home, had some grub and headed back out that night and met up with Tad, Jordan and his tour group. Nice bunch of people! Katie O'Toole from Ireland was hilarious, kept us laughing.. had few more drinks, I called it a night at 1:00 and Mel stayed out with all till 3:00. Up next morning about 6:30 for bus to Bangkok!!