o7.o8.2o18 • Siem Reap

there is abolutely no enjoyment like reading. when arriving in `Siem Reap´ .. a small town in the north western part of `Cambodia´ .. we were so happy to finally got to check in to our hostel after 8 hours of driving by bus all over the cambodian border. by the way the hostel we stayed in was absolutely amazing !! the `Wheel Garden Residence´ is located a bit outside the town center and offers an exotic garden with pool, restaurant and café (with cocktail happy hour from 2 to 6 pm !!) and it was just the perfect place to stay !! so on our first day here in `Siem Reap´ we had to chill out, go swimming & plan our temple tour, of course. the temples of Angkor are the main attraction of whole `Cambodia´ and are also known as the 8th wonder of the world !! but why do we need to plan a tour for just one tourist attraction ? the temple complex is about 2o km in width and lenght and contains more than 1ooo temples .. well we were not able to see all of them in just one day but at least we visited the most famous & imposing ones. in the afternoon of our first day we already bought the entry ticket for the whole temple park and were allowed to enter `Phnom Bakheng´ .. a temple on the top of a hill .. the same evening to watch the sunset !! just amazing !! afterwards we ate typical asian food for dinner in our hostel & it was delicious .. so if you come here and stay in `Wheel Garden´ try the `Pad Thai´ and the `Red Chicken Curry´. the next day we had to stand up early to avoid the masses of tourists visiting the `Temples of Angkor´. we rented a Tuk Tuk for the whole day to get from one station to another .. the distances between the temples are pretty high .. so don´t try to do it all by bike or even by foot :)) at first we visited the most famous temple called `Angkor Wat´ .. a huge building of black stones surrounded by water basins. amazing to walk over about 1ooo years old steps & staircases .. especially when some of the monkeys which stroll around there jump all over the roofs & towers !! the next stop on our list was the `Bayon´temple .. also known as the temple of stone faces. it is incredible how these huge stony faces survived hundreds of years without that much conservation. then we went further to the `Ta Phrom´ shrine. through out the years a lot of Teak trees grew in and around the buildings & winded themself through windows and doors .. a magical place !! after a short break to drink some fresh coconut water we made our way to the last temple of `Angkor´. `Srah Srang´ is a holy temple in the middle of four water basins & shows once again what people were able to create centuries before us !!