The city of Siem Reap is of a good size, has a touristic center around Pub street and offers a Chiang Mai atmosphere.
We decided to buy a 3 day pass for the Angkor Archeological Park. It does cost the same as two day tickets and saves you the hassel to stand in line twice. We did the Grand Circuit with a tour our first day. The small Circuit including Sunrise at Angkor Wat we did by tuktuk on our second day in the park. Our third day in the park was on a bicycle and the fact that we started in the afternoon and Chris bike broke made it a short visit. On our way back we had to take a tuktuk having our two bicycles on board. I can not decide which was my favourite way of visiting the temples and I think we got a good mixture especially since we had been to the museum before and therefore had a good historical overview. My photos will not show you the picture perfect since everyone has seen pictures of the whole structure but I want to show you the small delicate carvings all over the wall of these ancient buildings.
This is Banyon, my favourite of the temples.
We split our three days up since you can youse your personal ticket within 7 days of the first entry. There is lots to do in Siem Reap other than the famous temples. We decided on going to the Museum, take a tour to a nearby silkfarm and a tour to Tonle Sap lake which is the biggest fresh water lake of south east asia where also floating/stilted villages and flooded forests are located.
A modern temple in Siem Reap
We did some fair trade shopping and a a great evening listening to a live band at the Hard Rock Cafe Angkor. We did not enjoy the free Apsara dance show we visited very much, mainly because the dancers looked quite young. The overall experience in Siem Reap was great and you can easily spend up to 10 days in this city since there are also many craft workshops and tours of the area you could attend.