What Wat?

Arrival: 03 November 2010

The Northern half of Cambodia is scattered with ruined temples, like the mosquito bites on my legs.

Brett and I have seen many, many, maybe too many temples around Siem Reap.

Brett's new camera got a workout

We have been to Bayon with its hundreds of faces, Preah Khan with is massive ruins hiding snakes and other more ancient suprises, Te Promh with its overgrowing trees and Tomb-Raider-ness, Banteay Srei, with its crazy number of tourists and a dozen more temples in between.

The carvings have been most impressive, in addition to how they actually built them, and how they have maintained them. Heck, its all impressive.

The bus stop

We have seen a few former Empire Capitals, such as Samboprey Kuk on a dusty road an hour from the dusty town of Kompong Thom (between PP and SR). We stopped here for one night in the best room we have had for $5 so far. I did get a nice photo of a temple being eaten by a tree, but I can't find it now. Perhaps more useful if you are ever in Kompong Thom -  you can catch the bus to Siem Reap from this barber shop and so get to watch men being powdered and shaved while you wait. It was fun.

And of course the biggest of the big, Angkor Wat.

It looks a lot bigger in real life.

For those wanting to see these spectacular constructions for yourself, I would recommend the trip to Siem Reap and there are a few important things you may need to know (other than how to catch a bus from Kompong Thom):

• there are lots of tuk-tuk drivers (3000 in fact) so they appreciate your business and reward you with cheap rides. 'Batman' also has a sound system in his Batmobile tuk-tuk.
• there are lots of restaurants and bars so they appreciate your business and reward you with 50c beer, free popcorn and other random cheap-ness. 
• cocktails come in buckets. Glasses are too fancy for the highly toxic locally-brewed spirits.
• guesthouses/hotels probably only check their emails once a week.
• there are lots of guesthouses/hotels so even if the one you chose doesn't read your emails, you wont have to sleep on the street.
• star-spotters might like to visit next year when Angelina Jolie and John Cena start filming some ridiculous action/romance/temple movie.
• if you aren't into temples but like snacking on fried tarantulas at bus stops, then this is still the place for you.

Departure: 10 November 2010