Angkor Wat & Siem Reap

Yesterday morning we arrived in Siem Reap. We were dropped off at the bus depot and got a tuk tuk ride into town. We didn't know where to stay so we asked some travellers that were on the bus with us for a recommendation and they suggested Encore Angkor. We asked to be brought to the same hotel as them but when we got to the main street our tuk tuks went in opposite directions. We had no idea about where we were going but figured he was taking us to one of his friends hotels. Unbelieveable to both of us we actually arrived at the right hotel. The hotel is by far the nicest we have stayed in thus far. It is very peaceful and the hotel staff are very nice.

Once we got checked in we decided to get some breakfast. We started walking down the street but there was nothing we could find. We decided to walk back to the hotel and low and behold there was a restaraunt directly across the street. It had a sign for laundry service above it so it was a little decieving. Jason and I both ordered the omlette and bread with a couple shakes which came out to $4 total.

After breakfast we hired a tuk tuk driver for 2 days to take us on a tour of the Angkor Wat temples. On arrival we finally got our first view of the temple of Angkor Wat. This is the most popular of the temples of Angkor. It is 1/2 wide by 1/2 mile long. We spent a good 2 hours at this temple alone. The enormity and detail of the work done by the ancient Kymer is difficult to describe. After we were done with the Angkor Wat temple we visited at least another 8 temples that all had different and interesting characteristics. Wakling through the ruins and seeing the smiling faces on the sculptures of the Bayan temple was definitely a highlight. We took a break during the middle of the day to get some lunch and take a siesta in some hammocks they had in the restaurant. We finished off the day at a temple at the top of a hill to watch the sunset.

On day two we had to wake up a 4:30am to meet the tuk tuk driver ("Lucky") to get a ride back to Angkor Wat for the sunrise. Unfortunately the clouds blocked most of the sunrise so we were only able to get a couple pictures. We then headed off to Banteay Srei which was about 27km away. This wat ("temple") had some amazing carvings in the sandstone walls that has been preserved for the past 1000 years. We then headed back to the main temple area and hit a few more wats before calling it a day. We headed back to the hotel for some nice R&R in the pool.

Tomorrow we head to Thailand.