Siem Reap (Angkor Wat)

When we got to Siem Reap it was dark and we just found a place near
pub st. For 6 bucks, Good location but it was under a club and not
that nice. I was with the 2 Canadian girls I met the day before but
they got annoying real quick so I ditched them the next day and moved
to Mandalay Inn. (855)(0) 63 761 662, mandalayinn.com. A double room
(they didn't have any singles) was $9 with private bath, fan, and
cable tv. It was a little pricy but it had a roof top gym and I really
liked the feel of the place, def recommend. Across the street was
Popular Inn which had real basic single rooms with shared bathroom for
$3 and looked totally acceptable. Angkor Park Inn wa also in the area
and it looked good too. Tons of options.

The first day I just explored town a bit. The second day I hired a tuk
tuk ($20, talked down from 30) in the afternoon to take me to the Beng
Mealea temple ($5 entry) and the Roulous Group of temples (included on
the Angkor Wat ticket) on the way back . Mealea is 70km from Siem
Reap. It's a cool drive through the country side on good roads and I
got to see rural Cambodia. The trip out there took about an hour and a
half. Beng Mealea ended up being my favorite temple. It's in the
middle of no where and gets fewer tourists and hasn't been rebuilt
much. You can climb over and through everything and trees grow all
over the place. I hired a 10 yr old kid to be my "tour guide" for a
dollar and come around and take pictures of me. His name was Chian, I
think. I spent about an hour and a half there and then we headed back
to the Roulous group which has 3 main temples. They were cool and
worthy of the stop but they probably wouldn't be worth a special trip.

I had bought a $40 3 day pass for Angkor, good for any 3 days in a
week. A one day pass is $20. My first day touring Angkor I rented a
beach cruiser style bike for $1 and headed out at about 1. The ride to
Angkor takes a leisurely 25min ride. I toured around Angkor for about
an hour and continued on the Bayon then Te Prohm (where they filmed a
scene from tomb raider). Te Prohm is similar to Beng Mealea but more
restored. I biked the "small circuit", and then took a wrong turn and
ended up outside of town at a fair. It was pretty interesting but I
wanted to get back to town before dark so I didn't stick around.

At lunch the next day a little 13 yr old kid was trying to sell
postcards and bracelets, i bought him lunch instead. He said his
parents fish in a village outside of town and he goes to school in the
morning and the sells stuff until 10pm. He said that the day before he
didn't sell anything so he didn't have any money for food. This was
after i already bought him lunch so i believe him. After lunch I
rented a bike again but this time rode the "big circuit". I stopped by
Angkor Wat again briefly and stopped at a couple other temples but i
was kinda templed out and I didn't start until 2 and I had to cover
about 25km on my bike (beach cruiser again). Biking is DEFINITELY the
best way to get around the Angkor temples. The roads are good and
don't have that much traffic. They're well shaded and its really nice
to cruise by the temples.

My last night I went to the free Apsara dance show at the Temple Club
on pub st. It was worth going to but not mind blowing.

Random prices of things: cambodia t-shirts $2 but you can get them for
$1.50, basic plate of food $1, I bought a big north face travel pack
for $22, talked down from $35, north face day packs could be bargained
hard down to $15-18 I think. Docyciclin was $0.35 for 10 capsules. I
had to look hard for that price though. Most places wanted $1-2 for 10
capsules!

Leaving Siem Reap I took the boat to Battenbang. It was $16 on Angkor
Express and they picked me up at the hotel. There was a lot of
variation in ticket price so shop around. The boat trip started out
not that great with a not very scenic trip out to the lake and then a
long journey across the lake. The seats down below are uncomfortable
and it's really loud so get a good spot up on the roof. The journey up
the river is awesome with tons of floating villages along the way. The
boat stops at a floating store half way where you can buy some snacks,
i didnt though. It was really scenic and we passed through some of the
poorest areas I've seen anywhere in the world. It was Jan 18 and the
dry season so as we got further up the river it became very shallow.
We scrapped bottom a ton of times. Much later in the dry season and i
dont think the river would be navigable the whole way and I read that
sometimes it isn't and passengers have to be bused part of the way
which wouldn't be too fun. The journey took 8 hours to Battambang and
our boat broke down once (apparently common, I heard that a boat broke
down a couple weeks ago with a major problem and it didn't arrive
until midnight!) but it didn't cost us too much time. Overall it was a
great trip and I definitely recommend it.