As has been the tradition for Emma and I we somehow picked the time of year that our chosen destination was the busiest. I would say Siem Reap was the busiest we have seen yet. On landing we took a tuk tuk from the airport and after hitting the few hostels on our list we soon reverted to trying what seemed like every other door in an attempt to find accommodation. Everywhere was fully booked, everywhere!
After the rest of the morning and almost the entire afternoon searching we finally found somewhere to stay. A nice place but at the top of what felt like a few hundred steps. It's was a hotel (not a hostel) in the middle of town and unfortunately the owner was requesting a crazy amount to stay. We had no choice and set up home for one night only.
The next day we again took a tuk tuk to Angkor Wat and what a day it was. Back in Siem Reap town the hustle and bustle was a burden but here seeing the buzz of thousands of people with flowers, incense and many offerings for the temple gods was amazing.
We spent the entire day wandering around Angkor. It's a massive temple in its own right and we thought we would leave the further temple complex ,stretching many miles, until the next day. Along side the main temple sat a festival for the new year and later that evening as the sun set we lit candles along with many thousands of Cambodians and set them afloat on Angkor Wats surrounding moat. So beautiful.
Later that evening we sat on our rooftop balcony and overlooking the street we could see another large throng of people cheering and shouting, dressed to the nines and all heading the one way. To the north of the town we seen areal lights (big batman lights) and quickly decided that whatever it was we should get ready too and head with all of the others, talk about sheep!
Our flocking payed off though, we followed the crowd being pushed and pulled and eventually ended up on a massive street filled with bars, stalls and more people than it was ever imagined to hold. This was the Khmer New Year street party, we later found out it goes on for two weeks! As we walked the street we could see clouds of power, people covered head to toe in white dust and others dancing and throwing the stuff until we ourselves were covered too. It seemed some used baby powered and others, well god only knows. This is a Cambodian tradition at this time of year. It's pretty safe to say that night we immersed ourselves in that tradition too.
The next day we woke up early, super early. It was before 5am and still super dark. All the lights and music from the night before had died and outside our pre booked tuk tuk was awaiting.
That morning we heading straight back to Angkor wat for the sunrise. I can't really put it into adequate words but our pictures tell a thousand words. Amazing...
For the rest of the morning and into the afternoon our tuk tuk driver, the cutest and most well mannered, always smiling and polite Pyket took us around the entire complex including stops at nearly every temple. We visited most...
My personal favourite temple was Ta Prohm, the location for Tomb Raider. You can see why they chose this place for a location. Ta Prohm was so complex in itself, so intriguing and unbelievably interesting. In that way Ta Prohm was a little like Siem Reap too.
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