We went for a walk along the Siem Reap river into the market area and solved one of the big issues for us - how to get money. We'd heard that there were no ATMs in Cambodia, but that's not the case, there are quite a few and they dispense US dollars. The US dollar is the de facto currency in Cambodia; the official currency is the Riel, but everything is priced in dollars, and the only time you really see Riel is when the change is less than $1. There are 4000 Riel to the dollar so if you buy something for $1.50 and give them $2 you get 2000 Riel in change. A bit bizarre but it seems to work.
So armed with a bundle of US$ we then went and got some cheap lunch and had a look around.
The place was surprisingly nice, although very westernised as this is a major tourist destination. Prices were about $3-4 for lunch, so still cheap, but not dirt cheap. Lots of choice and lots of really nice bars and restaurants.
Lianne had a very lazy afternoon after we went back to the hotel, she dozed whilst watching the finals of the Indonesian Badminton Super Series!
In the evening we went to a really cool bar that had free pool tables, soccer on the TV, Green Day on the stereo and 75c beers and $1.50 cocktails!
After dinner we headed home as we had an early start the following day to go see Angkor Wat.
We had arranged for a tuk-tuk driver to ferry us round for the day to see the temples of Angkor. $12 for the day.
When we woke up it was absolutely pissing down, we were a bit concerned at this as it was going to be a grim day if the weather continued like that, fortunately just after breakfast the weather broke and the rain stopped.
He picked us up at 7am and took us out to Angkor Wat. It is a very short journey out there (about 10mins on a slow tuk-tuk) and the first time you see it, it's pretty amazing. The Angkor ruins are built between 900 and 1300AD and are the temples and residences of the Camobian's of that time. They were only rediscovered in the late 1800's and some of the temples have been restored (others are still in ruins). Angkor Wat (pictured) is the most famous of these and has been restored the most out of all of them. We spent a couple of hours wandering around looking at all of the temples and pagoda's inside and all of the carvings that are in the stone. After Angkor Wat we went on to see bits of Angkor Thom (Bayon, Elephant Terraces, Terrace of the Leper King, and the old Royal Palace). After that we went on to see a few of the other smaller temples and also Ta Prohm which they have kept in it's original form from when they were rediscovered in the 1800's. All of the work they do there is to keep it safe so it doesn't fall on any unsuspecting tourists. Much of the stonework has collapsed and huge trees have grown through and on top of the stones which is a pretty amazing site to see also. About this time, the heaven's opened again and it was also just after 2pm so we decided to head home as we were a bit 'templed-out'. On the drive home, our poor tuk-tuk got a puncture and we were a bit concerned how we were going to get home. Luckily about 100m away was a puncture repair place (a man in a hut with a jack and a pump). Surprisingly, it all worked out and in another 10mins we were on our way again.
The evening was spent quietly in a restaurant in town and then home early (especially as Lianne now has a cold from being in the heat then the air conditioning constantly!). We also wanted a decent night's sleep as we were getting picked up at 5.50am for our boat trip to Phnom Penh...
No comments:
Post a Comment