Angkor WHAT????

Hi all we have just come back from 9 hours at Angkor Wat, which is described in the lonely planet as "..simply unique, a stunning blend of spirituality and symetry, and enduring example o man's devotion to his gods"...A little bit OTT if you ask me!!
Nah not really. The temples of Angkor are pretty impressive, there's lots of them all built by kings trying to outdo their predecesors. The amazing thing is that they where built centuries ago and the sandstone used to build them came from over 50 kiometers away, so it's amazing how they managed to transport blocks that weighed a ton without the modern equipment of today (Gosh I'm so articulate!).
Aaaanyway so we got up at 5am after 11 hours on a bus the previous day (I'll bet you're laughing at us now - you just wait till we get back on the beach!).
As I said 5am!!!! To watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat, and it was a very mysterious and exciting adventure getting there via a pothole with bits of road in between. As the sun rose we marvelled at how wrong the architect got the positioning of the temple but then we moved to the side and managed to get the sun rising above the magnificent Angkor Wat.
It's great that these stunning works of art remainned untouched during the ruling of the Khamer Rouge.
But...you can get too much of a good thing sometimes. It doesn't make it any easier when you get asked if you want to give a dollar or buy a:
bracelet
bag
drink
scarf
little budda
picture
postcard
trinket
trousers
shirt
guide
book
coconut
food
pinneapple....and believe you me the list goes on and on!!

5 Wats are great, then you get into 6 or seven and the sleep deprivation starts to kick in. So we're wandering about the 12th or so Wat (i.e. temple) and it dawns on us how utterly useless most of these buildings seem to be to us. They are mostly made up of staircases, alleys, archways and corridors. Where's the kitchen, or the loo???
In conclusion, yes it's amazing but spending just one day here is not a "sacriledge"as the Lonely Planet suggests....it's enough.

So we are, as all good travellers say, templed out!

Tomorrow we get a taxi to the Thai border (crash helmet not included!) and then onwards to Banghot for the 3rd time!

Sam and Chris x