Cambodia - second stop, Siem Reap

Kim in Siem Reap
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Now this was more like it. It's a charming city with loads of character and small enough to navigate your way around and feel you've seen all the different aspects of it.

What we'll always remember:

• The sheer size and magnificence of the Angkor Temples
• The food - granted we ate at fancier restaurants than in the past few weeks but boy was it good

Forgettable:

Shawn sitting down to a delicious meal
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• Our tuk tuk driver who sold himself brilliantly and then turned out to be an absolute misery on the day he took us around the Temples

Details

Day 43 was spent traveling to Siem Reap and although pretty uneventful it did seem warmer and ever so slightly less comfortable than traveling by bus in Vietnam.

Arriving in Siem Reap was just like any other city where you get hounded by tuk tuk drivers wanting to take you to the hotel which pays them commission for doing it. Landed up at a nice enough place and negotiated ourselves a driver to take us around The Temples the next day. Also managed to visit the market - not buy anything, and sit down to a delicious set menu dinner.

Temple at Angkor Thom - probably can't make it out on the photo but there are dozens of faces carved into the rocks
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...The next day (day 44) was just amazing. The Temples of Angkor form the largest religious site in the world and they are very inspiring indeed. The first temple we visited in Ankor Thom is adawned with dozens of faces carved out of the rocks.There weren't many people around and with so many nooks and crannies to climb in or behind, you often find yourself alone with your jaw hitting the floor. How people built these so many centuries ago I'll never fully comprehend.

Angkor was a full city and besides temples there are terraces and pools also built of stone and nothing is left uncarved with decor.

Us at Angkor Thom
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We visited many temples,including one (Ta Prohm) that has been left for nature to engulf - a true testament that everything returns to the earth eventually (okay I read that somewhere !!). We left Angkor Wat, the largest temple, for last. By this stage it was inundated with tourists but even that didn't ruin the experience. It's in the shape of a 3 story pyramid (to represent Mt Meru) and the stairs to the top are pretty darn steep to go up and seem even worse to get down.

Ta Prohm which has been left for nature to take over
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Anyway you really have to see it for yourself as the pics just don't do it justice.

After a long day at the temples we sat down to a delicious meal in a pretty hip street  in the city.

The morning of Day 45 was spent doing admin - no escaping it apparently - and then heading to the airport to fly to Luang Prabang (an experience in itself). We flew by propeller plane and had a stop over in Pakse which meant 2 take offs and 2 landings for double the excitement.