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We arrived in Siem Reep after a very interesting bus journey and my worst nightmare! We stopped at a cafe along the way and went to buy some food for on the bus there are just lots of stalls set up with people selling differnt foods, in one of the baskets there was deep fried cockroaches, then next to that was a huge basket of deep fried spiders and not the small kind these were whoppers with massive bodies and long legs then looking down into the bucket underneath the table was all the live ones big black and hairy waiting to be cooked did not expect that, we took some photos one of the women was just picking one up and crunching on it she found it wierd that we wanted photos as to them its just normal!
Obviously apprehensive about the place we arrived at the bus stop, again the hostel was not there to pick us up as our bus was late so we had to get a tuk tuk, everywhere looked cleaner and more appealing though not much around, we arrived at the place we had booked it was huge inside we felt instantly better it really was a nice place the cleanest by far we have stayed in it's spotless staff cleaning constantly. After checking into our room we came to find out more about the hotel and the guy ask if we would like to see the pets and out the back door he has 82 crocodiles we have never seen anything like it they were huge. (After visiting town a bit later on we are not sure if he actually breeds them for food as every bar sells croc steaks and burgers!) The town is really nice much different to the place before which made us feel better still children trying to sell stuff but bearable this time, we are about 10 minutes in a tuk tuk from town the hostel is fantastic for the price $5 each its great value.
One of the main things we really wanted to do was visit the Ankor Wat Temples there are over 100 temples in all and after reading about them we decided we would buy a three day ticket because it's just impossible to try and do it all in one day. We hired a tuk tuk driver "How" for the three days and we did a small tour (which was not a small tour it was huge) on day one, a big tour on day two and we decided not to do the full third day because it was so far away so we just did the sunrise tour (although unfortunatley after getting up at 4.30am we got there and it was chucking it down)
Some facts : Angkor is one of the most beautiful and suggestive places on the planet, the Angkor Wat Temples area is much bigger than the Angkor Temple alone, and, the temples were built in different times, during a four centuries process. Made by the Khmer kings in a process that lasts almost 4 centuries, this magnificent area has been abandoned and hidden by the forest. Re-discovered by a french man about 150 years ago, Angkor Wat is ready to become one of the most visited archaeological and artistic sites on the planet. It was really amazing How took us to different temples think we visited 12 altogether some of the carvings were really unreal and god knows how they managed to build them all those years ago. With the heat the days were very tiring but enjoyed the experience shame about the rain when we got up to watch the sunrise but it is rainy season!!
We have changed our plans slightly as we have not been able to get a visa and transport sorted to take us to Laos so we are getting the bus to Bangkok tomorrow and are going to stay in Chang Mi for three days (we met a girls from the States who lives over there so we are going to meet with her so she can show us round) then we move into Laos from there then back to Thailand.
Siem Reep is a really nice place with lots of history and the temples have been amazing really different, the town is great with a wicked night market with some mad stuff to do. We had a pedicure but not a normal pedicure you put you feet into these huge baths full of fish that feed off dead skin cells and they nibble all round you feet and nails a very strange experience!! I have had reflexology done Cambodian style and a foot massage it was great though a little painful and we are going to try and head to the blind massage place (the staff have all lost there sight through land mines) tonight and I am going to have a back massage!
Hope everyone is well back at home take care and will update once in Bangkok.
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