Day 8 - Fri. June 16th

Michele and I flew to the stay in the city of Siem Reap to go to Angkor Wat - the famous temples (wats). It is the largest religious monument in the world. The temples at Angkor are spread out over some 40 miles around the village of Siem Reap, about 192 miles from Phnom Penh. They were built between the eighth and 13th centuries and range from single towers made of bricks to vast stone temple complexes.

We got here and were so surprised at how beautiful Siem Reap is and how different from Phnom Penh. Like a resort town almost - slower pace, relaxing. It very lush green and floral everywhere and I love all of the colonial architecture.

We spent an hour or so at the market and then got picked up at 4pm at our hotel to go to Angkor Wat and see some of the temples it at sunset. You are supposed to see it at sunset and sunrise, so today we do sunset. We saw the sunset at Phnom Bakheng wat. We climbed the steep steps to the top and wandered around the ruins of the old wat. It was quite a climb and we did not wear the right shoes, so we decided to ride the elephant down. I actually regretted it as I think the elephant was very hot and tired. We had heard that the temples were amazing and were still completely in awe once we saw them.

That evening, we thought we would go see a Khmer concert or something cultural. Our tuk tuk driver recommended a traditional dance and dinner at a nearby hotel. In the end, it was very touristy, but oh well...