After getting up at 4.30am on my birthday we got another early morning train from Bangkok and headed towards the Thai Cambodian border crossing at Poipet.
Leanne had carefully wrapped presents for me in newspaper and we decided on opening one every hour until we got to Siem Reap which made the trip much more interesting! I ended up with a Liverpool shirt, headphones, face scrub, new boxers, nerds, refreshers and jammie dodgers!!! Not to mention lots of cards that had been sent over secretly from home which made me a little emotional.
We crossed the border relatively easily and headed on a free government bus to the nearest town, which was where the fun started. The people who where nice to us started quoting us stupid prices for a taxi to Siem Reap so we teamed up with a newly married English/American couple and split the 3 hour taxi ride which cost us US$7.50 each (bargain).
We eventually arrived at our guesthouse which was called Hak's House and it is a really great place and Hak helps you out without ripping you off and he even sorts Tuk Tuk's at set prices which saved us a few dollars. That night we went for a nice Cambodian/Indian curry to celebrate the big 30 and enjoyed a few Angkor beers.
The next day we chilled out and looked around Siem Reap which is an awesome little city and booked our Tuk Tuk to go around Angkor Wat the next morning. So we awoke again at 4.30am and headed to Angkor Wat to watch the sunrise, it is a truly magical place and it is hard to describe the scale of the place unless you've been - but it is basically a city that has been abandoned to the jungle after it was sacked by Siam. Despite the hoards of tourists it is still easy to find places where you can be totally alone. We then moved onto Angkor Thom (which is even bigger than Wat) and included Bayon (which is the temple of 4 faces), next on the list was Ta Keo which was nice and secluded and we enjoyed a walk through the ruins that are scattered about the jungle. The next big ruin worth mentioning is Ta Prom which is a massive temple complex that has been uprooted by huge trees and there giant roots and it is quite a surreal sight.
At the end of the day we where templed out and it was extremely hot!!! so we headed back for a few beers and to sample some fish Amok (traditional Cambodian fish dish) and it's pretty spectacular.
We spent the next day exploring the markets and enjoying some cake at the Blue Pumpkin which is an amazing bakery. We then booked our tickets for Phnom Penh and the following morning said goodbye and thanks to Hak and headed for the bus station.
Next stop Phnom Penh......
To see our pictures from Siem Reap please click on the link below;
https://picasaweb.google.com/112941139607408893724/SiemReapCambodia1stTo5thAugust2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCPiw_tfmiJuXJQ#
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