Firstly we had a quick breakfast in Siem Reap; as I was (and still am not) feeling 100% I had a small bacon and cheese omelette and Courtney opted for a monster breakfast roll! By this time, as Courtney gulped down the last of her roll, we were 15 minutes late so we hurriedly found the tuk tuk driver again and agreed to depart.
The first stop was a ticket office where we reluctantly forked out $20 each for our pass to the temples, on top of this we had to pay $10 each for the tuk tuk ride, which we were both not pleased about! But at least we both look stunning on our ID cards...
Our first temple stop was the biggest religious temple in the world - Angkor Wat. (Angkor is the area of Siem Reap where we are and Wat translates to temple in Khmer/Thai)
It was a hot day so we didn't want to stand around for ages in the scorching sun, so to stop Courtney from melting we first went inside the main building to look at the huge stone temple in the middle... It was very packed with people so the experience wasn't as enjoyable as expected- but nevertheless the sheer size of the temple was astonishing!
After a stole round the main building we went out to the grounds and lay down in the shade overlooking the Wat... We found out that each stone temple are the remains of centre's of ancient cities, which had other architecture only built out of wood (which has since decayed), leaving behind the relics of their societies.
To Courtney's dissatisfaction, there were an array of unsteady stair cases and stone steps necessary to enter and exit each temple we visited... I found her attempts to climb them highly amusing so I have included a catalogue of her acrobatic climbing skills... Bare in mind each staircase was climbed be Courtney at a maximum of 0.5mph...
Following Angkor Wat we got back in our
Tuk Tuk and headed for another temple, which was called Ta Keo (I think)!
Yet again we returned to our tuk tuk and proceeded to another temple, which I think was our favourite of the whole day. Dotted around this temple were colossal trees with roots entangled round the stone foundations of the tombs... I still cannot work out how they got there!
From these photos you cannot grasp how big these trees are, however the next ones put them into perspective...
This was our last temple of the day, which for us was a blessing- we were absolutely knackered. We stopped for a quick cold drink then got back on the taxi to go back to our hostel in Siem Reap...
This evening we have been chilling as we are so tired. We are currently sitting on the rooftop terrace of our hostel, overlooking the hustle and bustle of Siem Reap nightlife, after enjoying a nice meal on Pub Street and Courtney met a teeny tiny kitten... Called Mario according to Courtney (because of his little Mario moustache!)
Late post: a quick post on our meal last night; Vietnamese food served at Soup Dragon. We had beef skewers and traditional Vietnamese sour pancakes, both pretty good!
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