Well not really. But I still don't understand why foreigners who arrive overland are only allowed to stay for 15 days while those flying in can remain in the country for 30 days. We could have applied for a Visa extension but it seemed like a lot of paperwork and extra expense since it wouldn't have been valid for our re-entry into northern Thailand at the end of our trip in April. So after enjoying the southern islands a bit too much, it left us only two full days to spend in Bangkok before taking our tourist dollars to Cambodia.
Our Bangkok orientation went very well. Our hostel was down a quiet lane but still close to the action and the Skytrain making it easy to get around the city. We also used the river taxi to go to the Grand Palace and then walked to the nearby Temple of the Emerald Buddha and Wat Pho, home of the Reclining Buddha. The night markets and evening entertainment venues awakened the senses but we avoided the invitations from the touts. During our time there we also went to the MBK mall, a huge shopping experience where we identified many items for purchase when we return to Bangkok for our flight home.
From Bangkok we took a combination of taxi/bus/tuk tuk/shared taxi/tuk tuk to cross into Cambodia and arrive in Siem Reap, our current position. The trip took most of the day (6:30 am until 5 pm) but other than a slow time clearing the border on the Cambodia side, there were no issues. We stretched our legs in the evening walking around our part of town near the Siem Reap River and the Old Market, stopping for dinner on Pub Street where every bar and restaurant was offering .50 cent Angkor beer, our new favourite. It was also nice to discover reasonably priced wine again with some French and South American labels even less expensive than back home.
The next two days were spent visiting the many temples around Angkor Park. On the first day we hired a tuk tuk driver from our hostel for the day so that we could venture to the more distant temples of Banteay Srei and the Roluos Group (Lolei, Preah Ko and Bakong) which were both about 35 and 15 km's away respectively, and in different directions. They were also some of the oldest temples dating back to the 9th century so it seemed like an appropriate place to start exploring. Yesterday we rented bikes for the day and went to the amazing Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom (8 km north of the city) and finished the day at nearby Phnom Bakheng where after a 15 minute hike up a mountain you were rewarded with not only a temple but a lovely view of Angkor Wat in the setting sun. Today we are taking it easy....another short walk around our district and a few clothing items purchased from the Central Market. Tomorrow we will hire a tuk tuk again and visit up to 10 more temples on the eastern side of Angkor Thom. Another attempt will also be made to find a second geocache after not having any luck yesterday near the Bayon in Angkor Thom.
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