VIRB

Siem Reap is a small town about 6 hours north of Phnom Penh. It's famous as its the closest town to the Angkor temples and also because it's a pretty nice place in its own right. It's very tourist friendly which I found to be a good thing, all the shops, bars and cafes were conveniently placed right beside each other so you don't have to look very hard to get some good food. The Angkor temples located outside of the town are just stunning. I would put them as probably the best thing I've seen since I've started travelling - along with the Golden Gate Bridge, the Great Barrier Reef and the temples of Kyoto. We spent 3 nights in Siem Reap and only got to see a few of the temples, you could easily spend a month here if you wanted to explore the entire area.

We got the bus from Phnom Penh which was terrible. The seats were tiny and I always get stuck behind some old guy who insists on pushing his seat back as far as possible so I end up with absolutely no leg room at all. I hate the bus!!!! We arrived in Siem Reap pretty late on a monday night and the scenes at the bus station were incredible. Outside the gates there were about 40 or 50 tuk-tuk drivers shouting and pushing each other just to grab our attention. Security guards were preventing them from getting up close to us. All this for a dollar - crazy. We stayed at the Siem Reap hostel which is a great place to stay in by the way, it's more like a hotel than a hostel and very enjoyable. The next day we went to Ta Prohm and Angkor Thom. You can get a 3 day pass into the parks for $40 which is expensive for the area but excellent value for what you get to see. Ta Prohm was nice but the temple has been destroyed over the years so you can only see the ruins and the giant trees growing out of them. Still worth a visit though. Angkor Thom is definitely better. It contains the Bayon, which is an amzing piece of architecture as well as the Terrace of Elephants and the Terrace of The Leper King.

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