Tip No. 7 Go to Angkor Wat at sunrise, might be an early start but you miss the crowds! (almost)

Have to say, that I think Siem Reap has been one of my favourite places so far - there is a lot to do around the city and the area is really nice.

However - we didn't have one of our best starts here...we had a huge mix up with our buses from Laos to Cambodia, and after crossing the border (where we had to pay $1 to get our temperature taken??!) we realised that the bus we were meant to get on wasn't there and wouldn't be until the following morning (still not sure who's fault it was...probably ours though). After around 15 hours travelling already and with it being around 35 degrees, we got onto a different bus...luckily the guy spoke really good English and we managed to get all the way to Siem Reap. But this meant that we arrived into the city at around 1am with nowhere pre booked to stay...long story short, we had an arguement with a Tuk Tuk driver but found a hotel at about 2am.....

Anyway....the first full day we were there we decided to get a Tuk Tuk around 15km out of the city to a small village which is completely in the water. All of their houses are on stilts, and they get round in little boats - even the police station and schools are high up, out of the water. It was amazing to see how they lived their lives in this way but definitly made me grateful for Woodhall Spa!! I think I'd like it for maybe a week and then be sea sick for the rest of it.
We also took out a little canoe through the 'flooded forest' which is loads of Mangrove trees - the whole time we were doing this Rach was doing an impression of a proper Geordie in a nature programme....fun to travel with her!!!

On our second day and after a lot of persuasion, we got up at 4am to go to Ankor Wat...it was amazing to see at sunrise and by 7am it was heaving with tourists so we were glad we went that early!!
And we were finished by about 10am!!

Think we are a little templed out now so we are heading on to Phnom Penh and then onto Sihanoukville for beaches :)

Lots of love, Helen xxxxxx