I got here without too much of a problem from Kompong Thom. In the morning, when I had gone to get something to eat, I bumped into Mr. Sokhom. He was waiting in the exact spot where you are meant to get minibuses, so he pointed this out and I went to go and get my stuff. A few minutes later I was back in the same place and managed to negotiate a minibus to Siem Reap.

Several hours later I arrived and got dumped in a convenient place for the driver. Luckily, there were some helpful moto drivers hanging around, so not only did they show me where I was on a map, they pointed me in the direction of some guesthouses. After walking around in the mid-day sun, I eventually found one and stayed there for the remainder of my time in Siem Reap.

The next day I hired a bicycle and cycled to Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom. This was slightly later than most of the other tourists set off, so I found it relatively quiet. This was not the case a day later, when I was a bit more organised and got there a bit earlier.

Late on the second day I ran out of time, as I had wanted to see Ta Prohm, but had got there at lunch time and there were too many tourists. I decided to go for a wander and ended up at Preah Khan, leaving it almost too late to see Ta Prohm. As I had only bought day passes, it was going to cost another $20 to come back the next day, so I really had to see Ta Prohm the same day. I cycled like a madman, using up all my internal energy reserves and got to Ta Prohm before it closed. After this though, I was totally wasted and only just managed to get back to a restaurant to re-engergise. I took it easy and went back to the temples for a quick cycle ride the next day.

When the temples of Angkor are described, they are laid out in 1 of 2 loops, a small circuit and a big circuit, according to the guide book. I had quite fancied doing the big circuit, but as I had to back-track the day before to see Ta Prohm, I was left feeling slightly incomplete. The next morning, without wanting to pay for another entrance ticket, I managed to get in for free and cycle round the remainder of the big loop from the day before. Before setting off for Battambang, I managed to cycle around the entire of the big loop, for free, seeing many of the temples (only fleetingly) that I hadn’t seen either of the days before.

I could have stayed an extra day at Angkor, but I had only bought day passes ($20) instead of a 3-day pass ($40). Therefore, due to time and budget constraints, I decided to move on to Battambang after day 2.