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Other entries in Siem Reap

The steepest steps in the East

Me and Ack got up about 10am after deciding it was too cloudy out to get up for sunrise at 5am and watching the Man Utd versus Wigan game at 3am.  As it turned out, it did rain about the same time as sunrise, so we didnt miss anything after all!  We left Al in bed because he is a lazy so and so and headed off into town in search of a few odds and ends and to go to the bank.

We went to a small cafe and got some fruit juice and got pestered by book selling kids, and I ended up buying the lonely planet guide to Thailand (fake obviously) from one of them for about a fiver.  We found ourselves a tuk-tuk driver for the afternoon visit to the temples and arranged him to pick us up from our hotel at 2pm.  It cost a grand total of four dollars to hire him for the afternoon which was a bonus!

We got back to the hotel to find that Al was still in bed, so we got him up and ready in a matter of minutes to bed picked up.  The temples are situated abou ta half hours drive away from Siem Reap by tuk-tuk - well, at the speed our driver was going anyway (rediculously slow), and the first temple we opted to look at was not surprisingly the daddy of all temples - Angkor Wat.  It was really impressive to see both from a distance and inside as it is coverd with amazing carvings and it is huge.  Once inside, we took a few stupid pictures to make the occasion a bit more fun and i climbed up into the main temples where Al and Ack wouldnt dare because the steps were too steep!!  I thought they didnt look that bad, so I literally flew most of the way up them, only to turn around for a picture and start getting dizzy when I looked down.  Turns out they were bloody steep, add this to the fact there was no hand rail and I was a bit worried about how I was going to get back down!  Luckily, there was another set of steps on one of the other sides that did have a hand rail and I definately wasnt the most scared person, as some old bloke infrotn of me took about twenty minutes to get down the twenty metres of steps and was shaking like a leaf all along.  I did feel a bit sorry for him, but couldnt help laughing as well as I am a skank bastard.

We searched around Angkor Wat for about three hours and decided to make our way to see the second largest temple, Bayon for sunset, as we had already been up to the mountain once.  Bayon is situated in the centre of the Angkor Thom complex of temples and is in a pretty run down condition.  Nevertheless, it was extremely impressive, and we got some good snaps and some stupid snaps in before the sun went down.  We would like to see it again in the morning however, when the huge stone carvings of faces are meant to look at their 'most alluring' - thanks for that Dad!!

We got back to the hotel about 7pm and got a spot of dinner in the bar downstairs, spent a little time on the internet, watched the Calcium Kid in our room (which is funny as fuck by the way) and then hit the hay at about 11pm as we planned to be up for sunrise on our last day at the tempes tomorrow.

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