Kasia on her travels: Tomb Raider

I'm going to be honest, there wasn't any actual tomb raiding in Siem Reap but I did go to the 'Tomb Raider' temple on my three day jaunt around the Angkor Archaeological Park which was petty awesome. I also have to admit by the time I arrived in Cambodia nearly four months into this adventure I was feeling pretty 'templed out' and wishing that maybe I'd done Angkor Wat at the start as it's somewhere I've always wanted to visit. I felt like I was going to turn up and be all "Yeah it's a temple, whatever, seen like a bazillion of them." Nothing however can fully prepare you for just how amazing the temples are, and how many of them there are.

I spent three days of my week long stay in Siem Reap visiting the temples (it isn't cheap!) and was pleasantly surprised at how quiet it was, the tour groups only kicked in on the third day when I visited the bigger temples, even then it was often empty and quiet. Apparently it's a good time of year to visit and a bit cooler being rainy season. I still found myself becoming Asian by utilising my umbrella not for the rain but as a sun shade, it might be a bit cooler but it's still bloomin hot!

My camera was pretty much on permanent snap mode and I have only uploaded a fraction of the photos I took. Alas one thing I failed to capture on camera was the monkey attempting to steal my water bottle at Angkor Wat. Ironically I had been laughing with Heather (of travelling in Vietnam with fame) about how devious monkeys were and that these ones here at Angkor would not successfully rob my belongings because I was on to them when one approached, and by approached I mean loped towards me with criminal intent. The cheeky bugger grabbed my bottle with both of his little monkey hands and I had to wrestle it out of his grasp whilst clearly telling him that he would not be having my water. He then ran off, tail quite literally between his legs. Kasia 1, Monkey 0.

Of course there are other memories I will take from my visit, the sunrise of Angkor Wat, the amazing faces at Bayon and going all Tomb Raider at the very beautiful Ta Phrom, bouncing around on a Tuk Tuk through the Archaeological park etc etc but the monkey easily wins for most memorable moment. All in all, I loved my time in Siem Reap, the temples were more amazing than I had imagined and I'm glad I left them until the end, it feels like a fitting way to finish my adventures, bar a few days in Bangkok of course.