Day 16 - Grabbed breakfast quite early as our tuk tuk was picking us up at 08:00. Nice breakfast with eggs how you wanted, a large French baguette to munch on and lots of fruit. Guess they give you quite a bit to keep you going whilst strolling round all day.

We set off with 'Sam' our tuk tuk driver and the plan for the day was to visit about 6 or 7 temples (the 'grand circuit') but none of them Angkor Wat as we wanted to leave this until tomorrow. The temple system starts about 7 or 8 kms outside of Siem Reap and about half way there is the ticket office which was manic! You get your photo on you ticket so everyone has o queue even the tour groups. We drove round the moat of Angkor Wat but couldn't actually see it. The moat was huge so we just imagined how big the actual temple was.

The first Wat we visited was Pre Rup with its numerous towers overlooking the local rice fields. About 45 minutes round here we were back on the tuk tuk for a long journey out to Banteay Srei, some 25 kms away. It houses some of the finest stone carvings ever seen, so much so that legend has it that this temple must have been built by a woman as the carvings are too fine for that of a mans hand! This one was pretty busy with tour groups. Making the long journey back we went to Eastern Mebon which is a smaller version of Pre Rup. It had some impressive elephants in the corners of each level, all with amazing detail. Lots more steps and as it was so hot the body soon says no more. Ta Som was next on the list and then it was definitely time for some lunch. We asked Sam where a good place to eat was and he took us to a roadside place near to Preah Neak. Sam did say that all restaurants are expensive in the temple area and he wasn't wrong, $4.80 for some chicken and rice! We had 2 of these but no drink as this was hideously expensive. Gave the guy a $10 note and he said "yep, $10 dollars", "er, no, some change please"! The change wasn't really anything to write home about but it was the principle of it as the prices were ridiculous. He still only gave me half the change we were due.

Walked across the road to Preah Neak which was on an island so we had to walk along a thin, long walkway made of wood before reaching the temple. Most of it was under water as most of the carvings were sunk into the ground so we could only see the tips of some of the carvings but it didn't help that you can't get close to this temple as they have fenced it off.

Last but not least Preah Khan, one of the largest temple complexes at Angkor. First sight is the causeway which is flanked by numerous (now mostly headless) men carrying a nagas (large snake), these seen to be a running theme on a lot of the temples and mightily impressive.

That was definitely enough for one day and we headed back to the hotel through the impressive north and south gates of Angkor Thom. On route we went past the western boundary of Angkor Wat and there it was in all its glory, extending skyward. Certainly gave us a glimpse of what to expect and look forward to tomorrow. When Sam dropped us off, he asked about tomorrow and we stupidly said we'd like to see sunrise at Angkor Wat. Asking what time this meant leaving the hotel, the reply was.......05:00, "I'm sorry, did you say 5am?!" As it was one of things we came to Siem Reap for, suppose we should do it so we agreed.

Back at the hotel we showered and chilled out for a while, grabbing a drink in the bar which was very much deserved. Out for dinner we went to a place called 'Fathers' and had another great meal at a family run restaurant instead of the cattle market near pub street. Good bit of timing as 5 minutes after we arrived, it was jammed with a large party of Chinese. We like to see ourselves as trend setters! We headed to a night market for a quick look around and then back to the hotel for an early night ready for our early morning start.