Day 82 - Siem Reap to Bangkok

The bus from Siem Reap to Poiphet departed on time in the morning and it was a fairly comfortable drive to the border.

Crossing the border takes ages and you have to be prepared for quite a bit of queuing, we spent almost 1 hour crossing. This is nothing compared with the 5 hours crossing the border from Mongolia into China so it's not too big of a problem.

While you can take a bus from Aranyaprathet to Bangkok, the nicer and more relaxing option is to take a tuk-tuk to the train station and take the train. Sure, it takes a bit longer but the views are nicer, you can sit by the open windows or doors, enjoy a cold beer and let the landscape pass by.

Due to some flooding and generally very slow train we arrived in Bangkok almost one hour late but it was not a problem.

First thing you learn after getting to Bangkok is that tuk-tuks are more expensive than taxis and you have to do a lot of haggling to get a decent price. IF you rather avoid that, take a metered taxi, cheaper, faster and has AC.
After checking in to the hotel we jut headed out for dinner and a quick walk around, first impressions are different than what I expected. More from Bangkok tomorrow.

I had some more pictures from today but a error with Tom's Macbook Air, meant I lost pictures when a copy attempt failed. Hope to get a power adapter for my Surface and be able to use Faststone, RAW Therapee and Windows 8 again. :)

Day 81 - Banteay Srei, Preah Vihear and Koh Ker

We started early again and arrived at Banteay Srei, the lady temple, just before sunrise. Getting there that early meant we were almost alone, aside from a group of photographers roaming around with their big dSLRs and tripods.

Banteay Srei is one of the nicest temples due to the red stone construction but mostly due to the very detailed and intricate carvings on the walls. It's certainly worth getting there early to avoid masses of tourists as the temple itself is pretty small and you want to be able to enjoy it.

On the way to get breakfast we stopped off at Ta Mok House. While there is not much to see there and it's pretty derelict, it is still interesting to see if in the area. The wall murals are quite interesting and you gt to see the rusty remains of Pol Pot's mobile radio station.

After breakfast and a Jeep ride up the mountain we arrived at Preah Vihear, the temple disputed and fought over by Cambodia and Thailand.

Even before arriving at the temple you will understand the extent of the dispute as you will drive by quite a lot of military bases, bunkers and quite a lot of soldiers with guns.

The dispute over the temple aside, it is a very nice temple built on the top of the mountain providing great views over Cambodia and Thailand. It is a shame there is this dispute with Thailand over who owns the temple as both countries could do well with putting some money towards restoring it and making access easier for people of both countries to enjoy it.

You should take a driver or guide with you who speaks the language as it will be much more fun if he can translate and help you talk with the soldiers there guarding the temple now.
It kind of feels a bit like you are in a war zone and in some respects you are, thus the advice against travelling here. It is however well worth the long trip and I hope the dispute will end soon to make things easier and access better, more though to allow restoration of the temple

After taking in the fantastic views from the mountain we headed back down and set out for our return trip to Siem Reap and a quick stop at the Koh Ker temple complex.

At Koh Ker you have quite a lot of small temples and a bigger one further inside the park. We stopped only at the most interesting ones due to time but also because some of the smaller temples are not much more than a pile of rocks.

We arrived back in Siem Reap after dark, just in time to get dinner, some drinks and make sure we got our bus ticket to Poiphet. From there we will be heading onwards to Bangkok.

Day 80 - Day of Angkor

We got up really early to go and see the sunrise. Instead of going to see it at Angkor Wat as everyone else, I had an ingenious idea to see it from where everyone is going to see the sunset.
It turned out to be a good idea as there were hardly any people there and the view was very nice with Angkor Wat being visible although a bit small. The sunrise however was not all that great due to it being hazy as usual.

After the sunrise it's best to head to Angkor Wat as most tourists will leave it and you are pretty much on your own and can enjoy the temple. Angkor Wat is a must do and was one of the tings I had to see in my life, now I have seen it twice and am still impressed.

While Angkor Wat is fantastic, the nicest temple is Bayon in the Angkor Thom area, the faces are really cool and it's very nice trying to see all the different faces there.

Angkor Thom has quite a few nice temples and despite the heat it's worth wandering around and trying to explore them all.

The last temple for the day was Ta Prohm, this featured in one of the Tomb Raider movies and is very busy at all times with tourists taking pictures of the movie locations. You need a bit of patience and wait for the tour groups to go away so you have a brief window for yourself before the next group arrives.

Tomorrow, will be an equally early start but not because we want to see the sunrise again. Instead we will be heading to the Thai border to see the forbidden or disputed Preah Vihear temple.