Sun 26 Feb 
Time to move again, this time we are leaving Laos and onto Cambodia! Mr Tho organised for a boat to pick us up from in front of his place and we transferred back to Nakasang boat pier . We thought we were going to meet a minibus at about 9.30 at the bus depot that was going to drop us at the border post. We had arranged to travel by minibus from the border to Siem Reap on a Cambodian bus company so just needed to get to the border post! Well it was soon obvious that the bus mafia controlled everything around here. No tuk tuks or taxis are allowed to drive you the 25 kms to the border and the minibus’s are not allowed to leave till the 10 am bus goes (true Laos fashion!)! We waited about an hour and a half at the depot – creating a huge amount of people all wanting to cross the border at the same time. Really infuriating but typical of the way Laos and communism works – no-one can show initiative and encourage private enterprise!! When we finally get into a minibus I jumped into the front row of seats, next to an older lady who says, very rudely,  “what are you doing sitting here my husband is there!” in her loud American drawl! Wow – story can be continued over a glass of wine when I see you! The entourage of buses and minibuses all arrive together at the border post – the bus gets priority and drives through getting passports stamped and processed . The rest of us form queues to now get our exit stamps from Laos (US$1 for the stamp ink!) – walk over no-man’s-land and then complete a bogus “health certificate” form for US$1, another queue to hand in visa forms US$35 plus pic, another queue to get passport back, another queue to hand in entry/exit form and another queue to get it back! What a bloomin fiasco! Finally walked out of there and walked 5 mins down the road to the Asia Van Tour office/restaurant where we had a much needed shandy and waited half an hour for the minibus to arrive. Good minibus to get as they don’t overload their vehicles – so only about 8 of us in the van to Stung Treung – about 1 ½ hours then all out at the AVT appointed café – grab lunch and have about 45 mins before the next minibus leaves to Siem Reap (thru fare US$20 each) – alas who was in the next bus again but the obnoxious American lady giving me the what for again when I tried to get a front seat!!! Buried myself in my book but finally succumbed to speak to her and her husband in the last hour of this 5 hour stretch! Hmm . Arrived at the AVT depot and they put us into tuk tuk’s to take us to hotels. The tuk tuks do this for free in the hope they will get your business for the next 3 days at least, as most people take at least that when touring the many temples of Angkor Wat & Siem Reap! Very disappointed when we told him we already had a driver in place! Siem Reap looked very civilised and busy compared to what we have just come from in Laos! The old, mixed in with the very new, and of course they always look better at night in the dark with all the lights shining! Dropped at our hotel – 20th Street Hotel, on 20th Street, about 10 mins walk from the busy “Pub St” and night market. Small but nice clean hotel with a swimming pool and of course aircon. Perfect base for our temple touring and nice to come back to a pool at the end of the day! CA$155 5 nts incl breakfast! Ate meal on pool deck as didn’t feel like venturing out again!
 
Mon 27 Feb
9.30 pick up by Mr Savoeun (Whats App +855 12 491 227) as organised and recommended through Remy. Such a happy smiley face waiting to welcome us in the morning. He ran through the plans for the next 3 days as had told him roughly what we wanted and he made up a plan for us. US$20 day – amazing! We did so many temples and wats that it is a bit of a blur but the whole of ancient Angkor is the most incredible place and a must to visit! Angkor is the abode of ancient gods and the earthly representation of Mt Meru (the icon of Hindu faith). “The Cambodian god-kings of old each strove to better their ancestors in size, scale & symmetry, culminating in the world largest religious building, Angkor Wat” . Cambodians take great pride in this site as they rebuild their lives after the terror and trauma from the years of the Khmer Rouge. It is truly an amazing place and you cannot believe the size and architecture of these ancient structures. Savoeun took us to the park headquarters to buy our 3 day pass for the area – just went up 1st Feb over 80% increase so now US$62 pp! We started at Prasat Kravan from early 10th century, 5 brick sanctuaries with beautiful interior brick bas-reliefs in 2 of them, opposite this is Srah Srang (royal bath) also from the 10th Century but remodelled in 12th C. It is a small baray (body of water) and has a stone landing stage made from sandstone, flanked by 2 lions and naga (snake) balustrades. Onto Bateay Kdei from late 12/early 13 C – a Buddhist temple with large gopuras (gates) on E & W sides – much of it falling down but walked through the central sanctuary, library and hall of dancers with dancing apsaras on columns around the hall. Then onto one of the most popular temple/monasteries of Ta Prohm . It has a complex layout but is in a state of collapse due to trees interlacing among the ruins. The French restoration company decided that this should be left in its natural state to show example of how most of Angkor looked on its discovery in 19th C! It has created a beautiful atmosphere and is a confusing myriad of buildings and stunning pediments & Devatas all over! Next stop Ta Keo from late 10 – early 11 C – this is a giant temple-mountain with 5 massive towers on top and stands out for being the first of the structures to be built from sandstone and really is more temple like, plain without the decoration seen on other buildings. Thommanon was next, early 12th C and is a minor but more elegant temple – incomplete but restored in the 60’s. Only traces of the enclosure walls laterite base remains. The devatas here wear elegant costumes from the Angkor Wat style. Across the road sits Chao Say Tevoda from the middle of the 12th C, another minor temple in more of a ruined state than Thommanon. The Chinese are restoring it presently, many of the devatas were vandalised! We stopped at the Victory Gate by the bridge crossing the Siem Reap River – this marks the entrance into Angkor Thom & Angkor Wat . With demons and gods carrying the long naga, makes a wonderful entrance through a narrow one vehicle entrance! Savoeun was so good at explaining the history behind each temple building- although sometimes was a little hard to follow his English – but we got the jist and always smiling and eager to make sure we had the best experience! Onto The Bayon – both of ours favorite! From the late12th to late 13th C it is a complex temple in that is passed through many religious phases from Pantheon of the Gods, Hindu worship and Buddhism! It originally had 49 face towers but today only 37 are still standing. Most of them have 4 huge faces carved on each side of the tower (cardinal points) and these towers all stand at different heights, supposedly to create the impression of a forest of towers! Devatas cover the walls in the central massif and the Bayon has 2 sets of bas-reliefs carved at difference times – all exquisite – you could spend a whole day just studying these alone. We walked over to Baphuon, another temple-mountain but in a pretty ruined condition with ongoing restoration taking place . A raised causeway led us to the Elephant Terrace. This looks over the Royal Square which was where royal receptions and sporting events took place. The terrace is 300m long and has carvings of elephants all along, with lions and garudas on the stairways. This is all made from sandstone. We met Savoeun here and he drove us over to the East Baray to see the sun setting over Pre Rup, a state Temple of the 10th Century. The base is made of laterite stone then a row of brick towers with a pyramid rising to 3 towers. We joined about 50 others who were sitting on the ledges waiting for the sun to go down and get a photographic moment. We sat for about 20 mins and decided that as it was quite cloudy there would not be a spectacular sunset. It had been a long day to climbed back down, found our smiley Savoeun and he took us on our 30 min ride back to the hotel in his tuk tuk. He had kindly stopped off at the beginning of the day to show me where to buy my sim card for Cambodia $5 incl card & 4GB of data with 20 mins of calls! Crazy how we get ripped off in Canada! Happy to get back to hotel for a quick dip in the pool to cool down . Recovered and walked into “town” 10 mins away and so tired just grabbed a pizza in a fast food place and walked back – slept well!

Tue 28th Feb
5.30 AM start to the day as Savoeun was picking us up then to get to the ultimate Angkor Wat for sunrise, hotel made us a packed breakfast to take and we set off in the dark. Pitch dark still when we got to the temple – along with 100’s of other tuk tuks bringing all the tourists in for the sunrise! Savoeun sent us off in the right direction, following the crowds with the phone’s flashlight. We had been told to sit on the west side so we would have a spectacular view when the sun rose with the 5 towers in front of the light. We squashed in on the steps of the library in the outer enclosure and waited. We had to wait over an hour for the sun to make its first appearance and there were so many people spread all over the grounds and locals selling coffee! Chatted to a Portuguese guy sitting next to us – works for Portuguese airline so knew Mozambique really well and still does trips down there – loves it! What a spectacular sight to behold, to suddenly see one of the most amazing temples in the world and be introduced as the sun climbed higher in the sky was just an amazing experience and well worth getting up at the ungodly hour! We ate the croissant and fruit in our box from the hotel and then ventured over to explore the worlds largest religious monument! It was a city in its own right and started being built in the early 12th C and is the earthly representation of Mt Meru, the Mt Olympus of the Hindu faith and abode of ancient gods . It is the heart and soul of Cambodia, a national symbol & source of fierce national pride. It is a blend of spirituality and symmetry, the most significant fact is that it is oriented to the west, which is the direction of death in their spirituality! I am not going to go into the details of Angkor Wat but would highly recommend anyone in Cambodia make the effort to at least see this and Bayon Temple. Nothing like it in the world – totally awe inspiring and amazing. We grabbed a guide (many trying to get business) for US$13 to give us a tour of the temple. He really gave us an insight into spiritual aspect of the city, more than pointing out the bas-relief and details of the building. We learnt a little from him but struggled to understand his English! He left us by the queue to get up to the 3rd level of the structure. There is a limit to the number of people allowed up to the 3rd level so we had to wait for someone to come down before climbing the steep steps. Stunning views of the whole complex from the top. We spent many hours looking around and then ventured out to find our trusty tuk tuk parked under a tree (along with 100’s of others!)! Off we scooted to Preah Khan in Northeastern Angkor. Another large project which was more than a temple as had over 1000 teachers, appearing to be a Buddhist university as well as a city! Similar atmosphere to Ta Prohm but larger. The entrance causeways with boundary stones and nagas held by gods and asuras. Next stop was Neak Pean – a unique island temple with sculptured fountainheads, reached by walking over a long walkway which will soon have water underneath as they are flooding the area to make a new lake surrounding it. On to Ta Som which has face-towers on the outer enclosures and a very compact inner enclosure. Then East Mebon next to the East Baray, the main interest being the stonework, in the form of lintels and the elephant sculptures. It is surrounded by rice fields (dry at this time of the year). Banteay Srei, a little more than 20kms north of Angkor is a remarkable small temple aka The Ladies Temple or Pink Temple. It s known as this due to the size and delicacy of its decoration, and the red sand gives the sandstone a reddish pink hue! It has miniature proportions with an extraordinary concentration of mythological narratives in the pediments and lintels. It is situated in a peaceful, isolated, semi-wooded setting. After this it was definitely time to call it a day – it had been a long, exhausting but spectacular day. Finished at about 5pm so ready to flop in the pool as very hot – 36’! Refreshed went in search of a Mexican restaurant, Viva and enjoyed a couple of margaritas and some tacos!
 
Wed 1 March
Pick up at 8 this morning – a more relaxed plan on the agenda (thank goodness) as its been hot and tiring although an amazing experience. We’ve been told Nov/Dec is the best time to come to Siem Reap as not so hot! We drove through the countryside to the northernmost temple of the late 9th C Hindu temples, It consists of 4 brick towers grouped together on a terrace and in very bad state of ruin. One tower is being restored, but think maybe the restoration is just cleaning rather than rebuilding! A school behind the towers with young kids being taught by a monk. A jaunt through some dusty backstreets, observing rural living, stalls selling lots of sugar cane juice and much palm sugar in big Costco peanut butter size jars. Many sponsored artisan schools also abound. We pulled over at a Cambodian cotton weaving stall and went to see the ladies in the back weaving all sorts of cloth in the most intricate of patterns – I don’t know how they do it as are controlling about 4 – 8 foot pedals whilst weaving the bobbin through the complicated web of threads. I just had to buy a scarf as a souvenir of these talented ladies! US$10 for a gorgeous natural coloured scarf. Onward to Preah Ko Temple which was the first temple to be built in the defunct city of HariHara. It consists of 6 brick towers in 2 rows of 3, sitting on a sandstone platform and facing east which is also unusual. Each tower was dedicated to a member of King Indravarman’s family and all bear images of the Hindu god Shiva. The very last temple we went to was Bakong, the first temple mountain made of sandstone in the 9th C. It took the shape of a stepped pyramid and is very similar to a temple in Java showing that there was definitely an exchange of travellers at that time! Another temple dedicated to Shiva. Done temples for a long time and armed with so many photos it will be interesting to try and sort them all out once back home! Savoeun then took us for a drive around the farming communities – we passed by wedding ceremony festivities taking place – a 3 day event where music blares out non stop – no one can complain! Sometimes they set these tents up in the middle of roads, backroads and main roads alike and we have seen many on our travels. The same applies for a funeral – where a tent is set up and the coffin placed in the centre and the celebration of life takes place around this, also can be in the middle of really busy streets! He explained to us about rice growing and crop yields – he lives on his Mum's farm with his own family and grows rice when not driving a tuk tuk! He and his wife gets up at 3am every morning to buy veggies from a market then go to another market where the wife has a stall and sells veggies everyday – then he goes to work! They have to work so hard to just scrape by in life. Very interesting trip around Siem Reap – then headed into the centre where he showed us a little Khmer café and we took him out to lunch. He told us what to order and we had a wonderful meal, he was such a sweetheart and wanted to make our experience in Siem Reap the best! He then took us to the National Museum and we agreed to meet back in 2 hours. We did the audio tour in the museum (entrance US$12 plus $3 for audio) and found it very interesting and worth the stop, maybe it should be done before you venture out to the temples! Explains the Khmer civilisation and the majesty of Angkor. Displays are themed by era, religion and royalty and well set-out. We had to text Savoeun to ask for a later pick up time as needed at least 3 hours! He was a little late coming back for us, but for the first time and very apologetic – not surprised with the crazy traffic around Siem Reap! Sadly this was our last trip with him and he returned us to the hotel and we said our farewells – taking pictures and promising to send him business if we can! Gave him an extra days wage so he could take a day off and relax but am sure he had no intentions of doing so! We decided to finish the day by the pool and ate dinner there as hotel food was pretty good!

Thur 2 Mar
So nice to take our time in the morning and have a leisurely day! Walked to the “Royal Gardens” pitiful really and hardly worth a mention! Then went in search of a shop to buy a new face toner in their only mall. Finally ended up buying it in one of the many pharmacies on the streets as wanted a small bottle (space a premium in my bag!). We explored the market and bought some fruit to take back to the hotel and peel for lunch (banana, mango & papaya). Relaxed by the pool and headed off for an early dinner at Marum, part of a group of training restaurants set in a delightful wooden house set in a garden! We sat in the garden and had the tastiest meal in all of Cambodia – serving staff in training as well as the chefs – very chatty staff and happy to explain how the school operated and about the meal. I had the yummiest Black bean, spinach and quinoa curry and even managed to procure the recipe from them (photocopy!) – a must to cook at home! Indulged and had a tasty dessert too! We then walked to the nearby Jaya House River Park hotel as had managed to get tickets for a Joss Stone concert (US$55). We had to wait about 10 mins outside the hotel and chatted to one of the organisers who puts on a musical festival (Chub Met Musica &Arts Festival) every year in Siem Reap and this was the last day of it! We were shown up to a beautiful rooftop terrace and bar where we were plied with wine until Sethisak Khoun (1st opera singer in Cambodia to perform in a western style). He started singing at age 11 and was discovered soon after! He studied in Russia for 8 years and even won an award for best Russian vocal performer! Was wonderful to sit down and listen and have the very attentive waiters constantly refilling your class! Chatted a bit to an English lady who I recognised from our hotel – an NGO living in one of the studios at the hotel and loved Siem Reap so much had finally got a job here! Although she did say it might be short-lived as finding it getting so expensive that almost unaffordable! After about an hour or so we were shown to the back of the property where a stage was set up in the garden and sadly the free wine stopped flowing then! We just stood on the grass – right in front of the stage and then Joss Stone came on and gave a fabulous laid back concert. We felt like to were right there on stage with her – a few hilarious moments when she ran away from the bugs as they got to her (so many bugs attracted to lights!) – she even ran off stage at one point and made the guitarist make sure the big bug had gone from the standing microphone – she came back on and covered herself in her scarf tied to the microphone to keep the bugs off. Anyway it was a fantastic concert and only about 100 people of so, it was part of her “Total World Tour” which she started in 2004 with a mission to platy in every country in the UN! Lovely young lady from Devon! Piled into a tuk tuk to get back to the hotel.