Katie & John's blog: Angkor, Cambodia

Having put the capital city Phnom Penh behind us, it was time to go to the place that was the reason for our trip, the ancient ruins of Angkor just outside Siem Reap.

I could barely contain my excitement as our cab passed the magnificent Angkor Wat on the way to our hotel. This was a place I had dreamed of coming to for years but figured I would never make it to. The fact that we were in Cambodia and would have a chance to climb around these great ruins seemed almost dream like.

The first day, Katie and I decided to go into town, rent a couple of bikes and ride over to Angkor Wat, the primary attraction in the ruins of Angkor and the temple that is considered one of the 7 man-made wonders of the world.

Siem Reap had the feel of a boom town, but retained lots of local South East Asian charm at the same time. The positive impact of the tourism industry was evident everywhere, and the local's pride for their country and their old temples was palpable. Instead of the animosity towards tourists that one can experience when travelling, the people were warm and welcoming. They loved talking to Katie and I to practice their English, although they were always very confused when we would tell them we live in Hong Kong. English is a critical skill for someone in Cambodia who wants to share in some of the profits of the local tourism industry.

Katie and I found a place to rent a couple of bikes for $4 and began our ride to Angkor Wat. The ride it self was a blast, as we shared the road with Tuk-tuks, motor bikes, and cars. All the fun we were having turned to fear as I broke the key off in the lock of our bike chain when we arrived at Angkor Wat. We decided to leave the locked bikes as is and explore Angkor Wat a bit.

When we returned back to the bikes, we unsuccessfully tried to unlock the bike chain. A little girl came up to us to try to sell us some postcards when we showed her our problem. This was the first time we heard a word that Katie and I will probably be saying for the rest of our lives . . .

"Bahhh!!!" which Katie and I quickly understood to loosely mean "Damn it." Make a wrong turn in the car? Baahhh! Break a glass? Baahhh! You get the point.

But back to the story. The little girl after seeing our dilemma told a few other locals. It was not long before we had a whole audience for our bike lock problem. Luckily a bus driver was somehow able to get the lock free. The locals found Katie's "OH MY GOD!!" reaction hilarious and began repeating it to themselves, which in itself was hilarious. Experiences like this are why we travel.

Anyways. Back to the temples. I won't bore you with too many details but basically Angkor is a huge series of temples (~120 in total) over 40 square miles that were the heart of the Khmer Empire from the 9th-12th centuries. Most of the buildings remaining are the temples which were made of more durable materials. Although Angkor Wat gets all the press, Katie and I found some of the others to be more impressive and or intriguing. See below for some of our favorites.