17 Dec - Siem Reap & Angkor Wat
Early start at 6.45am for 8am tour. Breakfast was really busy with mainly Chinese tourists but the food was a lot better than Phnom Penh. The elephant terrace temple was busy with what looked like marching band scouts. Nice introduction to Angkor Wat getting close to elephants and a monkey family with papa displaying his bits. Small disaster of day was dropping my lens filter down a stone staircase watching it bounce and miss other tourists trying to catch it. No scratches but the thread is slightly out.
Lunch at a Khmer restaurant which did some simple food for those a bit fussy or jetlagged as myself. Plenty of photo opportunities for dilapidated temples with trees growing out including the famous one. A few kids try to sell flute or postcards etc.
The rep offered us the chance to visit the national museum which I thought would be interesting but a bit of an expensive mistake at $13 each. It was like a Las Vegas shopping centre with quite sparse items. Once you've seen a dozen Buddhas another dozen the interest fades quickly. No wonder it was empty and you wouldn't want anymore than an hour. Siem Reap was a complete contrast to Phnom Penh in wealth.
We completed the afternoon with some pool side laziness and a trip to the local minimart for snacks - found Klang beer - all prices around UK standard. After 45 mins of kip, some corny Jackie Chan TV film and adverts for construction steel we met up with Trev and Pom for 2 for 1 cocktails at the Soup Dragon. Dinner at the Khmer Kitchen for cheap food sticking to spring rolls and chips. Staff took away the first batch but 2nd weren't much better. Fed a stray cat the food remainders. Walked over to the Moon Market and had to hale hard on a pair of masks at $13. Had a last drink at the tiki styled bar who were playing Daft Punk's Around the World but shifted back to dull hip hop. Our tuk-tuk driver was very friendly offering his services for Angkor Wat tours. Shame that we had a bad night's sleep with room neighbour TV up loud and moving furniture until 2am. Air-con left off then on as too hot then got cold plus bed far too hard.
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