Angkor Wat / Siem Reap - Cambodia: 8th October 09

This morning we were picked up by our tuk-tuk driver, Tom. He’ll be our driver for the next three days, he doesn’t speak very good English but we can just about make ourselves understood. He wears a nice pastel pink helmet!

In the morning we headed to the ‘Roulos’ group of temples, which were built a couple of hundred years before the other temples. They’re not as big as some of the others but are good ones to start at as they’re the earliest. They were really spectacular and we had a nice time wandering around and sitting absorbing the atmosphere. One of the smaller temples had a monastery attached so we sat and watched the monks for a while in their saffron gowns.

Outside each temple you get accosted by at least 6 kids trying to flog soft drinks, water and scarves. They’re a bit of a nuisance but you have to be patient with them as they’re just trying to make a living.

After visiting 5 or 6 temples Tom drove us to the river where we boarded a boat for a tour of the nearby floating village – there are quite a few floating villages in Cambodia – so many areas flood during the rainy season that people plan for it and build their houses on stilts. The village was beautiful and we were the only tourists there. From our motor boat we towed along a lady in a much smaller boat that we transferred to for the floating forest.

Now this was a surprise...we’d been told we’d see a floating forest, but neither of us expected what we saw, it was one of the most surreal and beautiful places we’ve ever seen. On the tiny wooden boat the lady steered us amongst the trees in compete silence. The light was so eerie, filtering through the leaves and reflecting on the green water – it gave it the feel of a cathedral. The only noise we heard was a child singing and caught a glimpse of them rowing a boat through the trees in the distance, mesmerizing!

It turns out not everyone who visits the village goes into the forest, we spoke to some people later who had sailed straight past it, so we feel quite honoured to have been there and had it to ourselves!

In the evening we went out for some food. We’d heard about the famous Cambodian ‘happy’ pizza. That’s a pizza with ‘happy herbs!’ I know it’s naughty, but, when in Rome and all that! (I’d like to point out that Matthew had a normal pizza, only I was foolish). The pizza was nice and I felt quite happy and relaxed for the rest of the evening.