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We left Phnom Penh on Wednesday bound for Siem Reap. Our bus was at 1.30pm but after arriving at the offices of the company we had booked with, we were put onto a minivan to go to another company's office to catch one of their buses. It seemed to take ages to get out of Phnom Penh, we aren't sure whether it was due to the size of the city or that we were driving around in circles. We eventually got out of Phnom Penh and after one stop and a bus ride that was a couple of hours longer than advertised, we were in Siem Reap.
Our first day in Siem Reap was spent exploring the centre of town. We had a good look around whilst dodging in and out of shops and cages for cooling drinks and welcome fans and air conditioning. We also had a look around the central market where I got some much needed replacement sunglasses and we picked up some stuff for home. We also went to the night market on Thursday which is a lot
more relaxed than any other markets we have been to in Vietnam, Cambodia or Thailand. We grabbed some food and bought a few more things as well.
Unfortunately, the next few days were a bit of a write off as I was ill with a big we think I may have picked up from the bus from Phnom Penh. I had recovered enough by Monday for us to visit the famous Angkor Wat. We hired a tuk tuk for the day from our hotel and we first visited the actual Angkor Wat. This is probably the most intact / best restored of all the temples and it was fascinating to walk around. It has the biggest moat I have ever seen around it and the fact that it was built in the 12th century seemed unreal to us. We then went to a temple called Bayon which had loads of faces carved into the stonework. By this time it had started to rain heavily, which was refreshing from the brutal heat. We then walked around a few other temples and the Royal Palace area before we went to Ta Prohm temple. This was my favourite part of the complex as this is yet to be restored and some of the trees have giant roots which have taken over parts of the temple. We were told that some of Lara Croft Tomb Raider was filmed her and you can see why. We both really enjoyed visiting Angkor Wat and would definitely recommend it for anyone in Asia.
We've now got one final day in Siem Reap, which Beth has designated shopping day before we go to Thailand. Yes that's Thailand where there has just been a military coup!! Unfortunately this happened about an hour after we had just booked our bus tickets to Bangkok. Our plan is to spend two nights in Bangkok before we head down to the Thai islands where Beth is super excited to spend 6 or 7 weeks on the beach. That sounds excessive to me but I did promise her that we would have plenty of time on the beach before we came home.
We've really enjoyed Cambodia even though we have only visited the two major cities. The people have been friendly and the sites and history have been fascinating. One thing we've noticed is some of the ridiculous cars which they have here. We've never seen so many Range Rovers on the roads and there are also plenty of Hummer's, Audi's and Merc's which has surprised us given how poor the majority in the country are.
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