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Day 15
5th August
Today we leave Phnom Penh and head to Siem Reap for a 3 night stay where we will visit the beautiful temples at Angkor Wat. The journey is around 6 hours but we have a large coach so we can all spread out and relax. Tracey and I sit at the back and watch a film on my iPad for the first part of the journey and later on Emme joins me to watch another film. We arrive in Siem Reap around 14:30 and check in. There are no activities planned for today so it's a chance to chill out by the pool for a few hours with a beer and relax until dinner. I head off down to the pool and Roger decides to go off and explore the town. Down at the pool I'm shortly joined by Sharon and Russell then a little while later Simon and Gill followed by Tracey and finally Emme. Around 18:30 I go up to the room and get ready for dinner at 19:00. We all head out in Tuk Tuk's to a restaurant bar called "The Temple Bar". We are taken upstairs to our table and tonight we have entertainment whilst we are eating in the form of traditional Cambodian dancers. After dinner we wander the night markets for a while and then head back for an early night as we have to leave at 04:30 tomorrow to see the sun rise over Angkor Wat.
Notes:
Back in the 1960s, Siem Reap (see-em ree-ep) was the place to be in Southeast Asia and saw a steady stream of the rich and famous. After three decades of slumber, it’s well and truly back and one of the most popular destinations on the planet right now. The life-support system for the temples of Angkor, Cambodia’s eighth wonder of the world, Siem Reap was always destined for great things, but few people saw them coming this thick and this fast. It has reinvented itself as the epicentre of the new Cambodia, with more guesthouses and hotels than temples, world-class wining and dining and sumptuous spas.
At its heart, Siem Reap is still a little charmer, with old French shop-houses, shady tree-lined boulevards and a slow-flowing river. But it is expanding at breakneck speed with new houses and apartments, hotels and resorts sprouting like mushrooms in the surrounding countryside. The tourist tide has arrived and locals are riding the wave. Not only is this great news for the long-suffering Khmers, but it has transformed the town into a pulsating place for visitors. Forget the naysayers who mutter into their beers about Siem Reap in the ‘old days’, now is the time to be here, although you may curse your luck when stuck behind a jam of tour buses on the way back from the temples.
Angkor is a place to be savoured, not rushed, and this is the base to plan your adventures. Still think three days at the temples is enough? Think again with Siem Reap on the doorstep.
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