How many buses does it take to get to Angkor Wat?

Well since the last entry we visited a place called the 4,000 Islands where the Mekong spreads out out to a width of 14km and there are a lot of islands. It was very peaceful and picturesque but also a little light on things to blog about. One of the 'things to see' on the island we stayed on was a rusting French locomotive interesting only as this was the only train line that the French ever built in Laos and it went between two islands, wasn't attached to the mainland and no longer runs at all. People took multiple pictures of this whilst we wondered what they would say to their friends "Wait 'til you see this picture I took in Laos of this rusted train" one presumes.

The islands were very peaceful however and we spent a nice couple of days lying in hammocks watching the water buffalo graze on the island opposite and making small talk with an exhuberant Romanian who had spent a day being smuggled over the border to Cambodia where he got drunk with a load of fishermen and ate bbq'd cockroaches... oh and a few raw ones as well... he admitted to being 'pretty drunk, and really hungry.' We've thought about it and we don't think we've ever been that drunk or that hungry but is it really worse than a kebab?

The islands were our last stop in Laos and we arranged onward transportation to Siem Reap in Cambodia, the trip involved one boat, 7 buses, one hotel that let out rooms by the hour (our very own Aussie thunderbolt battled with the manager who tried to overcharge the entire bus!) and at one point had 18 people plus luggage crammed into a bus that even the Cambodians said would normally only take 14 but all this is normal now and we exchanged tales with fellow passengers sipped our water and ate bananas to pass the time.

Angkor Wat is the most famous of a series of large and ornate palaces built by a series of God Kings who ruled a massive empire during the 12th century, there was also an ancient city that once contained over 1 million people but as only the Gods were allowed to live in houses made of stone there are no remains of the city.

We were told that if you bought a ticket after 4pm for the next day then you could get in and watch sunset the night before... we did this but frankly the sunset was not that impressive, the sun went down over the countryside rather than any temples and the countryside is somewhat remeniscent of Kent. We spent most of our time people watching and wondering what people were getting excited about and taking photos of? (French train syndrome) In the end we took a few to show willing but our hearts weren't in it (we admired the group who had brought pizza and beer with them though... clever buggers).

The next day we had arranged a tuk tuk driver to take us around the major sights and temple complexes including the giant faces of the Bayon Temple, the famous tree root covered ruins of Ta Prohm and the crown jewel of Angkor Wat... we also agreed to go and watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat... anyone who has seen our photos knows that we do like sunsets as a rule, possibly like them too much, but that there is a notable lack of sunrises. Well this time would be different! We arranged to be picked up together with our travelling companions at 5am the next day.

Well it was worth it, we turned left when everyone else turned right (a tactic from the L Foster school of crown avoidance and queue optimisation strategy) and had a section of the grounds all to ourselves, we watched the sun rise over one of the most stunning temples of SE Asia, the jewel of Cambodia. It was an amazing experience and the rest of the day didn't dissapoint either. We found the temples, carvings, giant moats and general grandeur of the place a real highlight, I don't think I have the words to do this place justice (although we certainly took enough photos to paint several million words) it was magnificent and blew away any fears we had that perhaps the hype and guide book descriptions had been over generous in their praise. It was outstanding.

At the end of our time in Siem Reap the time had come to part company with David and Martine who we had been travelling with for the previous 2 weeks, we went out for nice meal and, much as we had for the past fortnight passed the time talking like old friends and greatly enjoying each others company, as we have just left behind a number of very old and very dear friends it was really nice to find people who we felt so comfortable with and it was sad to see them go but also exciting to be on our own again and facing the challenges of the trip and making decisions on what to do and where to go as a twosome! We were leaving for Pnom Penh in the morning and they were headed to Thailand.