Siem Reap

Right: Divers near Ankor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Siem Reap is the gateway to the temples at Angkor, the prime destination for most visitors to Cambodia. After you've made a visit it is easy to see why. It lives up to it's reputation. You can buy day passes, 3 day, or one week tickets. I was told that a lot of people get a bit "templed out" after three days but I was good for a week and being out for a bit of exercise in the process, I hired a bicycle for six of the days. I then hired a motorcycle driver for a day to take me to a few of the further out sites.

Left: The Bayon, Angkor Thom

The Ankorian period during which time the temples at Siem Reap were built covers the years AD 802-1432. The temples were "discovered" by the French explorer Henri Mahout in the 1860s, though Mahout himself never made any such claim. A French missionary had indeed visited some 10 years earlier and prior to that were accounts from Japanese and Portuguese travellers.