Angkor WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT

Arriving into Siem Reap at 2am could have been a real hassle, but luckily a tuk-tuk driver by the name of Pot sorted us out a treat - a real friendly welcome off the bus, and he knew a cheap hotel and took us straight there where we instantly conked out. Upon waking and seeing the view from our 3rd storey room, we could really appreciate Siem Reap's charms - the town is reasonly small, low buildings and covered in greenery - palm trees and dense jungle foliage on many corners make it look almost as overgrown as the temples it provides access to. By midday I was baked, prompting us to seek out a way to escape the relentless midday heat. We stretched our budget ever-so-slightly and went for a $12 room, of which the main attraction was the classy swimming pool out front. Beth was already sold after seeing this, but we were then pleasantly surprised to discover that $12 also gets you a huge luxurious room with king and queen-sized beds, which together could have slept 5 enormous people quite easily.

4 layers of chicks - oh yeah

Since early on in Laos we had met up with a large group of people from varying countries, all vaguely heading the same direction and with the same vague notions of when they should be places, meaning the group had drifted apart and together again in plenty of backpacker spots - Siem Reap being no exception, with around 6 people from the group chilling by the same hotel pool as us. One night, after discovering a supermarket selling a ton of european goods such as french cheeses, freshly baked baguettes, saucisson, wines, and Beth's favourite chocolate (!), we decided to indulge in a 'european night' and with 5 others bought a selection of cholesterol-raising goodies for a bread meat and cheese extravaganza.

Within a few days of being in Cambodia we had started to notice an unusual fascination with pajamas... it's not uncommon to see women of all ages walking around in teddybear-motif tops and bottoms - we even spotted one mother and daughter whizzing past on a moped wearing matching Hello Kitty PJ's! Sorry no photo for that one! My camera finger has been too slow for quite a few gems as you can imagine (most involving monks in day-to-day activities such as serenely riding a moped side-saddle or using a cashmachine). So anyway the PJs thing is a little strange - we asked several people about it (not the ones wearing them!) and could never get a straight answer - the best we got was 'comfort', but it's also clearly a fashion statement here, albeit a strange one.

There isn't much to do in Siem Reap other than sweat and see temples, and not just any temples either - the star of the show is the mother-of-all-temples Angkor Wat. The largest religious building in the world, as you'd expect it attracts one of the largest crowds in the world, and seeing it in mid-afternoon (as we did) it's almost impossible to snap a picture without a group of Chinese tourists slowly shuffling by. In any case, the world's largest temple just didn't do it for us - as a monument to extravagance it works, clearly conveying the almost god-like status King Suryavarman II must have enjoyed, however it's just that - a monument to excess. We didn't dislike it by any means, as the architectural skill and design is dazzling, however in some of the smaller temples (there are over 100 in the immediate surrounding area) we found far more hidden charms - particularly the ones where Nature is reclaiming her territory.

Sweaty Betty ponders the goddesses of old

Our favourite temple experience, however, was sunrise at Pre Rup. The done-thing for sunrise temple viewing is getting up at 5am and standing in a crowd of literally hundreds of tourists waiting to get 'that shot' of Angkor Wat - as this didn't particularly appeal, we asked Pot where we could witness a quieter temple sunrise. He suggested Pre Rup, which is a relatively small but well preserved temple on the far side of the 'big loop' of the Angkor temples, a half hour drive from town. Witnessing the sun rise over the jungle from the temple's peak here was a magical experience - plus we didn't see or hear another person for the whole 90 minutes we were there.

At many of the temples, kids as young as 5 will crowd you as soon as you get there, hawking books, bracelets, postcards, fruit, beer, water - pretty much anything you'd need and a hell of a lot more you don't. They are incredibly persistent, often walking next to you the whole way to the temple literally begging you like their life rests in your hands, saying things like 'i need money for school, please mister'. You can't get annoyed with them as you know their parents make them do this every day, however due to their constant exposure to tourists many are incredibly adept linguistically - we met a 5-year-old girl would could speak several languages fluently and could count to ten in 9 other languages we asked her about, including many european ones as well as arabic and hebrew... she'd never heard of welsh though.

For a special treat, I'll leave you with a shot of Beth's grubby feet after a day's walking around temples. Enjoy!