Wednesday 18th July

Up at 6:30 to have breakfast and sort out my plan for the day. Tried joining a group tour but the hotel weren't able to organise that for me. Its the low season here at the moment, so I got myself a guide for the day along with a tuk-tuk to take us around to the major temples. We left the hotel at 8am and came back at around 4:30pm. After spending the full day in the heat I was pretty wiped out. Its about 35 degrees here in Siem Reap in the middle of the day and slightly humid, so it feels a good bit warmer.

My temple visits included Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and all of the surrounding smaller temples, the names of which probably wont mean anything to you, so I wont bore you with the details. Some of the smaller temples are being invaded by the jungle. There are literally trees growing on top of some of the temples with the trees roots sprouting down to the ground and then into the ground. In a few places these trees are supporting the decaying structure of some of the temples, but in others they're contributing to the collapse of some of the temples.

Having been responsible for a lot of destruction in this part of the world during the 2nd World War, its nice to see that a lot of the restoration projects that are going on here are being part funded by the Japanese Government. According to my guide, the main focus of the Cambodian government is on the two main temples, Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, so its nice to see that funds from other countries are helping to keep the other temples standing as well.

Had dinner in the FCC here in Siem Reap which is the sister hotel of the place I stayed in Phnom Penh. I would have liked to stay at the FCC here as well, but its about 2 or 3 times the price of the one in Phnom Penh and is a much more swanky affair. Had a nice meal though, having had some local Khmer food at lunch, I went for a pizza which was very good. I headed off to bed early with the intention of trying to get up early for sun-rise at Angkor Wat, but I knew by the time I got back to my room that I probably wasn't going to be able to get up before 5, will have to fit that in on Friday.

Plenty of Irish people around here, met a girl from Athy who now lives in Boston while looking at some of the Temple Ruis. She's en route to Oz and NZ as well. Seems to be plenty of people with similar ideas!