Drop the Angkor, we need a break

George reporting from Siem Reap, following our first day in Cambodia's answer to Disney Land - the temples of Angkor.

Since our last report we have done a lot of travel and not much else until today. After our last report, we had the last Battambang supper at the long-awaited Smokin' Pot. We both had very traditional Khmer dishes - Bec had fish Amok and I had the 'fire mountain', in other words marinated beef you cook yourself on a portable stove. It was really good. Unfortunately for Bec, hers didn't rock so much. We finished our last night somewhat later than ideal for our 7am departure the next day; Bec was coerced into my game of Texas Hold'em with Brett, manager of the Bus Stop guesthouse where we'd stayed, and his wife, Tia (also coerced). It was fun, especially since with a generous scoop of good luck, I won the pot!

Anyhow, the journey to Siem Reap along the Sangker River almost didn't begin at all; the bus driver forgot us, and a frantic tuk tuk driver was sent after us. Given we were late we were relegated to the back seats, also known as the outdoor engine compartment. Quickly deafened by the engine and whipped by branches as we cruised down tiny canals, we followed the crowd onto the roof of the boat, where the journey rapidly improved. It was damn hot, but the views were magnificent, and by hanging one's legs over the side it wasn't terribly uncomfortable.

Making it to shore after a run across Tonle Sap lake we were accosted by (allegedly) starving kids, tuk tuk drivers and other dodgy scammers. We'd fallen for the oldest scam in the book and given our names to some bloke on the boat who had this rather logical piece of paper arguing that since our hotel booked the boat we also had free transport to our accommodation. Lesson number one in not getting ripped off in developing nations: outlandish lies are no problem at all, and they'll smile and nod while telling you complete crap. The guy set to deliver us to our hotel was horrified when we said we'd already booked a place, since the scam involves your 'free' trip being entirely dependent on you staying wherever your tuk tuk driver takes you - that being the place paying him commission. So we ended up in a pain-in-the-rectum argument about the fact we'd already paid deposits etc, we weren't changing our accommodation, how much is fair, and eventually settled on $4, a ludicrously inflated price given his lies about how much further from the city our hotel was (it was also terrible according to him, but it's the second best place we've been).

The other challenge disembarking was these kids trained to be perfect parasites, wanting to eat anything we had and offering nothing but rudeness and boisterousness in return. In fact they even participated in one poor soul from our boat ending up on her backside on the muddy banks of the lake. She must be a saint 'cause she laughed it off. I would have been swinging punches (except they were 10 or less, so not really, but they p*ssed me off anyway).

Anyhow, whinging aside, we got to our hotel and it's fantastic. The family running the place are extremely friendly and I've been locked onto by one of the kids who's wrapped that I think his Borat impersonation is hilarious (which it is). After settling in we had a few beers and listened to the kid's awesome iPod playlist then headed to the infamous Bar Street aka Pub Street, and no prizes for guessing what we did there. Not a lot to report except awesome happy hour prices: for two beers and two cocktails between us we left a total of $5. Sweet.

Starvingly hungry we went the pizza option, at the dubiously named 'Ecstatic Pizza' where, unsurprisingly, they'll put a little something special on your pizza if you so desire. We decided to chance it and, again unsurprisingly, nothing happened. That said, we did get very tired very quickly and ended up crashing out before 10.

This morning we had our first of three days touring the temples, the raison détre of Siem Reap in the tourist age. We had a tuk tuk driver for the whole day and took full advantage of this by getting him to first take us to Vietnam Airlines with the hope of sorting out a ticketing debacle (no such luck). We began our adventures at Bayon, a temple coverered in zany faces, then went on to Priminekas and the Elephant and Leper King walks. We then went to a couple of lesser temples and onto the highlight of the day, the overgrown Ta Prohm, the scene of the first Tomb Raider film. Don't let that put you off; it's amazing. Trees grow on top of towers and walls. Massive root systems dwarf statues and other formations. Everywhere nature is defeating this timeless construction. It's awesome.

Frankly, it was a bit downhill from there. It was hot, damn hot, and we were already buggered by 1. Stopping for lunch at 2 charged the batteries a bit, but we had the biggest - and ostensibly best - yet to come. Our driver dropped us to the back of Angkor Wat, which saved us some tourist angst, but also probably enhanced the let down factor a bit. There's not much 'wow' at the back, although it does get pretty impressive as you work your way into the four layers of the central towers. Unfortunately the peaks themselves are now off limits - permanently or temporarily we don't know. But we finished off with the requisite photos of the front of the Wat, across its massive moats etc. The photos do look impressive, but after a whole day of temples, heat and some harrassment, we were a bit over it (that said, as an aside, there was a mysterious absence of the kids trying to sell you useless crap within the building itself - perhaps authorities have seen sense and banned the practice within the country's most holy building).

So now we're showered and prepared to hit Bar/Pub Street again. We have another, hopefully shorter, temple day tomorrow and we will report back then.

Farewell.