Asian Adventure (Part VI)

Meeting Fred and Susie lounging outside Hak's House as we got back from the capital was a welcome sight. Hak had been marvellously cooperative as ever in arranging rooms and pick ups for us upon our return. We spent the rest of that day relaxing swapping stories of our times apart before heading out for a falafel dinner, the night market and cocktails ($1.5 margaritas!).

The reason for our return to Siem Reap was to visit the marvellous world famous temples of Angkor! Hideb in the jungle for over a thousand years they were 'discovered' by the French around 1900. Max and Wis had spent the last few days in Angkor so were well equipped to show us round.

We set off on bikes, hired from a hotel for the start of a long, hot but awe inspiring day doing the 'short tour' encompassing the centre piece of Angkor Wat and numerous 'lesser' temples. The next day Max and Wis left for Phnom Penh to be reunited with us in Ho Chi Minh city in Vietnam . Fred, Susie, Louisa and I hired a tuktuk and driver for the day and got up to see the sun rise over Angkor Wat. This turned out to be somewhat of a damp squib but the tuktuk made getting round the remaining temples on the 'big' tour including the mammoth Angkor Thom a doddle, especially for those of us feeling saddle sore after the previous days exploits. One of the many highlights from our time in Angkor was seeing the sites of the location shoots from the first Tombraider movie (the scene where the baddies pull down the wall to enter the temple and the one where Lara Croft bends to pick an Orchard from a tree in the ruins and falls into the temple).
Anyway I shall leave the story there for now and let the photos do the talking. All that remains to be said is that everyone should go see the temples of Angkor at some point, get some flights to Bangkok then on to Siem Reap, stay at Hak's and you could easily pass a week if not a lifetime in that land.