Fiona in Siem Reap

This draft of my visit to Cambodia has been patiently waiting for the photographs to be added of which I have hundreds! So please cast your minds back to September after my trip to Vietnam.

Spot the tourist at Angkor Wat!

The face of King Jayavarman is everywhere

 Yes I cheated and flew to Siem Reap and spend 4 days in and around Angkor Wat which has always been on my list of things to see. (bucket list I believe one says!) There is always a flutter of anxiety when I reach another country just in case I'm refused entry for some reason. In the old days when I was travelling, days were spent in capitals trying to get visas in embassies so nowadays when you can either do it online or at the airport it just seems too easy. The Siem Reap airport is new and stylish and the visa process was incredibly efficient. I had booked a guesthouse online that morning and to my disbelief there was a tuk tuk driver with my name on a paper waiting for me. It was all so easy and off we went into Siem Reap to Rosy Guesthouse which was on the river near to the Royal Palace. It was very nice and I was in the budget room which meant no air-con but I was on my own! The next day I decided to walk around Siem Reap and explore . I visited a buddhist temple which was also the site of a "small" killing field and about a thousand skeletons were found here which are on display. I find it so hard to understand the horror that the Cambodian people went through during the Khmer rouge reign of terror . As I came back I passed the new Angkor Wat museum and decided to visit. I was queuing up for my ticket and I heard my name being called. It was my boss and his family on holiday too and it was a total surprise to see each other. The museum is well worth a visit and after an afternoon of absorbing the fascinating history of the temples, we arranged to meet for dinner and see traditional Cambodian dancing. The dancers and food were excellent but the musicians were not so!




  The next three days were spent at the temple area which is vast and of course there are many temples to see. I watched the BBC documentary Jungle Atlantis before I came which is a fascinating insight as to how large Angkor was - larger than London in the 20th century. The first day I joined Phil, Jani and Thomas and cycled to the famous iconic Angkor Wat temple. The next day I hired a tuktuk and visited Angkor Thom and many other outer temples including the famous Ta Prohm with the roots.




 The final day was spent again on my bike just riding around the park and stopping at any temple I hadn't visited. I'm quite sure wikipedia will be able to fill you in on the vast amount of  historical details. Some of the temples are still in use as Buddhist temples although most started as Hindu temples and there is a huge amount of restoration going on, and interestingly much is sponsored by the Chinese government.



Each evening I joined my friends and fortunately Jani loves to research restaurants before she visits places and I went to two wonderful restaurants including one where we had fried red ants and silk worm cocoon kebabs (not one to have again!).
 I left Siem Reap and my short visit to Cambodia wanting to come back and see more and buy more of the beautiful silk....so maybe one day!