Siem Reap and Angkor Archeological Park

Thursday 23/4 saw us up pretty early for breakfast at the hotel, followed by a trip into town. We had a look around the old market, which had some excellent handicrafts, carvings, tons of fruit and veg and lots of fish (some still wriggling). We also had a bit of a look around some of the local stores. Kris picked us up from a restaurant called the Red Piano and we were on our way to to the temple sites. Our first stop was at the ticket office, it was only $20US for admission. Most transactions over here are in US Dollars, it's only if you get some small change that you get local currency. The first feature we stopped for a photo at was the south gate, one of five entrances to the Angkor Thom temple complex. The main temple in Angkor Thom is named Bayon and it's one of the most spectacular. Fairly free from vegetation and in quite good order, it's one of the most visually interesting of the temples as it contains so many wall inscriptions, bas-reliefs and carvings. Some of the main features are the huge stone faces atop some of Bayon's main pillars or towers. Passing through the Victory Gate, we then headed to Ta Prohm which has been left partially overgrown by massive trees and foliage. It's preserved this way to show tourists how the site looked upon it's discovery and to allow some pretty spectacular shots of tree roots pushing their way over and through the stonework. Unfortunately not all of this site was accessible as they are undertaking further restoration at the site. We then visited Angkor Wat. It was getting pretty hot by this stage so we had a bit of time out sitting at the edge of a huge moat which surrounds this temple. A massive stone bridge leads across to the complex, it is built on such a huge scale, I'm hoping our photos will do it justice when we manage to post some. We spent the most time here due to the scale of the building as well as some much needed rest along the way due to the heat. However, it was well worth it and I'm glad we persevered and saw as much of it as we could. Kris (our driver) had in mind for us to stay out until sunset which would have been great to see but we were pretty exhausted by then so we returned to the hotel in the late afternoon. We were revived somewhat by a shower and a foot massage and so we gathered strength to head out to diner in Siem Reap that night as we wanted to see some traditional Khmer dancing. We only lasted a couple of hours in the city before returning to collapse at the hotel but we were both glad we got to see a couple of dances over dinner at Temple Bar. Slept very well that night.