I booked a hostel in Siem Reaps on a recommendation from some people I met in Saigon and did not even read the information about the place, I just check to see if they had a room and booked it. When I arrived I found out that had a age limit of 33, I had only heard of hostels in Budapest that had age limits on them due to the amount of noise and partying that goes on and even then it 40. So I was not very happy being two days away from New Years in a town that was nearly full with no where to stay. The staff were actually quite good and did some checking around for me and then got a Tuk Tuk driver to take me around a few of them and check them out. I found one that could take me for the first two days, but not New Year. I found a guest house straight across from them who could take me for the following two days. So I went with that plan and as it turns out it all worked out for the best, I end up meeting a couple of people who I am now travelling with and we are having a great time. The other good thing is that I had a private room to go back to when I was ready to go to sleep on New Years.

So my first day of templing I did the Big circuit which takes in some of the smaller famous temples. I decided to do this so I would not be underwhelmed by them after seeing the bigger ones.

The next day I did the small circuit which takes in Angkor Wat the largest temple in the world, Banyon and the Tomb Raider Temple which if famous as it was used as a set for the movie. It still has huge trees growing over it as it is believed it will destroy the temple if they are removed. Most of the other temples were like this as well when they were rediscovered, but were able to be removed. It is hard to believe that when these temples were built there was no jungle and over the last 1000 years they have taken it all over. It just shows the power of nature.

I was pretty stuffed after two bigs days of discovering the temples and was not expecting a big night for New Years. I ran into Sanne, one of the people I am now traveling with and she was catching up with a other friends and going to a quieter bar which was away from Pub Street (That is the real name of the street) which was absolutely packed. So we found a nice pub near all the action but quiet enough we could still talk. Alan the guy we are traveling with also came along and we had a great night out together and were pretty happy by the end of the night that we were starting out trip to Laos together.

The pub we were in had a Kareoke machine and we all ended up having multiple goes at singing songs really badly. We then went to night club for a little while and went back home at around 4am in the morning. So much for an early night so I can go watch the sunrise that day.

I ended having a really good sleep in and never ended up going back out to the temples. I had planned to hire a Tuk Tuk for the day and explore some of the more obscure temples, but there was nothing specific I wanted to see and had alreay covered the important ones. I think you could easily spend a few days just doing your own thing outside of the main route and maybe one day I will go back and do it.

The next day we were all up early to catch out bus to 4000 Islands, the bus company taking us did a great job explaining exactly what would happen, what "tea money" we needed to pay above the actual visa fees and how the buses worked as we had to switch buses at the border. It turned out to be all very easy as we were using an obscure border crossing and none of the big scam that happen on the border occur there. Our group were the only ones crossing the border, so there was no cofusion at all about what was going on. The "tea money" involves paying a couple of dollars to each person who puts a stamp in our passport, this happened on the Cambodian and Laos side of the border and was on top of the $30 for the actually visa.

We finally made to 4000 Islands around 4:30pm and starting walking down Sunset Boulevard looking for a place that had three bungalows on the water. Took us about 30 minutes for find one that had a room for each of us on the water and we were settled in just in time to sit in the bar with a beer and watch the sunset.