The hype surrounding these ancient temples of Cambodia is enough to make any traveller book a bus to Siem Reap without hesitation in order to explore the ruins. After a six-hour bus journey from Phnom penh and a subsequent tiff with yet another scamming tuk-tuk driver, I wounded up in a sweeet room at Good Kind Guesthouse, with my own TV, en-suite and double bed for just $4. Not only that, they also let you rent their bicycles for free, so after a quick rainstorm I took advantage of the sleeping clouds and cycled across the river towards the town. Cambodians don’t really care what side of the road they drive on so it was a bit of an experience!

My first real experience in the town of Siem Reap involved being propositioned by an elderly beggar hoping to get some money from me. I much prefer to give food and drink to beggars so offered him a whole silver bowl of leftover rice from my lunch. At first he shook his head and motioned that he only wanted money, but eventually he reached into his shabby jacket to reveal a little plastic bag holding white rice. He delved into my bowl and scooped its contents into this bag, making me wonder how on earth can a guy survive merely on white rice? He snubbed the vegetables I offered him, and without even saying thank you he trudged up along the road.

A little tip for fellow travellers, if you only want to do the 1-day pass you can actually visit the offices at 5pm the day before and visit the temples at sunset for free. upon handing my $20 over they took a quick snap of me, passed me my entry card and then I pedalled off to Angkor Wat. I don’t know what I was expecting, but the sheer volume of tourists made it pretty difficult to get any real decent pictures until I had made my way to the furthest outreaches of the ruins. It was really something to sit on the centuries-old stone steps and watch the sun start to descend through the sky, without hearing or seeing anybody else.

Bayon

The giant stone faces were, for me, one of the most stunning views of the whole day. A few people whipped out their sketchbooks, and I even took a sneaky picture of a guy (below) and its impressive drawing.


 

Ta Prohm

Tree roots, branches and full-blown trunks were emerging out of the ruins here, making for an impressive mix of nature claiming back what’s rightfully hers!