Siem Reap / Angkor Wat

After a flight of only 35 minutes we were in Siem Reap from Phnom Penh arrived. According to our original plan, to take the boat to go, this had lasted more than 6 hours, so basically we had half a day won. At the tiny airport was a man with our names on a note waiting for the hotel we had booked via the Internet. The hotel: Angkor had an article in a magazine in Malaysia stood and based on that we had booked a room for 3 nights. In the article were beautiful pictures and the website looked great and they had a really good offer because it is low season in Cambodje (due to the warm wet season from May to August). Upon arrival at the hotel we saw that it was necessary to retouch the photos in the magazine and on the Internet because the similarity between the hotel and the pictures we had seen did not. After the cooking class in Chang Mai and the huge rain (and mud) in Bangkok, our clothes or to wash it before we even went so far off in the zewembad we wanted was the return to the hotel. There was in the information of the hotel that you had to call housekeeping before, but unfortunately the phone in our room did not work and we spent the was but went to the desk. When we were just lounging around the pool someone came to us to tell you that indeed the phone in our room was broken and that we had to move to another room. Fortunately we had the dirty laundry out our swimsuits and not much expanded. Our new room was an enormous Executive Suite: we were once again upgraded!

After lunch we rented 2 bikes and headed to the ancient temples of Angkor Wat, a mile or 6 north of the village. We were not very good on the map and when we looked after 3 quarters no ticket office nor Temple had seen, we cycled back to where there were signs to Angkor Wat, we were indeed wrong! At 16 hours we were already quite sweaty from cycling and heat for the temples of Angkor Wat. The whole area around Siem Reap Budhistische and has dozens of Hindu temples but the most famous of all is Angkor Wat (where the movie Tomb Raider is also provided). Against the overcast sky put on the temple less impressive than that based on everything we had read, had anticipated but it was still a beautiful sight. After over an hour to have run through Angkor Wat we got on our bikes to another temple Phnom Bakeng, just down from where the zonsonderdag seemed to be very nice. Phnom Bakeng situated on a hill and the original stairs up is not much left. We clambered over the rocks and tree roots along with dozens of others up to see the sunset. Unfortunately it was still cloudy and it was packed on top of the mountain. After the view of Angkor Wat to have admired, we decided for the large crowd but set down again to climb to the village for cycling, because outside that dark quickly would be looked also as though the lot was going to rain. We got on the bike and in a large stream of cars, buses, motorcycles and tuktuks we drove to the village. Just when we were handed our bikes (it was already pitch dark and there is no street in Siem Reap and there was no light on our bike) a thunderstorm broke loose: come on we were pretty dry. The only disappointment was that our Executive Suite had no hot water .... Well we're not waiting for a long hot shower but it was really better if you had a little warm in the cold water could mix. If we, after the worst rain has stopped, leaving the hotel for a bite to eat, it appears that the hotel staff barely speak English and it cost us the necessary patience and hands and footwork to explain that the warm water does not.

The next morning we decided not to hire more regular bike but an Electric Bicycle: a cross between a scooter and a Sparta-With: ideal. We first went on the road to a somewhat more distant temple, Ta Prom, which was still partly in the state as the French settlers throughout the area around 1860 found: overgrown with jungle. The ride to the temple and the temple itself was pretty magnificent and impressive. Especially the parts where the trees actually go through the temple had grown over the centuries. After Ta Prom we went on our electric bikes back to Angkor Wat. Because the weather much better and the sky was much brighter than the day before saw Angkor Wat is also much nicer. After a short lunch break we drove on to Angkor Thom, the great temple complex of the area. In all temples you walk in, but because of size of Angkor Thom (about 3 by 3 kilometers), there is a road built through it. We drove through the southern gateway to the inside and when we were at the temple complexes in the middle had arrived kept Juriaans bike up with it. The battery was empty. For the gate sat a Electric Bike Station where you could get new batteries so Marije Juriaans went with battery back to the gate. After fifteen minutes also did Juriaans bike again, but we first went to Temple View where we were standing right there when the bike stopped them: Bayon. A beautiful complex with everywhere you look great images of faces of gods (or saints). When we got back on our bike was found that the battery completely Juriaans bike was loose and not very well done. One girl told us that just around the bend again Electric Bike Station Sat We've got a new bike for Juriaan. After a tour around the whole complex of Angkor Thom we were hot and it was just again been enough with the temples and ruins and we went back to our hotel to swim and shower (really hot the water is still not but the icy cold seems to have lost it, or maybe we are accustomed ) And then into town to go for a Tomb Raider cocktail (the favorite cocktail of Angelina Jolie during her shooting of the movie: good commercial) and a bite to eat. We have dinner at a very special restaurant that specializes in cooking fushion between European and Khmer (Cambodian): delicious!

Our last full day in Siem Reap we spend the morning in a temple of Angkor Wat is located 30 km but in all lists, books and guides is described as a "must see". We arrange a van to our hotel and after an hour of bouncing and troublesome (even if the road is empty and the road is pretty good here for some reason not faster drove 40 km / h) we are indeed a small but beautiful temple the resulting images and edits of the walls had remained in very good condition. In the afternoon we swim and go to lunch at FCC Angkor, part of the group that ran the hotel in Phnom Penh, but the establishment here is much sjieker than in Phnom Penh with a huge art gallery and spa. Where we eat our last night we do not know but we get a lot of inspiration from a guidebook that good descriptions of hotels, restaurants, bars, etc. for different areas of Cambodia (the Cambodia Pocket Guide ) and there is probably again some fun in here because of restaurants and bars abound. What is sad for the hospitality industry and other groups of tourism to life is that it is very quiet in Siem Reap. In our hotel sitting maybe 8 other guests (and there are 70 rooms) and at the restaurants where we eat an average of 2 or 4 other guests. Only in the sunset at Phnom Bakeng our first night was quite busy, it is also (sometimes exceptional) quietly hope for the Cambodians that comes through the season (June seems the warmest and one of the wettest months are so that is not so favorable for climbing on temples in the jungle).