I've been wanting to see Angkor Wat since I saw it in a travel slide show almost 7(?) years ago. I remember seeing the majestic ruins and deciding that I had to go see it before I die.
Well, even though I flew into Siem Reap on Sunday morning at 7am, I checked into the hotel and just wanted to get out there. I was thinking that I should rest, but I really didn't want to waste time.
Usually, the first thing I do is go to the tourist info and pick up a map and some info on tours. Unfortunately, I had no idea where the tourist info was, and the hotel didn't have any tourist material, so I just decided to go to the Angkor Wat tourist centre. I did not know that all it was was a ticket centre for Angkor. I had rode on a moto the entire way, only to go back to the hotel to get my tour guide and tuk tuk arranged for the 3 days that I will be visiting. They only sell 1, 3, 5 or more day passes. 
I finally got out at 1030am. Now, I was just happy to get out and didn't feel any fatigue kick in, even though I only had about 5 hours sleep. However, I did gain an hour as Cambodia is 1 hr behind Singapore.
My guide is Mr. Sin and my driver is Mr. Sei. We went a little too late in the day, so we did not start at Angkor Wat. There are 300 sq km of countryside with temples in it. In the temples of Angkor, there are large ones, small ones, fairly well preserved ones, and ones totally undergoing restoration. They are shrines built by the many kings in the past, and some are Hindu temples and some are Buddhist.
Although my guide spoke English, there was still a communication gap. Also, I am not a history buff or religious, so lots of facts are lost on me, but I like the stories and just seeing the majesty of it all. This is what I understand.
It seems that if the ruling king was Hindu, he instructed all his followers to destroy any remnants of the past king, so most of the Buddhist temples have pieces missing from the images/bodies. The famous one is Angkor Wat, with the 5 corn cob shaped tops, and the Bayon, the one with all the faces and Ta Phrom, the one with all the tree roots. We went through almost 10 temples on the first day, that they were all blurring together. It was almost 8 hours in the blistering sun and heat, my guide said 38C!
On the 2nd day, I wanted to watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat. There were quite a few people, but this is shoulder season, so not as many as there could've been. Unfortunately, my guide is not the best photographer, so I don't have a great shot of me and Angkor Wat. That's ok, I have lots of photos, period. I had to leave the hotel at 5am , to see the sunrise and we walked through almost another 8 temples til 1pm. I'm really making them work hard for their money! Tuk tuk is $10 USd/d and English speaking guide $25/d
I also went to see the Floating Villages to see how people live off the Tonle Sap river. It was such an overpriced tourist money grab. $40USD for ~1.5 hr boat ride (I paid more for the sunset) in a dirty river where the driver doesn't know any English (I was told all of them do and can answer all your questions). The river was really low, so boats were passing head on with only inches to spare, and kicking up dirty water along the way.
After I caught sunset atop a viewing platform on a houseboat, we drove back, but it was getting dark, and they didn't seem to have any lights (or at least they didn't use them) and I was getting scared. I don't swim, I didn't want to get dirty, I didn't want my camera to get ruined and all my pictures gone; maybe I was just paranoid, as I'm sure many tourist come for the sunset. I think I was just getting the feeling that I was being jipped, and I had no English speaking person with me to save me if I drowned!
Lastly, I went to the night market to check out more souvenirs. I already bought lots in Singapore, but I picked up a wooden Bayon face mask for a friend, and some tea and cooking spices also.
It is now midnight, and I must sleep for tomorrow. The highlight will be the Ladies temple.
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