Well, Siem Reap is located about two to three hours from the border of Thailand and is the lifeblood of Angkor Wat. So unfortunately one is stuck staying in Siem Reap in order to see the Angkor ruins. Siem Reap left a not so good impression on us, to say the least- it was full of hawkers and we could not walk for two seconds without someone pushing a tuk-tuk or sunglasses or massages on us. I'd say it was one-hundred times worse than Bangkok and we wanted to get the hell out of there. As for Angkor Wat- it was phenomenal. We rented bikes for the day, which was one of our better decisions- we biked in and were able to stop whenever we wanted to check out a passing monkey or a forgotten ruin. We accidentally forgot to buy a map or look up any information before hand so we kind of winged it and didn't really know that we were exploring Angkor Wat (the most iconic of the ruins) when we were there. But looking back on it, Angkor Wat's size alone is stunning. I (Ashley) have seen tons of Mexican ruins, and the famous Chichen Itza, but they seem minuscule compared to the scope of Angkor Wat and the surrounding ruins. We felt a little bit like we were extras in Tomb Raider while exploring the farther out ruins that are barely still standing. I'm thinking about pulling an Angelina Jolie and bringing back a Cambodian child (Brian's not so keen on the idea).
