The iconic and ancient temples of Angkor Wat and surrounding area are surely on every travelers list of ‘must see’ places. It’s always been near the top of our list so we were very much looking forward to this part of our journey through South East Asia.
Siem Reap is the ever expanding resort town just a few miles from Angkor Wat. Siem Reap means ‘Thailand Defeated’. A name that the Thai aren’t too happy about as you can imagine.
The popularity of visiting these ancient temples has boomed in the last decade now that the Khmer Rouge is no more. It seems the movie ‘Tomb Raider’ also played a pivotal role in bringing the some of the sights in to the mainstream. Posters of Angelina Jolie who played Lara Croft in the movie can be seen in many of the bars along te aptly named ‘Pub Street’. There’s a great tourist vibe around this area of town with lots of great places to eat and drink. Happy hour here works much like a DFS sofa sale. Seemingly never ending with draught beer for a barmy $0.50 a pint.
The road to Siem Reap is smooth as a Cambodian baby’s bum having been recently resurfaced all the way to the Thai border by a Korean company. Swanky new hotels line the road as you enter bur once in the centre of town the hiway ends and the roads return to crumbling rubble.
Our guides in Battambang recommended a tuk tuk driver in Siem Reap who was patiently waiting for us with a sign when our bus arrived, offering a free ride to our hotel if we booked him for our travels to the temples the next day.
Our first choice of hotel was full but there’s thousands of decent hotels to choose from so we soon found another. The ‘Ancient Angkor Hotel’ which boasted an outdoor pool only slightly bigger than a bath but fun and much needed.
We met up with friends from our travels at Pub Street and enjoyed ludicrously cheap beer at ‘Banana Leaf’ and also ‘Angkor What?’ Where you can get your own draught beer tap on your table for just $8 and serves about 10 pints. Good fun that had people turning their heads and asking where we got it from.
We arranged with our tuk tuk driver to meet us at 7am the next morning. Tourism is currently low due to the financial crisis around the world so it’s easy to barter a better price. We also arranged a 5am start for the next day as sunrise over Angkor Wat temple is a must.
Siem Reap dispenses with Khmer life (other than the cuisine). A fun and comfortable platform making a tour of the temples easy for all ages. It will inevitably expand further as word gets around of how easy it really is.
Our 2 days of fun roaming the temples was about to commence!
