Siam Reap and Bangkok

Another 6 hour bus journey later we arrived in Siam Reap and we loved it.  The town is all focused around a couple of main streets called Pub Street and the Alley which are filled with bars and restaurants and fish massage places!! It has a fantastic atmosphere in the evening and it allows great competition in prices as the bars are on top of each other – we regularly visited the 0.50c beer and 1.50 cocktails – YUM!!

We bumped into friends from Halong Bay and spent a couple of evenings having dinner and drinks with them which was good fun.  We revisited our uni days from when we were in Thailand and had a few ‘buckets’ which was good fun!

James and Dan with their free Ankor What? Tshirts

Me and Urshula enjoying our buckets!

We were total keen beans and got up at 4.45am to be at Ankor Watt for sunrise.  A fantastic experience and a lovely atmosphere around the place but unfortunately due to it being rainy season we didn’t get a great sun.  Even still it was nice to see the temples early in the morning as it was less busy and less hot.  The architecture and sculpture work inside the walls is unbelievable.  We visited the top turret of the temple which now has artificial steps to get up to it because in 2007 a Korean tourist died coming down the original stone steps – there is no chance of Health and Safety going mad in Asia its basically every man for himself!!  We got some lovely pictures and enjoyed hearing the origin and history of the temples.

Ankor Wat at sunrise

Yay for us at AW!!

More Ankor Wat pics!

The stones to the stone turret - James not enjoying coming down!

Tree growing sideways!

Trees growing through the temple (where tomb raider was!)

Close up example of the trees over the temples

Our tuk-tuk driver (who we had for the day) took us around the other temples, Watt-Thom, Bayonne and finally the temples where Tomb Raider was filmed.  It was really impressive, I haven’t seen the film but the temple itself has so many massive trees growing over and through the temple, it really is class to look at and this is its key feature.  The large roots growing through holes in the temple walls etc  were really different and showed how old both the temples and the trees are. (See pics above!!)

The rest of our couple of days was spent chilling out and wandering through the town.  One evening we watched the Liverpool match on the big screen on pub street which was great fun and a nice atmosphere.  The same night we sampled snake...I do not recommend it haha! James enjoyed it but I found it very chewy!  Basically just did it to say I’ve done it haha!

James decided to be brave and have a fish massage...with Piranhas...not quite the Piranhas that we would visualise but they were still pretty massive and went mad around James feet.  It was absolutely hilarious he laughed the whole time as it was so tickly, the massage attendants thought it was the funniest thing ever...’you scared man haha’. 

Working up the courage to put his feet in!

Laughing his head off!!

A LOT of fish!!! 

We spent a fabulous afternoon having high tea in Raffles, a nice treat for our last day in Cambodia.  £8 for a typical English high tea with finger sandwiches, scones, traybakes and unlimited proper tea (amazing!!) and coffee in stunning surroundings.  We loved it!  Such a nice afternoon out.

High tea at Raffles

Me enjoying a proper cup of tea!

James enjoying his coffee and buns!

On Monday we had an early start to catch the bus back to Phnom Pehn in time for our flight to Bangkok.  We are getting used to these 6 hour buses.  We eventually arrived in Bangkok about 7pm and got across to our hotel.  Back in May time we had found a special offer online for the Hangover2 Hotel called the LeBua State Tower....it was a fantastic offer for an amazing hotel and we feel like we have landed in hotel paradise for a complete bargain!!! Love a good deal haha!! We are staying in a suite overlooking Bangkok city skyline – stunning views.  Our suite has a living area, kitchen and huge bedroom part – it’s actually unreal – this is definitely the life!!! We almost feel like thieves being here for so cheap and they have given us a late checkout today before our international flight so we can enjoy it for longer.  We had a drink in the Skybar...where the Hangover scene was filmed, the 64^th floor on the top of the building with 360 degree views of the city from the highest bar in Bangkok...one of the best experiences of our trip so far.  It was so nice to get all dressed up and have such a special treat for our last evening in Asia and definitely something we will talk about for years to come.  It was simply breathtaking!

Our living room!

The bedroom with view over the balcony!

Our balcony and the view!

J on our balcony!

Me posing on our balcony

View from the sky bar! Unreal - 64th floor!

J on the sky bar!

2 of us enjoying our cocktails in the skybar!

My attempt at an artistic photo, our cocktails at the skybar!

Fantastic evening and view!

View from our balcony in daylight!

So now we move onto the next part of our adventure.  It’s hard to believe that we have been away for a month now...in some ways it has totally flown but in other ways it feels like we were in Asia for so long but we are definitely pleased with how much we have achieved in a short space of time!! I am so excited for NZ and all the fun and adventures it will bring as well as the no doubt fantastic atmosphere around the rugby world cup.  This week we will be skiing in Queenstown which I can not wait for.  So I will write again soon from the land down under...bring on the Kiwis!!

Love and miss you all!

xxxx