Siem Reap: Saddle Sore

Hello lovelies! (Katie here)

It's been an action-packed four days in Siem Reap, the gateway city to the ancient home of the Khmer Empire - Angkor. On a pair of rickety bicycles we've been cycling between all of the main temples on the UNESCO World Heritage Site. As you know, I'm not a lover of exercise, in fact, I don't really do any at all, so cycling over 20 miles daily, has been hard going, especially in the blistering heat and high humidity. Also, Sam and I are both suffering from diarrhoea and have been for the last week (apologies, but you didn't think you were going to get away with not hearing about our bowel movements - after 7 days it's all we can think about at the moment, hence over-sharing with you all...) Hilariously, Sam and I have been discussing potentially going on a cycling holiday at some point in the future (Naomi, don't get too excited, it may never happen!), something neither of us have ever contemplated before - worried that this is a sign of encroaching middle age.

It's all been worth it though. The temples have been truly magnificent and definitely the best thing we have seen on this trip so far. It's been like being on the set of an Indiana Jones film (apart from the fact that I have looked no where near as glamorous as any of Indy's leading ladies) - exploring ancient ruins of temples constructed between the 9th and 15th centuries, set in the jungle. Angkor Wat, the principle temple said to be the world's largest single religious monument, is breathtaking.

When we were at this site, we also saw a 22° Halo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/22%C2%B0_halo).

Another cool temple is Bayon - the king who had this one made ordered them to put images of his face everywhere, so it's got loads of faces carved into the towers.

Other temples worth a mention have to be Ta Prohm and Preah Khan. Both of these have been largely left unrestored which made for some great exploration and a chance to take some cool photos.

Aside from cycling out to discover all the temples, we've not really done a lot else in Siem Reap. Mainly just collapsing from exhaustion and moaning about being saddle sore. Siem Reap itself is very pleasant though - nice markets, bars and restaurants.

We will be departing Cambodia at the god-awful hour of 5.30am tomorrow morning, on route to Bangkok. Really excited about going to Thailand!