Siem Reap

Siem Reap has a lot more dirt roads than Phnom Penh. The bus dropped me off at an undisclosed location instead of in the main backpacking area where I was expecting to be dropped off. Then the hotel where I was supposed to be staying was also hiding from me and the tuk-tuk driver, even though I thought I had pegged the location down correctly on the map in my book. The driver Prohum tooke me to a series of guesthouses all of which were full, until we found a nice one that has a swimming pool but didn't have any A/C rooms for Saturday night, only fan rooms. So it was a hot Saturday night until yesterday when they moved me to a much more comfortable A/C room. After checking into the fan room, my driver was taking me to see the sunset at one of the Angkor temples, and I spotted the sign for the missing guesthouse along the way, but it really was difficult to find.

The drive past Angkor Wat was amazing with the large placid moat surrounding the huge temple. There were lots of picnicking Khmer by the side of the moat on the grass, since it was a Saturday afternoon. I visited a temple a little to the northwest of Angkor Wat. The temple Phnom Bakeng was up a hill after a hike through some pretty dense forest. The temple ruins were definitely crumbling at parts, and the way was blocked at some points around the exterior because it was too dangerous. The climb to the top of the temple was up five steep flights of steps, which were exhilarating to walk up and down because the steps were so narrow. The top of the temple was supposed to give a nice view of Angkor Wat, but the way was partially blocked by some trees, and there are some unsightly green tarps covering parts of the exterior of Angkor Wat where they are doing restoration work. But there were some amazing views of some lakes and mountains in the distance, and the cloud cover gave everything a sleepy feeling. But the cloud cover meant no real sunset. I was hoping for better lucks in my plans to catch a sunrise at Angkor Wat in the morning.