With a nightly drunk hotel employee who mocks Borat, who also enjoys hugging and kissing Bryan, and what seems like millions of tuk-tuk drivers and massage people constantly reminding us of their existence, how could we not enjoy ourselves in Siem Reap?

But the real attraction to Siem Reap is due to the proximity to some of the most stunning ruins in the world. The Angkor area reportedly has over 1,000 temples which were constructed between the 9th and 15th centuries, with the center of the attraction being Ankor Wat, known as the World’s largest religious monument.

 

Being that there were a lot of remarkable structures to see, a lot of walking in the intense heat, and way too many pictures to be taken, two days turned out to be the perfect amount of time to make our way through all of the major sites. After rising at 4:30am the first morning, we headed out in the dark to attempt to capture Angkor Wat at sunrise. It wasn’t easy with a semi-functioning tripod and hoards of other tourists, but we got to witness the massive black silhouette become a beautifully aged stone monument before our eyes. We saved touring it for the next trip and headed to the less famous temples.

Picture: At the end of the first day in our pimped out tuk-tuk driven by the well dressed “Mr. T” and his gold-plated tooth.

We spent the following day taking a break in the city to ensure we didn’t get burnt out, then we made our way to the three most famous areas: Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm, and Bayon. I am completely stumped on how to describe our feelings and astonishment toward everything we saw. I can’t count how many times I was freshly stunned, when “wow” was the only thing I could say. We couldn’t believe the details that still remained after 600-1200 years: the bas reliefs, carvings, and stone faces. Many of the temples have undergone some or a lot of reconstruction, nearly all with the original stones that had fallen away.

 

Sadly, many of the temples received irreparable damage by the Khmer Rouge, who wanted to wipe out all history and religion and start anew, or from conversion of religions (Hindu to Buddhism or reversed). We saw stone men and Buddhas that had been beheaded, and most of the Buddha bas reliefs carved from walls.

Back in Siem Reap we have been doing a lot of reading and have enjoyed some fantastic food such as Spicy sweet and sour soup with coconut rice (coconut cream that literally tasted like white gravy poured over steamed rice, it was unexpectedly a perfect substitute for mashed potatoes and gravy); a Khmer vegetable curry meal with fried eggrolls as appetizer and for dessert, fried bananas with palm sugar and coconut milk (tasted like sauteed bananas in a perfect caramel sauce), and one night we went to a more upscale restaurant with a traditional Apsara dance show.

 

Tonight we are headed to Bangkok where we will immediately take a train up North to Chiang Mai. A whole night on a bus just isn’t enough! After a couple weeks in Northern Thailand we will fly out of Bangkok to spend 2 1/2 weeks in Myanmar, then back to Thailand.