We were up at 4:30am for our visit to the temple of Angkor Wat, to watch the sun rise. The temple was just as spectacular as in the photos, maybe even more so. Angkor Wat was built as a Hindu temple in the 12th century and has changed many times between Buddhist and Hindu, depending on the religion of the monarchy, and as such remnants of both religions remain, but unfortunately most of the Buddha statues were removed by tomb raiders and the Vietnamese during their occupation, as has happened to most of the temples. We had a guide who showed us around and explained the stories in the stone carvings, and we climbed some very steep steps to get a great view of the surrounding jungle.
We then went for breakfast, during which we were bombarded by children trying to sell postcards, bangles, books and scarves. Our hearts went out to them and we ended up buying 50 postcards, 40 bangles, a book and a scarf between us! These children sell these things in order that they can go to 'free' school. Everything in Cambodia has a price.
We then visited another temple and had a midday rest. Unfortunately Carl was still poorly so didn't make it out in the afternoon. The rest of the group were good enough to postpone the afternoon's temple until the next day so Carl could see it - he didn't want to miss THE "Tomb Raider' temple! Instead we saw some different temples that afternoon. Carl spent his afternoon watching films and eating marmite sandwiches. Yes, you can buy marmite in Cambodia!
Our second day of temple viewing started with Ta Prohm temple, the temple used in the Tomb Raider film. It was a really interesting temple to look at as it was a jungle temple. When many of the temples in Angkor were discovered they were shrouded with trees. Ta Prohm temple still had trees growing out of the walls. We visited another couple of temples including one with wonderful huge head carvings. In all we visited 7 temples, out of over one hundred. We had a really great time in Siem Reap and it was wonderful to see the temples we had waited so eagerly to visit.
The following day we caught a plane to Bangkok with one other group member. They rest of the group suffered the 11 hour journey by bus. Being poorly does have some advantages!
|  | 
|
