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Day 3 and we had 2 tuk tuk's and a guide booked to show us the temples. We saw Angkor Thom, Angkor Wat and an amazing (and my favourite) jungle temple that had featured in Tomb raider. The temples were stunning but crowded with thousands of Japanese tourists. We had to make sure we drank plenty of water as it was searingly hot. Ten years ago these temples had a couple of thousand visits per year. Last year they had over 3 million, mainly Chinese and Japanese tourists, visit. The temples had flip flopped between being Hindu and Buddhist over the centuries and this was evident by the decapitated Buddhas. Restoration of the temples continues, funded by a number of different countries. The scale of the restoration is huge; Imagine a 300,000 piece puzzle, where the pieces are scattered over 10 hectares, all weigh more than a person can lift and you don't know how many pieces are missing, good effort from all involved I say. Sadly, many artifacts have been stolen over the years; sold on the black market.
The final part of the trip involved us walking up to a mountain temple from which we could view the sunset; a beautiful end to a very memorable day.
We had booked a meal at a restaurant recommended to us. It was run by a French couple and had a 7 course tasting menu. The place, The Blue Cauldron, was a bit of a b***** to find. We were quite excited by the menu (well, Scott and I were) because among other things, there was a frog course. The amuse bouche arrived which was very pleasant, the frog and calamari was quite delicious and that was it. The rest of the food was bloody shocking, except for the lime sorbet. As it happened, the meal was very entertaining. Geoff tried the frog, which he hated and then found he had some stuck in his teeth, which almost made him sick. Scott ate a whole bird's eye chilli, as he didn't think it would be hot and proceeded to cry for the next 10 minutes. The owner who started off friendly, didn't speak with us again after the plates started being returned almost untouched. The only thing which we didn't laugh about was the price $155 for us all! So, if you do go to Cambodia, avoid this place.
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