Temples of Angkor

Hello, Wendy again!

Here I am, on my third day in Siem Reap to walk around the millions of temples we have around. The most known are the Angkor temples (Wat an Thom). They are incredible. I have not seen anything comparable (ok I did notgo to Mexico neither to Egypt, but people say it is more impressive!). The temples are still in a good shape although nature mostly took over them. Some temples have been found in the middle of the jungle.

Why is there so many? Around the 9th to 12th century, each king would request to have a temple built in his honor. Once a king would die, the next one would stop the construction of the previous one to start a brand new one somewhere else, bigger, better, etc...

I guess most of us know that one: Angkor Thom, one of the most 'lost world' temple.

So everyday you pick up a Tuk Tuk ('Hello ladyyyyy, you want tuk tuk?', thats is what you get pretty much everyday) and go to check the temples you want. Our private tuktuk (which we would organize to meet everyday was Thoeur.. very nice man. I discovered all this with Rachel a swiss girl I met at the airport in KL.

As much wild as we wantedto be, we asked to spent some time on the counry side to see how people live around here. Most live in wood houses with one room for the entire family. Most houses live on 'pilotis' to be safe with the raining season.

Interesting point alos is that this season Siem Reap as much less tourists than usual. Probably due to Bangkok and the economy issues... Well good for us, but very bad for them. Most of the people around here live on tourism. And you can feel that they are really having a hard time these months. So GO TO CAMBODIA! the people are so nice, always smiling, always welcoming you wherever you go ('Good luck to you ladyyyyy'). There are so much things to do around here I could stay a couple of more weeks. The town is quite nice also. Some touristy area with the usual pubs and so on, but at least they don-t have McDonalds!! Sorry PJ...

We were also very lucky when we went for a Sunrise one of the temples. We decided to take the second less obvious place, and at our arrival no one was there!! We shared the sunrise with our lovely tuk tuk driver and the local kids playing around before going to school..

Most kids go to school here either in the morning or the afternoon, they can choose. The school is apparently very good here. If they get an A grade in high school, they get to university for free. So everybody is serious about it.

Alright kiddos... I-m going for diner in town.. The last evening here. I-m leaving tomorrow toards the North East of Cambodia, right under Laos. Apparently you get really good sceneries, jungles and back country roads that are unrecommanded for those with sensible bottoms.. Let's see what I will find there!

Next cities> Kampong Cham, Kratie, and up to Banlung in Cambodia still.

Babye everybody!