This is an almost magical world of dozens of old abandoned temples spread out over miles and miles. It almost seems like a magic wonderland it's so other worldly. Ever succeeding rulers between 900 and 1300 AD seemed to need to make his own and make it bigger. Angkor Wat is the largest and the tag line says it's the largest religious building in the world. Now I believe!
It turns out that over the last decades a lot of restoration work has occurred both in putting tumbled down walls and moats back together as well as clearing away 800 years of jungle growth. One particular temple they left in its original found state with the most enormous trees growing out of the walls etc. It was a great idea to do that as that place in particular has a most out of this world atmosphere. I won't say too much else as it is a place mostly for pictures.
As for the town of Siem Riep a few km away...well, I don't think a boomtown in a gold rush would have compared to this. Hotels and guesthouses going up everywhere, new concrete buildings nestled among old shacks in many places, and the center of town such a tourist mecca that you wonder if you aren't in some kind of disneyland. You certainly don't know that you are in Cambodia!. Western everything at western prices. Come here for the temples but not for the town! You are left with a feeling again like someone is making a lot of money somewhere, meanwhile a lot of other people are making slave wages and one has a little bit of an uneasy feeling about being a participant in the whole process.
We have another day or two here to get ourselves all 'templed out' and then the plan is to get ourselves back into Thailand and head for some ocean. All we have to do now is figure out how to do that!
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