Siem Reap. Cambodia.

Following the ridiculous journey to Siem Reap the next day was my Grandfathers funeral. We wanted to celebrate his life. Sitting in the sun. Which is something he loved to do. By the pool toasting a beer to him. Things started as I had hoped but soon I felt as sad as I have ever felt. I was not in a good place. On the third day we tried our best to pick ourselves up & went into town for some lunch. Day quickly turned into night. We grabbed cocktails at Red Piano 'famous' as it is the restaurant where Angelina Jolie dined while making the Tomb Raider movie. Later while heading home we walked past this cool looking bar. One for the road we said.

Chatting to American & Canadian backpackers. Drinking buckets. Out till four. We were getting picked up at six to see the sights of Angkor Wat. Catherine was woken by the driver knocking on our hotel door at 6:30. "Can we go tomorrow?"

Cat with her Tomb Raider cocktail. Seriously that film sucks. I tried to watch it the day before we went to Angkor Wat. It's so bad not even Angie in a tight top can fix it. 

Yank eats snake

This guy reminded my of my friend Karl

Tomorrow arrived as usual & we hit up the famous sights. Starting off with Ta Prohm. *Tip* go the opposite way to the tour groups. Makes for a much better experience. Not to mention much better photographs. So the way I would suggest is - Ta Prohm, Bayon Temple & then Angkor Wat.

Ta Prohm was built in 1186. Europeans found this temple in the 19th century and I imagine it still looks as it did when it was found. Some renovation works have been carried out but the cool trees growing out of the stone have been left untouched. Good choice. Going early was a damn good choice too. Running, climbing around these ruins virtually alone while the sun was rising was pretty cool. At one point I lost Cat in the middle of the place. 

Bayon Temple was built in the late 12th or early 13th century. It has these massive stone faces on many of its towers. Surrounding the temples are scenes carved into stone of a Khmer army on the march.

Black & white photos might become my new thing.

Classy tuk tuk. Check out those wheels.

Finishing off at Angkor Wat which is one of the largest religious complexes in the world. It's a bunch of 9th to 13th century temples built by the kings of the Khmer Empire. I have heard people say this should be the eighth wonder of the world. From the other wonders of the world I have seen I do not believe it belongs in that category.

We sipped a freezing cold beer after running around all morning. Two kids selling bracelets sat opposite us. With eyes far older than their years. They discussed shop then carried on with their business. We bought some post cards. I hear they have already arrived! Cambodian mail is super fast.

These are not the bracelet girls. These are the local hairdressers.

That night we met up with Kt & Andy friends from home. They are also backpacking. Travel stories & towers of beer shared. Later while playing pool I accidentally hit the ball like a mad man & it shot straight off of the table. It bounced along the room. Out of the balcony doors and onto the street one floor below. No one was harmed thankfully. Later on back at our cool bar from the night before we got chatting to an Argentine chick. She was cool but offended Andy when she said, after shaking his hand. "Shake my hand like a man!" It cracked me up. She was funny.

With our initial impressions of Cambodia. The first few days sucked! We even went as far as to check out flight prices to get the hell out of here. We stuck it out. How glad we are that we did. Currently in Sihanoukville. Spending our days on the beach spending virtually no money. I am really starting to fall for Cambodia.