Sunday, October 12, 2008

Forigner idea to Angkor wat


I'd been looking forward to checking out the Angkor temples for quite some time. The temples are known as the 8th wonder of the world for good reason. The whole area is massive. On my first day in Siem Reap myself and Niels rented mountain bikes and made our way to Angkor. We had no idea how huge an area the temples covered. It took us 45 minutes to cycle between some of the temples. The heat and humidity didn't help either. We still managed to check out 5 temples over the course of a long day that lasted from 10 in the morning until sunset. The most famous temple is Angkor Wat. It took us quite a while to walk around the biggest religous building in the world. Incredible to think some of these buildings are one thousand years old. After Angkor Wat we cycled out to Ta Prohm, made famous by Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider. This temple has a number of huge tress growing inside and around it. The roots wrap themselves around the buildings like snakes. This temple was made all the more authentic by the fact that it was literally falling apart. There are huge stones piled in certain areas, just left where they have fallen. We checked out some smaller temples along the way which were equally as impressive. The sun setting on Angkor Wat as we cycled home is something I will never forget.
Angkor Wat
Angkor Wat

The next day Chris from Boston arrived in Siem Reap. I wanted to give Angkor another visit so we rented a tuk tuk to take us around the temples. We got to see a few temples that were a little further away this way.
1-Angkor Wat
1-Angkor Wat

From Siem Reap I had planned on going straight into Laos. This is a particularly difficult route to take however so I decided to go through Thailand instead. I'm going to make my way to Bangkok before getting a train up north to Chiang Mai.

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