Whilst in Siem Reap we stayed at the Nagara Angkor Boutique Hotel. A cute two floor hotel with less than a dozen rooms, but pretty good and well located. Our first night at the hotel was incredibly, on account of us leaving at 0430hrs.
Today, the itinerary included a visit to the Angkor Wat complex as well as two further temples nearby.
Visiting Angkor Wat required a stop at the Angkor Park Pass Ticket Counters. It felt like a transport hub, but gave us a chance to buy our 3 day temple pass, with mandatory photograph added to the ticket. All for USD62.
The bus parked on the west side of Angkor Wat, so we walked across the wobbly floating bridge and found ourselves a spot next to the southern reflection pool next to the South Library and waited for the sun to rise.
Luck would have it that not only was it nice and busy, but we had a completely overcast sunrise, and no visible sun at all. Once the sun was completely up, we had a quick breakfast nearby then managed to get some better shots of Angor Wat
Our guide walked us through Angkor Wat, inside and out and many photos were taken.
The sky as usual wasn't very forgiving but being overcast the light made for some perfect portrait opportunities.
After Angkor Wat we jumped in the bus and travelled to Ta Prohm Temple. This temple was made famous in modern culture after the terrible Tomb Raider movie starring Angelina Jolie was set there. Unique about this temple is that trees grow out of the ruins and grow around and above them. It's a pretty spectacular site.
The last temple was Angkor Thom, just north of Angkor Wat. Angkor Thom was the smallest temple of the three we visited. Entry was up a set of steep steps and suddenly we were surrounded by smiley faces. Not emoticon, statue style. At this stage, it was raining full time.
Lunchtime we enjoyed some red ants! They were actually quite delicious.
Dinner was at New Hope Cambodia. This training restaurant was another one of G Adventures' investment in people projects. This one provides education, vocational training and health care to under-privileged kids. Our guide Bamboo was proud to tell us his origin story which began in this training school. Service and food was excellent.
The next day we went Quad Biking, a first for me. Whilst in Angkor Wat we were treated with all the rain I guess we should have enjoyed in our Vietnam leg but there really had to endure. We were lucky then that even though It rained a lot the entire night before the quad bike experience, the day of, we just had overcast, but our entire route was mostly flooded and very muddy. A perfect environment for our activity. I didn't take any camera with me, but we did get some excellent group photos arranged by the company, Cambodia Quad Bike that led us.
Next stop, Bangkok.
