Sharon and Andy's World Tour 2006

Okay, I was wrong. I admit it, I was completely wrong. The temples around Siem Reap are awe-inspiring, and we thoroughly enjoyed three long, hot, packed days exploring as many as possible.

Once again, I'll let some photos do the talking, in this case a few shots of the most famous Cambodian temple, Angkor Wat:
(Click each photo for a larger version)

We took too many great temple shots to display on one blog page, so if you want to check out more, and all our other photos, go to
http://www.travellerspoint.com/photos/gallery/users/andymoore/

Whilst our expeditions were immensely enjoyable, one aspect that slightly bothered us was the hordes of tiny children at each site playing on their 'cute' appeal in order to try and sell us anything from postcards to silk scarves. Their polite but persistent manner almost shamed tourists into buying stuff; in the end it was necessary to become quite hard-hearted to avoid parting with every last dollar.

On our last day, Mr Han took us to visit some locals who earned their living producing Palm Sugar by refining the sap of palm trees into tablets of sweet brown sugar. We were shown the process from start to finish and, of course, ended up buying a fair amount of the delicious end product!

We left Cambodia with the feeling that we had barely scratched the surface of this fascinating country, and would like to return someday to explore everyday life beyond the tourist circuit.

Sunday, March 5

To be honest, I was indifferent to the idea of travelling to Cambodia on the pretext of visiting a bunch of - to my mind - old ruins. However, a visit to Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples was high on Sharon's list of must-sees and so I put my preconceptions aside and agreed to go.

The road journey from Bangkok to the Cambodian border at Poipet is notoriously bad due to the unscrupulous behaviour of some of the bus operators who run this route; we had heard horror stories of the entire trip from Bangkok to Siem Reap in Cambodia taking up to 13 hours. Thus I persuaded Sharon that a flight, whilst considerably more expensive, was the best way to get there.

After a 55-minute flight with Bangkok Airways (during which brief time the crew miraculously provided a meal, drinks and a duty-free service!) we arrived in Siem Reap. The beauty of arriving by plane is that your entry visa (20 US dollars) is all taken care of - very efficiently - at the airport.

Outside, our free ride to our hostel (Two Dragons, Siem Reap) awaited; a tuk-tuk expertly driven in frankly scary traffic conditions by the genial Mr Han:

It turned out that Mr Han was to be our driver and guide around the temples for the next three days.

Already, my view of Cambodia was changing - it is considerably more 'westernised' than I'd imagined (I'd pictured endless paddy fields, grass huts and industrious folk in coolie hats), but even amongst the modernity of Siem Reap the ancient religious aspect is always evident:

Mr Han safely delivered us to our hostel, and we were pleased to see that our room was squeaky clean, air-conditioned and served good beer and food.

We agreed with Mr Han to set off early for the next three mornings to ensure we derived the most benefit from our 3-day tourist passes (40 US dollars each). Over dinner we shared experiences with a friendly couple from Scotland, Fiona and Archie, who are also touring the world. Finally we tumbled into bed, at least one of us eagerly anticipating the next three days...