[Phnom Penh to Siem Reap] So far the extreme weather around South East Asia has gone out of it’s way to steer clear of us and today was no different. We had an easy (thanks House and SGU) 6 hour bus ride on empty straight roads up to Siem Reap (Angkor wat). The scenery was that of wide open plains dotted with a trees – refreshingly different. We don’t normally book accommodation but since it is a popular destination and we wanted to try a recommendation from Jessica and Christian we booked with Golden Temple Villa. The booking included pick-up but I had forgotten to include the name of the bus company so we ended up grabbing a tak-tak into town. We were joined by a talkative and pushy local chap trying to sell us a tour or at least the services of the driver for the next few days. It was a little annoying but when we finally arrived and chatted to the driver he seemed a really decent chap so we decided to ride with him tomorrow.

Golden Temple Villa is incredibly well presented. The staff are polite and attentive to the point of almost being annoying. They have done a fanastic job of making your basic Cambobian hotel look special by adding a few simple and strategically placed decorations. You can feel like royaly here for $15 a night.

The tourist centre of town where we had dinner is packed with restaurants to suit all tastes, endless shops selling the usual clothing, crafts and trinkets, and a lot of those silly ‘fish massage’ tanks. We found a shop called ‘Wanderlust’. It must be a sign? Come to think of it, it did have a sign outside. Not a ‘sign’ in the burning bush sense, just a regular sign :p

Tomorrow we hit the temples.

[Pictures: Or is it just a Sign ?]

– Posted from my iPhone via WiFi