"Ruins, ruins and more ruins" a Angkor Wat Travel Page by amytoh

This is such a magnificient place and it is currently in the run to become the new seven wonders of the world.

The steep steps are horryfying, be it going up or down. Luckily on the way down, they've fixed a steel rod for people to hold on to. I must say that this attraction is slowly deteriorating by the sheer amount of tourist that visit it.

One day pass costs USD20 but I got the three day pass for USD40 as I planned to visit many of the ruins over my 5D4N trip and I'm really into all this ruins and world heritage sites. Visited the ruins only for 2 days and it does not make sense to queue up twice for the tickets, so bought the 3 day pass instead. They'll take your photo for free for the 3 day pass.

As usual, my visit covered Angkor Thom, Bayon and the oh so famous Tomb Raider filming site - Ta Phrom.

Booked a van for USD30 per day from the hotel I stayed - Monoreach Hotel - and the guide costs USD20 per day who speaks English in a funny accent that I gave up listening to him after 2 hours. Hubby and I just walked off where we want to go, leaving my mum and sister to entertain him. Dad just stuck to his usual stuff of clicking away with his camera, though this was his second visit.

This is one temple made of sandstone which is far less visited than Angkor Wat, reason being it is further away. Our van costs an extra USD10 to go there and the 3 day pass we paid includes this attraction.

It is still very lovely and along the way you'll pass by a village where the kids would run up to the van (which needs to travel slowly due to narrow village road) to hawk their wares. It's a wonder they don't get run over and they are just so persistent. If you buy from one, they'll all surround you saying "You buy from my friend, buy from me" and that's about the most English they can speak apart from "X dollars".

Our superb driver got us local priced tickets at USD15 per person. Otherwise, it would be USD40 per person for the one hour boat trip according to my research on the internet. When we visited, it was low tide and we witnessed a boat house being towed to deeper waters.

Their daily lives revolves around the lake - from school, barber and sundry shops to police station, post office, clinic, church/temple/mosque to of course, their house.

It is really a unique experience for people like us who come from civilised modern cities. They also have these floating restaurants cum crocodile farm cum souvenir shops. The kids would paddle away in water tanks and even styrofoam boxes to ask for handouts. Our guide told us that there are crocodile in the waters and these boys, as young as 5 years old, seems to care little on seeing us tourist getting up to the restaurants, hoping for loose change.