Angkor Wat

Monks
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Well. Cambodia started badly for me. When we bought the tickets already the guy selling them warned us that the other side of the border could be an "adventure." Well. It was!

Once we crossed the border, the guide managed to cheat us out of some money at the currency exchange. Which wasn't too upsetting since we didn't realise it at the time, and then he dumped us in a pick up truck. And then another bus load of people. It started okay, 5 people in the back, and there was room to stretch out and relax, and I thought it couldn't be too bad. Then the rest arrived.

Angkor Wat
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In the end, there were 15 people in the back of the truck, one on the roof, 4 tourists in the front and the driver. Oh. And all the luggage from those 19 tourists in the back too. So all wasn't well, but we got prepared for our adventure. But. Foiled again! The roads were so bad and so dusty that the people in the back were shrouded in dust for the entire trip, and every minute or two one of the japanese crowd (there were 6 of them) almost fell out. All of us perched precariously on our 4 inches of truck, gripping like mad-people onto to anything solid to avoid falling off the back.Once both your legs fall asleep it got better 'cause you can't feel them anymore.

Top of the Tower
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After 3 hours of this the lights failed. Now these roads are not just bad, but there are narrow one lane bridges on them, there are big trenches next to them, and there are no street lights at all. Even passing through the towns only the tourist restaurants had lights. But no problem. The driver had thought of this eventuality and had brought a pocket torch! It managed to get us, with a lot of japanese screeching, to a restaurant. The same restaurant where the other half of our air-conditioned bus from bangkok had stopped. They were the lucky ones. They had a bus to ride in. I have no idea how it was worked out which half would get the pick up, but I was annoyed. It took over an hour to fix the lights, and I was irate at the end of it. Trying to hitch a lift on the bus that was "full" and parked next to the pick-up that took as much room as 4 seats on the bus. Grr.

Why are they so shiny?
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We eventually got in at about 1am, tired, filthy, and not in the mood to enjoy the people trying to sell books and sunglasses to us.

So the next morning, trying to enjoy what we came for, and trying not to waste the pain and suffering of the previous day's trip, we headed off to Angkor Wat.

The main temple was fairly huge, but marred by the hundreds of stalls that you couldn't walk passed withough people trying to sell whatever their wares. No matter what their wares. You could walk passed one tuk-tuk driver and say no only to be accosted by the guy standing right next to him trying to sell his. But we managed to see some of the complex. The next day we cycled. Good in theory, we had the option of racing away from anyone who wanted to sell us stuff. Unfortunately we forgot to take account of the weather (hot) and the distance to the temples (long). Not a bad day though. And we saw some really ruined ruins.