Phnom Penh - Siem Reap (321km)

The Giant Ibis bus to Siem Reap seemed a little newer than the bus we took from Ho Chi Minh to Phnom Penh and it had more leg room which was a bonus (plus the air conditioning was actually working).
The journey took just under 6.5hours and it was fairly uneventful. We noticed how incredibly dry Cambodia is, particularly in comparison to Vietnam where we saw mile after mile of green rice paddies.

We arrived in Siem Reap about 6.45pm and checked into the Angkor Pal Boutique Hotel. It is extremely basic and a bit dingy but it is costing us $12 per night including breakfast so we really can't complain.
Although this is the first hotel room where we have had to receive instructions as to how to operate the hot water in the "shower".

Siem Reap has much more tourist influence than Phnom Penh, and there are still a lot of people here even though it is the low season.
Every new place that we move to the temperature just seems to increase. In Siem Reap the temperature gets between 29 and 35 degrees celsius but it feels like 34 to 40 degrees with the humidity.

Our first night we walked about 10 minutes into the Pub Street area and had italian food from Il Forno for dinner and saw the carts selling 'fried ice cream rolls'.

Our first day in Siem Reap we booked ourselves a guided tour of Angkor Wat for the following day. Then we spent the day walking around town and then had a traditional Khmer massage before having dinner at a dumpling bar.

Unfortunately during the night I developed a bad stomach ache and nausea so this was not a good start to our day at Angkor Wat, but I was so excited that I pushed through although I felt unwell all day.

(Photos: the Angkor Pal Boutique Hotel room, grounds, and pool; Siem Reap town, Pub Street day and night).

Our guide Nak picked us up from our hotel at 4.45am and we made it to Angkor Wat for sunrise which was breathtaking. Nak was very friendly and knowledgeable about the temples. After watching the sunrise we spent a few hours exploring the Angkor Wat complex. We really admired the level of detail in the sandstone carvings, statues and architecture although it was sad to see that almost every statue has had its head removed to sell on the black market to rich people who want to have a 1000 year old statue head in their fucking lounge room.

Nak also explained to us that various other countries sponsor restoration of different parts of Angkor Wat and other temples in order to maintain the complex, although Australia is yet to become a sponsor.

From Angkor Wat we moved on to Ta Prohm which is known as the jungle temple due to all of the trees growing through the temple ruins. A lot of work has been done to try and restore and maintain the temple but it is nowhere near as well preserved, or as big, as Angkor Wat. Although the trees look really cool with their roots growing through the sandstone, they are actually directly causing the degradation of the temple.

(Photos: Angkor Wat complex).

We saw one more temple before lunch (can't remember the name of it but Nak explained that the King at the time built it in honour of his teacher), this was the smallest and least preserved temple that we saw.

We had lunch at a small restaurant in the archeological park which was directly opposite from a large dried up lake/dam which Nak called the Royal Swimming Pool.
After lunch I started to feel really sick so we decided to do just one more temple before heading back.

We headed to the ruins of the ancient city of Angkor Thom and saw the Bayan temple (temple of faces). This was one of our favourite temples of the day and we were really impressed at how well preserved most of the faces are after nearly 1000 years.

We got back to the hotel about 2pm and spent the rest of the day relaxing in the air conditioning. Matt swam in the pool while I rested in bed.

(Photos: Ta Phrohm; Bayan temple).

The next day I felt even worse and it was clear I had developed a case of travellers diarrhoea. So we spent most of the next two days resting as much as possible. On our third day in the afternoon we went to the Made in Cambodia markets which was really fun. Aside from buying some socially responsible souvenirs we also tried Cambodian craft beer and rice wine and saw performances of traditional music, dance and circus performers.

On our fourth and last day I went to a class through Backstreet Academy to make a car tyre bag with a local lady named Chantra. A guy on a motorbike picked me up at 2pm and took me to Chantra's house which was located in a small village out towards the Angkor Wat archeological park. I was the only person in the class and I really enjoyed making the tyre bag, as well as learning a bit about Chantra and her home and family. She and the translater were both really friendly and funny and it was a great experience. While I was in the class Matt was at a nearby hotel having a drink and swimming in the pool (which was much nicer than the one at our hotel). The hotel was very fancy and during the high season it would be full of rich people, but as it was the low season and there was no one there they were just happy to have a couple of customers.

The next day we checked out at 12pm and then went straight to the Siem Reap international airport for our flight to Bangkok.
(Photos: Made in Cambodia markets; dinner date; Matt in full holiday mode; tuk tuk to the airport).