the majestic temples of angkor, our last stop in SE asia

river carvings at kbal spean. the water that flows over carved lingans (shiva represented as a phallus) becomes holy, saves a lot of extra work downstream!
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so here we are in siem reap.  enjoying the last that SE asia has to offer before heading off to India.  Of course we are here to see angkor wat and all its other temple friends.  andy w had told us they were disappointing and someone else that they had seen enough by 3pm on day 1.  Well we headed off with a 3 day pass ($40 each -ouch) to prove them wrong.

We are not very early risers these days, so didn't actually do too much each day, probably for the best to prevent temple fatigue setting in.  We decided to have 1 day with a tuktuk driver to look at some more distant sites - banteay srei and  kbal spean - and be bicycle cheapskates the other 2 days (it is apparently illegal to rent a scooter to foreigners here!  the tuk-tuk drivers must have a very good union).   We enjoyed it all very much, but then i do like taking photos and the temples are all very photogenic, even if you are lazy and miss the best light in the early morning!  not dissapointing at all Mr withers, although I think I preferred Macchu Picchu and the other peruvian ruins we saw.

crazily well preserved carvings at banteay srei
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Good thing about angkor is that the sites are all slightly different so we didn't get bored, even after 3 days.  although i don't think i could cope with another temple day tomorrow.  Cycling was great way to see all the nearby sites, i might even have done if i wasn't really poor.  A small tip though - try and get back to town before dark as the road back is not lit and has many potholes and a lot of traffic just after sunset.  We visited all the popular sites, angkor wat, the bayon, elephant terrace, pre rup, ta phrom, banteay srei and kbal spean and they were very busy.  most of the sites are big enough to cope with the crowds and we could usually escape and find a quiet corner for a game of cards or a little snooze. The  Bayon was an exception though; where some loud japanese groups were quite annoying and a rude korean tour guide barged me out of the way so his group could see the carving i was taking a photo of.  apparently they had a schedule to keep to.  My favourite sites were Ta Phrom - the one with all the trees growing out of it and Kbal spean - the one in the river.  have a look at the piccies.

gate to teh city of angkor thom
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all the guide books recommend phnom bakheng for sunset.  we went and it was horrible busy.  kept getting very close views of russian and korean bottoms - not what you want with your sunset.  had to crane my neck to even see the sun.  there must be better places to watch it.  maybe pre rup, it was pretty high up.  we didn't findout as the sun didn't really set the other two days, just fell behind a bank of cloud.

siem reap itself is pretty nice.  lots of good restaurants and shops.  i think there are some museums as well, but we had seen enough old stuff by the time we got back to town each day.

boy in banteay srei. an american told him off and made him move out of his photo. i thought that slightly rude.
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off to india now.  lets hope we agree with francis and matt, not jen.........