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Today we started our long slog to Siem Reap. After 3 local bus's to get to the border where we went in search for some visa's. The place that issues visa's is very well hidden and knowone helps you to find it, therefore there are alot of touts to take your passport for you to do it and obvioulsy charge commission on it. They cost $20 but we got charged a 1000 baht (20 pound) to get ours, which is still alot but it was the cheapest price paid when we asked other tourists how much they paid. We were very persistent though refusing to pay anything more than a 1000 baht. The only way to really get it for $20 would have been to get it before you arrived which we didnt do. Having to give our passports to some dodgy looking guy while he went and got it done wasn't my idea of a good time but i kept his other mate with us in case they didnt come back, however they did so that was pleasing haha! The cheeky bu**ers even tried to charge us enother 200 for their troubles. Once through to the Cambodian side of the border we had to get transportto Siam Reap. With only a few options we ended up having to get a horrible, packed, non air con bus for a rip of price of 500 baht each but we had no other choice. It took 2-3 hours longer than the expected time as we had 2 flat tyres on the way and the road was shocking. As it is such a big tourist entry point you would have thought they would do the road up but apparently a Cambodian airline company has paid the government not to repair it so more people will fly. Such a corrupt government!! We had read in our book that they make the trip as long as possible so that when you arrive in siem reap, its late and your hot and bothered so you are willing to take any accomodation usually of their choice as you are just fed up. Luckily however they took us to some amazing accomodation where another couple had booked for only $5 a night. It was so nice we couldnt believe how cheap it was, I even asked what the catch was. Apparentl it was just a bit cheaper because its slightly out of town, but that was fine with us especially when they had free tuk tuks into town anyway. Kate had all she could take for one day and was very tired and fed up so we got an early night as we arrived at 10pm anyway, it was not one of our better days though hahahaha!!!
Anyway the next morning we woke up and decided to go see the temples, mainly the infamous Angkor Wat, the biggest temple in the world and one of the seven wonders. We didnt realise how far away the temples were so at first attempted to walk to it but after stubbing my big toe and taking a huge chunk of skin of it we decided to get a tuk tuk. However first we popped into a local hair dressers to see if the had a plaster and antiseptic wipe etc. If i had walked around all day with nothing on it would have prob got infected. Anyway she sat me down pulled out some supplies, cut the huge chunk of skin hanging of my foot and doused it in pure alcohol. I was in agony and had never experienced pain like it but at least it was clean. After watching my first reaction to this stuff she tried putting some more on but in the politest possible way i told her to do one!!! So she just put a plaster on it with some cotton wool and of we went.
After arrangng a Tuk Tuk for 12 dollars for the day, we bought a 3 day pass at the ticket office. Our book said not to rush it in one day so we didnt but you could easily do it in a day and we regretted getting a 3 day pass as we only used it for 2. We really wanted to see Angkor Wat at sunrise so we gave it a miss on the first day and explored angkor Thom first CHecking out Bayon which was awesome with huge stone faces looking at you as you walked around it, as well as the terrace of the leper kings and the terrace of elephants which were really cool in their own right. After we moved onto Ta Keo which was a smaller temple on the way to Ta Prohm (where Tomb raider was filmed). To get to the top of this temple you had to climb a number of very very high and steep steps with no railings or anything. It was really quite dangerouos but it had to be done so after carefully climbing to the top we sat up their and relaxed with some cold water and admired the view. We were so content but eventually we came back down after getting some pics and moved onto Ta prohm. This was one of our favourite temples as it was really what you imagined an old temple to be like. There were huge tree routes growing all over the temple like those of Tomb Raider, I have never seen routes so big and you can see why they based the film here. A part of it was also used for one of the alien vs predator movies. We spent quite a while at this temple and got some great pics. By this time it was late afternoon and the sun was going to set within the next hour or so, so we headed to phnom Bakeng to enjoy the sunset on top of the hill where you could see a great view of Angkor Wat from the distance. Anyway after a 20 min climb to this temple we found ourselves a nice seat as the weather had been quite good all day ready for the sunset like everyone else but it wasn't that great. The views were amazing and the temple was cool but the sunset was very small, but nevertheless a great experience.
On the way back we got a tuk tuk driver to stop of at the local shop for some beers and becasuse we had such a long horrible day the day before we decided to eat at a posh restaurant called the Red Piano, which is where Angelina Jolie went when she was filming. It was a gorgeous restaurant sitting upstairs in the middle of Siem Reap and the prices were very reasonable. So we had some beer and wine and tucked into two beautiful steaks and some potatoe skins for starters. It was so good and we hadnt had a feed like that yet, we were so full. COntent doesn't even begin to express the way we felt after that meal haha! After dinner we mooched around some of the stools in town and then had some cocktails at one of the busy and popular tourist bars. We didnt have to bigger session though as we had to be up for 4.30 the next morning to get to Angkor Wat for sunrise, ouch!! which i can tell you now was beautiful. We got their nice and early and the sunset was really nice. Im sure there has been better but we were still really pleased with it. The sun shone of the big pond surrounding ankgor wat and you could see the reflection of it in the water making for a great picture. We went around this huge temple with some friends we had met the day before last on our long journey which was cool and then went our sepearte ways for the rest of the day. Angkor Wat was truly a very memorable experience, it was a shame that there was some scaffolding on the third temple, as they were doing repair work but it was such a big temple that you hardly noticed it to be honest and from a distance you couldnt even tell. Walking back to our tuk tuk we saw a small grass snake but it quickly disappeared between the grass. Moving on from Angkor Wat we visited Preah Khan and Ta Som which were cool but nothing compared to that of the other temples we have seen and they took a long ride a bit out of town to the land mine museum, which was really interesting. The guy who set it up use to be part of the Khmer Rouge, no fault of his own. Eventually he realised how much damage the land mines were doing and he set up a clearing up operation whcih he has been doing for years now. I can't remember how many mines and bombs etc he has cleared but it was a hell of a lot. He also looks after a large group of kids who have been affected by these landmines whether they have lost parents or been victims themselves so needless to say we gave some donations, checked out the museum, which was really small but detailed and then headed back to Angkor Wat after some lunch for one last look when the sun was completely out which again was very nice. On the way back from the land mine museum we saw little pigglets being carted in big cages on the back of mopeds, ox's farming the crop and many other locals going about their day to day chours which was nice. That night we had some dinner at the hotel restaurant and stayed up drinking with roul, our holland friend and another really sound couple. The next day we were leavin for Phnom Penh so we said our goodbyes and got our heads down about 2am. The killing fields and section 21 prison are our next sight seeing locations in Phnom Penh which is meant to be very very disturbing to say the least!!!
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