These temples are incredible! I remember seeing my dad's pictures of Angkor a few years ago, and immediately wanted to go there afterwards. But, the pictures do not do it justice. These temples, built at different time periods ranging from 800-1200 AD, are massive, detailed, and are being overtaken by jungle. It is easy to imagine yourself stumbling upon these temples in the jungle and being humbled and afraid by their awesomeness - especially the gates and the huge stone faces.
We met Mimi at Sweet Dreams guesthouse (it doesn't live up to its name - more like terrible nightmare with mosquito attacks at night and a leaking ceiling). I said to Mimi - if this same hotel were in the US, we'd be fearing for our lives. But, we got good Khmer food and it was cheap and the people were nice.
We explored the temples with Mimi - seeing the incredible Angkor Thom first (the old imperial city). We were amazed just by the gate (one of the four gates) and spent awhile taking pictures there. Bayon, one of the major temples, includes over 260 faces on many symetrical towers - just incredible! Preah Kahn, the Buddhist University, was one of our favorite sites - peaceful with long corridors, some crumbling with huge trees growing out of the rocks. Ta Prohm was even more overtaken by jungle - straight out of Tomb Raider - which the locals love (were forced to watch it at our guesthouse).
We woke up at 4am for sunrise at Angkor Wat which was beautiful. We toured temples all around and then enjoyed an American ice cream titled "Mr. San Francisco" and "Mr. San's babies". We thought this was hilarious - it could be the delirium from lack of sleep and touring all day.The town of Siem Reap is really nice - french colonial architecture. Pub street has lots of trendy bars like "Angkor What?" and "Temple Bar".
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