with knapsacks on our backs: And The Winner For Best Temple Is...

I know, I know. It's been way too long since we've posted something. Sorry folks, we've been on the move and haven't had much spare time to share where we're at.

One Of The Rolous Group Temples

When we first arrived in SE Asia we made a decision to circle our destination countries clockwise so that the temples of Angkor would be some of the last temples we saw this trip. We sort of imagined it as the cherry on the sundae. Throughout Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam we saw more temples than I can remember. If we had hit Angkor earlier in our journey I think it's fair to say that it would have spoiled many of the temples we enjoyed along the way. The vast temples of Angkor are amazing and incomparable to any other temple complex we visited.

Our Swish Ride Day One

During our week-long stay in Siem Reap, the gateway town to the ruins, we spent five days cruising around in a tuk-tuk trying to take in as much as we could. We saw most of the biggies but left many sites unexplored. Indeed, there are over 1000 temples at Angkor spanning an area of over 1000 square kilometers. These magnificent temples were built by Khmer kings over the course of 600 years starting in 800AD. It is estimated that the areas surrounding the temples had over one million inhabitants at a time when London had a population of about 50,000.

Angkor Wat

The most famous of the temples is Angkor Wat which is purported to be the largest religious structure to ever be constructed and is truly impressive (even at five in the morning!) But we found many of the smaller sites equally impressive. For example, a few of the temples we visited have been left unrestored with an impressive display of nature's consumption of the structures. And some of the temples have incredibly detailed 3D stone carvings and inscriptions. In addition to the temples we found the region very enjoyable to ride through from our tuk-tuk vantage point. It reminded us of rural Laos due to the vast farmland and basic village homes that we drove through. So as not to overload you with more details about the temples I'll leave the rest to the pictures. Photos (especially those taken by a couple of amateurs) just don't the temples justice but hopefully what we've included here will at least give you a sense of what we saw.

Our stay in Siem Reap saw a happy reunion with some friends we met in Laos. And since the last time we saw Emily and Adam we went bowling in Vientiane we sought a similar outing and found it in Cambodia's only mini-golf course. It won't be winning any awards for course design but the prize for 'super friendly (albeit drunk) guy of the night' went to the owner of the place. He would not let us leave until one of us had sunk a hole-in-one which went along with the prize of a free beer. Ironically, Dawn was the winner and took a bottle of water instead.

Dawn With Her Champei Lei, A Gift From Our Guesthouse in PP

Exhausted from hot, sweaty days wandering the temples we headed back to Phnom Penh where we began and ended our Cambodian adventure. In both Thailand and Laos we left the day our visa expired. If this is any measure of just how much we loved Cambodia, we overstayed the visa! The $10 penalty was worth it.

Cambodia was the end of our vague travel plan leaving us with some challenging yet exciting decisions. We considered spots on four different continents for our next possible destination but decided it made most sense to stay in the region and head down to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with the intent to move from there to Singapore and then onto Indonesia where we'd spend the remainder of our time on the road. It didn't quite work out that way but we'll save that for another post.