Its Cambodia time

Tuesday was our first real day in Cambodia and we were in bustling phnom penh. We only had one day here in the city before we were to catch our overnight bus to siem reap. So the day was busy and packe full off sights. Firstly it was off to the royal palace where the king of Cambodia actually lives which is pretty cool. The royal flag was flying too which meant he was inside having his morning pho to start the day. The palace grounds were so beautiful and had so many buildings with ornate sculptures and decorations on and they all glistened in the sun. We spent about 2 hours wandering round the grounds before going into the Silver Pagoda. This pagoda had over 2 tons off pure silver laid in the floor. Most of them were covered to protect them but we seen a few and they had real intricit carvings on them. After we finished in the Palace we headed to the central Market of the city. There were so many stalls and everything was so different from what we had seen in all the other countries. We knew it was all fake stuff but it didn't stop us from either looking and trying to get a good price or buying a watch and some other stuff. The watch I bought was for less than $10 and it pretty nice I have to say, oh plus it actually works too so. Checked it out later that nite and it's a replica of a watch worth $1500 so least I got a nice one. After the Market it was to a massive shopping centre where funnily enough you can also barter for everything which was a little but strange. In there I seen my watch a few times and everyone who had it wanted at least $30 dollars so happy days I think. By this stage we were starting to wilt a but so off we went to a cheap Thai restaurant where we got some good curry which we had both missed. So now that it was nite time we just had to play the waiting game for out bus to arrive at 12am. So the bus only took 6 hours to get yo siem reap and when we arrived we were refreshed and ready to hit the Temples of Angkor for day one. The temples are actually expensive enough costing $20 a day but when you see them they are worth every dollar. So day one was only the warm up day and we stayed away from the big ones, Angkor Wat and the City of Angkor Thom. So we did about 7 temples maybe and started off with the most ornate one in the entire site. Was so amazing to see stone carvings from before the 12th century still so intact and beautiful. It was worth the 40km tuk tuk trip to it. After that we did a few more small ones that were interesting in their own rite. We then made it to one of the most famous ones in Angkor, a small enough temple called Ta Prohm. This temple is actually the movie star Angkor, it's famous because it was chosen to be left in it's original state as it was discovered after the Kymer Rouge so there are still trees growing through it and walls crumbling. It makes you feel like Indiana Jones. And that's exacy wat the film crew if Indiana Jones thought too and that's why it's feautured in the opening scenes if Raiders of the Lost Arc and also more recently it stared in Tomb Raider. It has such a cool feeling to it and a strange atmosphere, but that isn't helped by the hoards of tour buses pulling ip every minute. So we then went and watched sunset from one if the highest temples which was real nice except again for the masses of people. So we were so wrecked after all that walking that we just got good and passed out. I suppose the fact that we were getting up for sunrise the next morning made u even more tired. So up at 4.30am we got and arrived at Angkor Wat for 5am just in time to see the darkness fade. It was actually the most amazing experience sitting in the ground and watching that temple just appear out of the darkness. We stayed there wandering and exploring the temple for the next 4 hours I think, which is very easy to do. Then it was onto big hitter number 2, City of Angkor Thom and the Bayon. The Bayon is the central piece of the ancient city and has over 50 face carvings on it. They watch everyove  you make in the labrinth of galletys and stairs. It's amazing to see all these temples and knowing how well they survived but you just can't help but imagine what the entire city was like when it was at it's prime. After the great Bayon it was to different terraces ofvthe city and to the royal palace too. After all that and the early morning we were like the walking dead with information overload. So into a tuk tuk and to the hostel we went where they gave us the room until our overnight bus arrives at 2am which was really nice of them. So we took advantage and slept until late enough before heading into the town and exploring the nite Market and getting some food too. Then it was time for a but more sleep before our bus to Bangkok. It arrived ok and we made it to the Cambodian border for opening time and before long we were back in the Kingdom of Thailand.