Angkor

The 4 of us caught a flight to Siem Reap and somehow managed to fit ourselves and all of our luggage onto 1 tuk-tuk. We checked in at 'Prince Mekong Villa', a clean and comfortable place with free breakfasts, bikes and laundry and the huge bonus of the Swiss owners knowledge of the Temples. Angkor is the area of Cambodia that was the home to the Khmer Empire from the 9th to the 15th century AD. It has an abundance of temples of varying architecture and is set amongst forest and farmland. It receives around 2 million visitors a year.

Like eager little beavers we set off on tuk-tuks at 5:30am on the first of our 3 days in town. After watching the sunrise at a quiet spot we made our way to Banteay Srei, where we walked in absolute peace and quiet through perfect pink sandstone and unimaginably intricate carvings. The rest of the morning was spent wandering through a handful of other temples and by 1pm the heat and the call of our stomach's convinced us to call it a day.

The second morning saw us heading off on bikes just after 5am and with head torches fixed we cautiously navigated the dark back roads south of the temples. After watching the sunrise with a handful of others at 1 of the hilltop temples we approached the Southern Gate of Angkor Tohm and after entering we joined a couple of wild monkeys up on the wall. With the early morning sun on our backs we cycled along the wall for about half an hour, all the way round to the Western Gate where we dropped back down to ground level. From there we rode into the main tourist hub where we visited the staring faces of Bayon and walked along the famous terraces. After a quick snack at a deserted jungle temple and a visit to a few others we made our way back into town, dripping with sweat and with raging appetites.

Our time in Siem Reap was not totally focused on the temples but also on testing some of the cuisine. All of us got stuck in but myself and Stephane (who is pretty much a french version of me) excitedly consumed as much of the local fair as possible. He has a wine company that sells top french labels and was very keen to expose us to his passion. He bought a bottle that was way out of our daily budget and we enjoyed it with some strong cheese. It turned out to be a really fun evening and included an informal lesson on the confusing topic of french wine.

My advice to anyone visiting Angkor is to try and stay away from the crowds and stumble over rubble and through narrow passages alone, as if you the were the first to discover it's wonders. This of course is not the easiest thing to do with it being 1 of the world's greatest tourist attractions. A sunrise at Angkor Wat for example will be shared with a few others, around 5,000 or so, all scrumming for the best shot. We followed the masses on our third morning but as soon as the sun gazed down at us from between the towers we were off to Ta Prohm were managed to explore on our own. Ta Prohm has a fantastic setting in the forest, with gigantic trees actively engulfing the ageing ruins. It was also made famous by 'Tomb Raider' and has to be 1 of the most interesting sites in the whole complex. To end our morning and our time at Angkor we finally entered Angkor Wat. A very beautiful place with a wonderful layout that was sadly littered with tourists (like ourselves - but a lot more stupid) but was worthwhile nevertheless with awesome bass reliefs along it's outer corridors. The amazing thing about the place is that it looks like it was constructed only a couple of years ago.

We had originally planned to visit another group of temples but by lunch time on Day 3 we were officially templed out. Instead we took the afternoon off and later dragged a few beers up onto a hill to watch the sun set over the Tonle Sap Lake and the never-ending plains of Cambodia.

Many thanks to Stephane (wine guru and amateur National Geographic photographer) for the pictures.