a week in the angkor kingdom

made famous by tomb raider

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I had been in thailand for 2 months at the end of an 8 month stint of travelling around asia and was just about to head back to australia as my money was running low but thought because i was so close and didnt know when i'd be back i better just head to see the angkor temples that have always intrigued me.

So i decided to take a bus from bangkok to siem reap. i had been on many long bus rides during my travels so was used to all the situations that arise along the way and the ride to cambodia i must say has to be one of the worst roads in thailand then at the border you have to get out and line up for quite a while to get through with all your bags and having to fight off the thai gamblers trying to push in on their way to the casinos.

But it was nothing i couldnt handle. Anyway after i'd got through the border i thought i would get another bus to siem reap as it was the cheapest option but looking at the state of the road and the buses i decided i would invest in hiring a car for the remainder of the way. It started raining and i was hungry so i had something to eat then found myself a 'taxi'. These taxi's were something else.. toyota camry's i think but with jacked up suspension to handle the potholes and when we hit the road i was glad i took this option. It was THE worst road i'd ever been on but the taxi just flew along, skimming over the smaller potholes and swerving round the bigger ones. it was quite a ride and well worth the 50 bucks or something i paid for it. My driver was a nice guy too and kept me entertained along the way with his stories of girls and the like.

girl having fortune read

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So when i arrive in siem reap i get the driver to take me to a resonable price hotel, after a few tries i finally found somewhere nice to stay, cant remember the name unfortunatley but it was a good little backpacker hangout.

I was in cambodia solely for the purpose of seeing the angkor temples so that night i just had dinner and a couple of quiet beers and went to sleep so i could get up early and head out to the temples. I woke up early to start my trip and found myself a motor rickshaw (or motorbike with buggy on the side) to take me around the place. I got a nice guy, i find cambodians are very friendly and good people which makes me want to go back and explore the country more.

I got the 3 day pass which i thought would be enough considering my schedule and headed first to angkor wat. I was somewhat dissapointed because i had envisioned all the temples still covered in forest and isolated but when i got there it was full of korean tourists and cleared of nearly all forestation. For this reason i feel i rushed too much around angkor wat and didnt appreciated the workmanship as much as i should have. I wanted isolation and forest, trees covering the temples like i had expected. So i went round and saw all the temples some of them were really amazing and reminded me of temples i'd seen in india and indonesia but still i needed more forest. So i checked out my guide and read that there was a ruin like that but was a couple of hours out so on the last day i went there and it really was like in the movies. i think the name was bang malea and there had recently been a movie shot there so there was wooden walkways to get to some parts that would otherwise be nearly inaccessable.

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This was what i had come to see, even though the carvings and structures were no so impressive, just the isolation and dense forest consuming the temple made me feel like i was discovering something not many people had seen.

I really liked it there, and in cambodia as a whole. And i really want to go back soon to admire more closely the angkor complex and to explore the country throughout.