Amazing Angkor

The guidebook warned "Nothing can prepare you for the majesty of Angkor Wat" - pretty bold words, but believe me, it lives up to expectations. Utterly breathtaking, beautiful, huge, detailed, ancient - Angkor Wat was the highlight of our three days exploring the vast number of temples in the region. Most date from 900 - 1250AD and the biggest - Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom were cities, housing thousands of people inside their moats and walls. Our first day appropriately started with a sunrise over the most famous, and the biggest religious monument in the world.

From their we headed to Angkor Thom, the City/Temple and the amazing Bayon temple with its enormous stone faces.

We visited several smaller temples then to finish the day off headed to Ta Phrom - famous for being the set of Tomb Raider. It really did look like a movie set (actually it reminded me more of Indiana Jones, but then I haven't seen Tomb Raider yet). It was overcrowded with package tours but retained much if its magic.

The second day we headed to Kbal Spean, a river with religous carvings and linga (apparently magical carvings that bless the water)

Then it was on to Bantaey Serai. The most detailed of the temples, its quite small, but totally stunning.

Michelle at Banteay Serai.

Finally after days of very physical climbing and clambering around temples, we got to the stunningPreah Kahn - in much the same style as Ta Phrom, but a lot more peaceful - while we were there we could heard almost continuous thunder rolling towards us, and just as we were leaving the skys opened up. Very atmosperic.

The next day, after neeting a couple of choice as kiwis - Gareth and Anya - we all headed to Tonle Sap the huge inland sea that dominates the map of Cambodia. We cruised through a floating Vietnamese village, saw some crocs...

...saw a stunning sunset (its not the ocean, its a lake but you can't see to the other side!)...

...had a boat crash (its OK, we stayed dry)... and a great traditional Khmer dinner that night with our new English friend Poppy, who has promised to show us how to get sorted when we arrive in the UK in 3 months.

Sadly we had to leave Siem Reap - its a charming French Colonial city, kind of like Luang Phabang, but with much more hustle and bustle. Us 4 kiwis headed down to Phnom Penh, which will be the subject of my next post... till then much love to all.