Siem Reap and Angkor Wat

Well, at 07:00 it was time to move off and go BIATCH. We took a rather comfyairconditioned bus to Siem Reap, a tourist trap located North west of Phnom Penh. 5 hours later, we arrived at your destination, blissfully unaware of the raging mob of Tuk-Tuk drivers waiting to do business with us (in case I haven't mentined this before, a Tuk Tuk is kind of an motorcycle taxi). In Siem Reap, they use an interesting tactic where the ride to the hotel is rather cheap (one reason is that they want more business but also they get provision for delivering disoriented backpackers and tourists to some hotells) but then they get paid for driving tourists around the ancient site of Angkor Wat, a buddist monestary. The point being that they will drive you around for the entire stay for a humble price of 8 dollars after violent bargaining. So with the price fixed we decided to put our money in use so out we went. First stop, the legendary Angkor Wat, a temple long lost (not really, people have always been taking care of it) and then discovered by a french explorer (this also incorrect, he wasn't even the first westerner to visit and document the place but let bygones be bygones). The temple was to say the least, astonishing. Beautiful architecture, well taken care of and the view was awesome ( thats including a couple of rather attractive french girls but excluding practically the rest of the toursit hoard). After that and a mild case of carbonmonoxide poisoning from the traffic surrounding the place and the ride back to Siem Reap, it was time to endulge ourselves in a Khmer (Khmer is the name of the Cambodian people) all-you-can-eat buffe with live Khmer performances (music and theatre kind of, I can't really describe it. Dave, you would have loved this place. Well, the party continued after the meal and we went down to a small guesthouse with our driver where we enjoyed a couple of pints of good cambodian Lager.

The next day, after a quick breakfast and well, nothing more, we meet with our severely hungover driver who supposedly was going to take us to the Angkor Wat site so we could see the rest of the temples. We felt ambivalent feeling when he told us that he won't take us around today but instead his friend will. Sad because he was a really cool dude who spoke quite good english and relieving since regardless of if he was hungover or still drunk, he probably wouldn't have been a very safe driver.
So off we went, going around from temple to temple. Some were rather nice, like Ta Keo with no guards. We climed up in one of the towers, found a nice block of stone to relax on and enjoyed the view. Also, it wasn't very attractive to tourist (actually it is one of the few temples that was never really finished so technically it was just rocks with no fancy shmancy decorations or such).

Others were really interesting like Ta Phrom which was completly forgotten and overgrown by the jungle.
The Sites were crowded with people trying to sell various things, everything from Lonely Planet copies (actually bought one for $5, good price and a rather well made copy) to postcards. Speaking of postcards sellers. We met this adorable little girl trying to sell us postcardbundles for $1. After following us around for at least 5 minutes, urging us to send postcards to our girlfriends and relatives she asked what we wanted. When we said nothing she replied:
"Nothing costs $10, postcards only $1. Nothing is more expensive!"
How cute. Regardless of that, we weren't suckered into buying anything but still what she said is stuck in my head. What a salepunch! In a couple of years she'll be able to sell freezers to eskimos. Cleever girl.

And finally we watched the sundown with at least 100 fellow toursits at a tower overlooking the jungle of Cambodia. Now it's time to go out and eat and see what nightlife Siem Reap has to offer.
Thank you friends and stay tuned.

And pretty please with sugar on top, could you be so kind and click on the ads?

Yours

Martin C