Siem Reap and the Temples of Angkor Wat

Chann Na speed boat
Boat trip from Battambang to Siem Reap

We took the Chann Na speed boat from Battambang to Siem Reap. It is referred to by the Lonely Planet as “Cambodia’s most enchanting boat trip.” Unfortunately, I was battling food poisoning and seasickness. I don’t remember much of that boat trip. I do remember being conked out on Gravol perched on a hard-seated, straight-backed bench with nowhere to rest my head. Boats and Sara do not mix. Boats and food poisoning and Sara are even worse. According to Ryan, the scenery was wonderful and although it took 7 hours to get to Siem Reap the worst part was a numb bum.

The first few days in Siem Reap were spent in bed recovering. My only solace being the swimming pool at our hotel which was delightfully warm in the evening. We stayed at Tanei Hotel. It ended up being $20/night which was way over our budget and taught us a valuable Agoda lesson. When we got to the hotel the clerk told us we had only booked a room with a single bed and that we needed to pay $2 more per night. We decided to stay one more night and we had to pay the rate from Agoda (which included the Agoda booking fee) which wasn’t right, but didn’t seem worth arguing over.

Our tuk-tuk driver for the day

We paid $15/day for our tuk-tuk driver in Angkor. A tuk-tuk is necessary for getting to all the temples. We had negotiated him down to $13, but he brought a cooler with plenty of water free of charge and bought us some refreshing palm fruit to try, so we ended up paying him $15 because he made our day at Angkor even better.

Tourists at Angkor Wat
Tourists cover a temple

Angkor Wat was as magnificent as they say. There were a lot of tourists, making it difficult as far as photography was concerned. No such thing as those deserted shots of the temples you see in magazines. We opted for the $20 one day Angkor Wat ticket. We barely touched the place, but our budgeted funds for Cambodia were running low.

Angkor Wat in the dry season
Angkor Wat in the dry season

If you are looking to get some information on the ruins before you go, or you want to have a handy guidebook with you while you’re there, here are some great books to check out:

 
Our next stop is a relaxing stay at the beach in Sihanoukville!