A 3 hour ride & we are delivered to the Siem Reap bus station. 10 mins later & we arrive at the Cheathata hotel . We are a 5 minute walk from pub street where numerous restaurants,bars of varying cuisines are situated & if these are not enough there are at least 4 within 100 yards of the hotel front door - handy for a khmer whisky nightcap. After a days rest we book for a full day trip to Angkor Wat. An 8'oçlock start gets us there before the heat of the day & we visit the Wat itself crossing the causeway over the moat first to see the frieze round the walls that was 2 mtrs high & stretched 130 x 150 mtrs. Our guide endeavoured to identify the main characters royal & godly ( at least one thought he was both) & the supporting cast of demons,monkeys used for their armies. This was easy for him but with a site built over 600 years by people with similar names it did become a little confusing for us especially following the shift of religion from hindhu to buddhist with some gods recognised by both !Next we went to to Ta Prohm (featured in Tomb Raider apparently) which was fascinating as it was difficult to tell whether the building was supporting the trees or vice versa - both were true. Some minor restoration is being carried out here but the amount of numbered stones lying around(100's of square yards) suggest a nightmare of a 3 dimensional puzzle. At the centre of Angkor Thom is the Bayon Temple one of the last to be built which has countless serene Buddha faces at every turn. By 3 oçlock we were exhausted & decided to call it a day as we still have 2 days left on our site pass.
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