Cambodia part 2 Siem reap

The next day we had to get up early to catch the bus to Siem Reap. It was a six hour bus journey. I saw lots of wonderful and sad sights along the way. We got into Siem Reap late afternoon. Got checked into the Siem Reap hostel. It was very nice. It even had a swimming pool. Decided to go for a swim and then went out for dinner at Molly Malone's an Irish restaurant. Then went to the night market. 

Angkor Wat

The next morning got up early as we had a tuk tuk driver provided by the Siem Reap hostel for the small tour. The first stop was Angkor Wat. It was really incredible and huge, much bigger than one can tell from post cards. There were guides out in the front and I declined getting a guide, but I bought a book that he was selling for $30USD on several temples. As we were starting our journey in this young college age man gave us some tips on places that would make good photos. He ended up giving us and unofficial tour, mostly with lots of spots for goof photos and only some information. We ran into this girl that road the same bus as we did and ate lunch with us. So she also tagged along for awhile. 

In front building looking out back towards another- Angkor Wat

When we got to the inner most sanctuary part the guy could not go any farther, so we gave him a tip and continued on. It was incredibly hot and I was dripping with sweat. The line was not too long to go to the top. The wooden stairs that were placed over the stone steps were very steep and the black metal railing was very hot to hold on to, but that made me feel more comfortable. 

The steep stairs at Angkor Wat

It was pretty crowded up at the top. People were not allowed to stay up there for too long because others wanted to come up. I got some great pictures looking out over the the land and the front part of Angkor Wat. It was pretty scary to go back down the steps. 

One of the towers up top at Angkor Wat

I was glad when I got to the bottom. After that we headed out. It was pretty peaceful there even though there was a crowd as soon as we got away from the back building and were walking along the trail to the front building there was tons of stalls with women crying their wares. It kind of ruined the mood. We got some water and went to the restroom before heading out and back to our tuk tuk. 

Eskimo Kisses

After that we went to Angkor Thom. It is actually an ancient city with several temples. It took us several hours to tour the different temples. It was getting hotter and hotter. There were two other temples where I could have climbed up the steep steps to the top, but I was tired but then and didn't have the energy to go up them. One of the temples had these really cool faces. I have one photo of myself where I am standing in a window opening and there is one of the faces facing to the left and I am turned facing the right. It is shot so that it looks like I am touching noses with the statue face. They called the pose "Eskimo kisses". Before going to the last temple we stopped and had a late lunch. Again there were lots of women crying their wares. On the way to the last temple that was a smaller one we past by a Buddhist temple.

There was a ceremony, of some sort, going on. There was what looked like a family sitting on the steps with their hands in prayer posture. A monk, facing backwards, was chanting something and they were responding. Every couple seconds he was throwing water over his shoulder onto the people. On the way back from the temple the ceremony was over and the people had left. After that we had one more temple on what was called the small tour, but it was late in the afternoon and we were so hot and sweaty, so we decided to call it a day. We went back and had a swim and then went out for dinner. After that we headed to the night market and got foot massages.

To be continued....

Pool at Siem Reap hostel