We're going to Bonnie Doon.

Bonnie Doon is Cambodian for Angkor Wat.

Nah, just kidding.

So since we've been in Siem Reap, the following has happened:

1. We met Pit, who was to be our tuktuk driver for the Angkor temples.
2. John drank 168 cans of Angkor, and about 1241417 pints of Angkor Draft..
3. We checked out the temples.
4. We went to Dr Fish.. again.
5. We booked our bus back to Phnom Penh, and our hotel.
6. We learnt enough Khmer to get the little hustlers to back off..haha.

... and all these things go together so well.... so the story shall be told:

Siem Reap has been great. We are staying in a BEAUTIFUL hotel, with fantastic staff, free internet, free coffee, it has cable, air-con, 90c cans of beer, it really is a top spot... We''re only a little ways from Pub St, the Old Market/Night Market etc, as well as being in a nice quiet back street. A lot of the streets here are dirt, so everything has a nice layer of dust on it...

Today and yesterday we went to Angkor to see the temples... Day 1, we set off at about 9am, and by 2 in the afternoon I nearly died of heatstroke.. turns out 100 bottles of water is no compensation for not wearing a hat and trudging through temples.. The detail of the carvings, along with the beautiful assembly, the way its all put together is magical, breathtaking, awesome, really to be perfectly honest, cannot be described in words.

At the same time as being so amazing, it is heartbreaking, and gutwrenching to see some of the vandalism that has taken place at the hands of the hindu people and the Khmer Rouge.

On Day 2, we set out for the sunrise tour, meeting our new friend Pit at our hotel at 5am. Through the dark, dusty streets of Siem Reap, Mr Pit navigated his reliable and poweful tuktuk, arriving by our sunrise vantage point at 515-ish.

Watching the sun appear over the distant trees and hills, with rays of light beaming across the bath, was a picture I will never forget, mainly due to the fact Shannon captured it all on camera.

From there we set off on the Small Circuit, after knocking down the Grand Circuit on Day 1. There are some amazing temples, my favourite actually being Ta Keo (not Angkor Wat, believe it or Not - I just rhymed). Ta Keo is a huge structure, that hasn't actually been finished yet, apparently due to it being struck by lightning about 95% of the way to completion. Fearing the lightning strike was bad luck, the workers abandoned it, until it became a buddhist temple (temples changed from hindi to buddhist praise back and forth)

We grabbed some breakfast with Pit- a pretty standard overpriced ($2) noodle soup, and a coconut to drink.. from there, we continued templing, including the Bayon, which it would appear is a meeting place for the "Slow as shit Korean Club". From there, we headed to some smaller temples, including the toilet temple... free for ticketholders, 50c for nonticketholders. After draining the main vein, we headed back to Siem Reap town, conversing with our friend Pit.

From a few things Pit had told us, we really wanted to meet his wife, and get to know them both better. We invited Pit and Mrs Pit to dinner, and he accepted, before instead inviting us to his house tomorrow night for some Khmer tucker.

So after bidding adieu to Pit, I wandered the streets of Siem Reap on my lonesome, looking for a nice shady place to read the Cambodian Weekly newspaper. Found a little chair, had a read, and headed back to have some lunch with S-Tacular at STAR RISE (Best. Food. Ever).

And here I am now. Tomorrow we have the landmine museum, as well as dinner with Pit, and then Monday we head back to Phnom Penh, and the plan is to head to Sihanoukville for a few days to chillax on the beach.

Giggity.

John.