Angkor Wat?

Siem Reap is a funny little town with a river running through it and a big tourist area. We are about a 15 minute walk out of town down a muddy track, out of the way of the beggars and hawkers.

Our first experience of the Angkor Wat area was to go out to Banteay Srei - the woman's temple. Some great carvings in an intricate temple set amid the rice paddies. We spent an exhausting day touring round another 5 temples before collapsing back at the hotel with an Angkor beer.

The 2nd day was spent in Angkor Wat itself and Angkor Thom - both architecturally amazing. We somehow lost each other amongst the faces of the Buddha in Bayon temple and spent an hour wandering round the complex thinking that we may never get out! Thankfully we met up again before we died of exhaustion.

Day three was a little easier as we were exhausted from the previous days and it was pouring with rain. We both agreed that Ta Phrom was the most impressive temple. They have allowed some of the jungle to continue eating the stones away. It is also the temple where Angelina Jolie picked a flower in Tomb Raider and then fell through a hole into Pinewood Studios!!!

There is still a lot of restoration work being done on the temples and it is a constant battle with the surrounding jungle. It didn't help that the documents that French arhictects had been working on for 20 yrs or so were burnt by the Khmer Rouge. After 1979 they got back to find 10,000 pieces of rubble lying around and no plans to give them any clue of how they all fit together.