Angkor!!!!!

Phnom Penh is a cool city, not so many Hi-rises for a capital city, I only saw 3, but loads of hot traffic and noise, with 100%humidity, it wasn't the best place to stay. We wanted some beach action.
The coast of Cambodia is an understated place. Although its not the Paradise beaches of the Caribbean or even Thailand's many islands, it is a way cool place to be, even for Khmer people. Sihanoukville was the next destination. And a 6 hour bus journey later, rocked us up at a smelly old bus station, where we hopped into a taxi and wound up in a place called Serendipity Beach. The clearest memory of the journey through the countryside was the baron scenery, and the ditches filled with plastic rubbish, as no other source to get rid, let alone recycle. So much rubbish. And only probably 1 in 10 house's are made of anything more than sticks and leaves. With special plastic sails to catch rain water to drink or bathe in. We were not in Kansas no more Toto.......

Sihanoukville was just a place to hang out for a couple of weeks. We were waiting for a friend to come, Max. We had to wait for her as we all had planned to go see Angkor Wat together.
Not very much happened in Sihanoukville, it was a fairly boring town, quite an industrial feel, with the commercial harbour not to far from where we stayed. From the beaches you could see dozens of small Islands, some smaller than others, so we started asking around, and yes we could go stay, relax and spend a few days stranded. We hoped we could get some sort of far away desert Island thing happening, but we settled with Bamboo Island. An hour or so away, when you arrive you see there is a bar restaurant, so the deserted idea already squashed, but there were bungalows lining each side of the beach. Most small thatched huts, and one bigger beach house. We decided to share the big roomed house, as we only were to stay a night or so.
Did nothing but relax, had a bit of a swim now and again, and wandered through the jungle to a deserted beach, which was cool. Soon enough we were back in Sihanoukville, so we could lose some more of our time, in a blatant haze.
Time came to leave, it was just a few days before Max arrives, we needed to buy a visa for Thailand, see the Royal Palace, maybe visit the water park and the few big Wat's around Phnom Penh. Jon wasn't up for leaving so Amy and I went alone.
We ended up back at the Toxic Lake, but in a new place, which was up high, so we had a wicked view of the city and the Lake, and with only a few days before we went to Angkor, I really needed to get rid of my constipation, which had been a problem for about 2 weeks by then. I got to the pharmacy and they gave me some ridiculous laxatives, which crippled me in the middle of the night, and the next day was totally unable to move let alone walk around the Royal Palace. Bummer, but it was about 40 degrees and humid, so being alone under a fan was pretty sweet, although Amy and Jon really enjoyed the Palace, I didn't feel like I missed out too much. Plus I was reading a brilliant book called Marching Powder. A little endorsement there.

Max arrived, safe and well, although a little pale. Just a day before she was due to leave she checked her e-mails and Sri Lanka Airlines had ordered her to get an earlier flight, so incidentally she'd been in Sri Lanka for a day before we met her. We expected her to be knackered and want to stay in Phnom Penh for more than a night, Max was fine though and we left the big smoke for the Temples of Angkor.
I think we all knew what to expect, I had seen photo's and read some cool articles before we left, but you just have no idea how amazingly old and well kept the whole of Angkor is. The photo's show a lot, you can see how the trees have grown over thousands of years all over and around the temples structures. All around was jungle and forest lined with the biggest tree trunks and highest trees I have ever seen. The place was so peaceful too, apart from the kids trying to sell trinkets, bracelets, water, paper origami decorations, everything you really don't need, but feel compelled to buy.
The first day our driver took us to Angkor Wat, the main Wat, hence the name. There are about 20 different big temples dotted around Angkor, each for another reason. The kings House, the doctors temple, the schooling temple, these aren't the names but what went on in each, all those years ago. The reason we started with Angkor was that the sunrise's behind the Temple and is meant to be really amazing, but when we arrived there must've been around 500 or more people ready with cameras to get the best pic they can of the sunrise. Same as us, we were there too, but not really over impressed as the sky was hazy and always people walking in front of the shot you wanted. Unfortunately Angkor Wat is one of the most visited Ancient sites in the world, and really should be in the 7 wonders of the World.
The day passed and it got real hot, you'd think that seeing one big ancient temple would be enough, but we had loads to see, so on we cracked. Climbing, sweating, sitting, smiling, and eventually frowning and yawning. I felt like I should've trained before taking on the temples. Jon however was constantly trying to beat his fear of heights, by climbing up the most steep, hard to get down places. Loving it like a mountain goat.

The photo's shown on here are all of Cambodia and Angkor.

Our favourite collectively was the Temple where Lara Croft Raided, in Tomb Raider. The photo's showing most of the tree's holding up buildings were taken at "Tomb Raider".
Although a little expensive, in and around Angkor, it is well worth spending a few days exploring. But just enough time is good, plus we now had to leave back to Bangkok to meet Adam. Amy's bro.
We were to meet him and then head down to the paradise Islands in the Gulf, Ko Tao and Ko phangan. Yippee...........