We arrived to Siam Reap late on Sunday (about
8pm) after a 13 hour bus journey from Ho Chi Minh. This was definitely the nicest and least stressful border crossing we've experienced. Partly because our bus driver organised it and partly just because the system seems a lot more sophisticated and less shovy than the ones from Thailand/ Laos and Laos/ Vietnam. We walked into the old town from our hostel (Mad Monkey) and went for dinner at a place called Red Piano. I had a fish Amok which was delish and is the national dish. Amy had a vegetable Khmer curry, Kate a penang curry and Becki sweet and sour chicken. We all really enjoyed the food even though we'd been warned by some that Khmer food isn't anything particularly special.
We tried to have an early night ready for our
4.30 am start to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat, the worlds largest religious complex. We woke up (with great difficulty) and were ready by 5 for our driver Leo who we had hired for the day for $20. Not bad rate at all. He took us to Angkor Wat ready for the (sadly quite disappointing) sunrise at about half 6. The place was so crowded even at 5.30 when we arrived. A ticket for entry to all the temples for the day is $20 and with that we ended up visiting about 5/ 6 of them and saw countless others, getting back to the hostel exhausted, hot and hungry at about 12.
We obviously started at Angkor Wat which was pretty impressive and full of ridiculous lunch stealing monkeys. We wandered around and avoided the monkeys (and laughed at them stealing from other people) for about an hour and a half and headed back to meet Leo. We walked through the South Gate of Angkor Thom and then he took us to Bayer which is a temple covered in faces of the then King of Angkor. It was quite a cool one and much more of a ruin than Angkor Wat which we all liked. We couldn't believe how hot it was at 8.30 in the morning, at this point we were all absolute sweaty messes. We then walked from Bayer to the Terrace of the Elephants which was really tall so there was a fantastic view from the top (there was also an almost breeze which we all loved). Next up was To Kao which none of us were very fussed by so we just walked the perimeter.
Last up was the one I had been most excited about and had been trying to tell the girls about. Ta prhom. Its the temple that has been engulfed by the jungle and theres trees growing through it and it makes it feel like you're the first person to discover it. I was absolutely loving it, pretending to be Lara Croft (because some of Lara croft was filmed there) and being really annoyingly excited when the others were tired and hot. But it was one of my trip highlights so far, I just loved it. Everytime I saw a tree growing out of the building it excited me. Its just so funny.
After lunch (sandwiches and burgers all round) we went back to the hostel for some well needed and well deserved naps. The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent lounging by the pool, eating Khmer food, briefly walking around the night market and chilling on the roof bar.
Siam Reap is one of the more expensive places we've been, especially foodwise even though its still normally way under $10 each. We also have been eating at some really nice places which is bound to push the prices up. Money wise they accept both the Cambodian currency and American Dollars which is odd, but its made conversions quite easy as otherwise £1 is worth about 6000 riels.
We gave ourselves a lie in the next day and went for a brunch in the old town. We spent the afternoon wandering around the old town market (psar chaa), down the river and relaxing by the pool. It is definitely the hottest place we've been to and we are all sweating like mad since we've arrived. Its nice to be back in the heat but it is also exhausting so and nice day by the pool was necessary. We had an early dinner at Khmer Kitchen which was really nice (Becki had a Khmer Curry, Kate had a Penang, I had a cheesy, potato dish and Amy had a coconut soup) for about $6 each ready for our night bus to Kampot which should take about 13 hours. The night buses here have all been those really comfy sleepers and this one was the same but a little different with double breasted sleeper seats rather than individual ones.
We are currently on the bus and I am sat next to Becki and Amy and Katie are sat opposite us but one row forward and we're all on the bottom bunk.
Thats all for now, lots of love, Martha!
