Ankor Wat
 

I'm going to A.W. this winter. Anyboby know of any interesting places to see reasonably nearby the ruins?

The temples will take you at least 3 days to get an overview, much longer if you are really into ruins and temples.

There are many temples that you can visit, some of them are quite far away from Siem Reap. There are some villages on Tonle Sap that you might want to visit...the nearest one is very much a tourist trap I've heard but the ones farther out are better visits. There is the market in Siem Reap. Several places in Siem Reap have Apsara shows.

www.talesofasia.com and www.travelfish.org both have good informtion about the area for those who don't wish to buy a guidebook.

Kim is quite right. Remember that there are dozens of accessible temples, sone an hour or two away from Siem Reap. I spent a week there and didn't see them all.

We had an interesting day where we drove out to Tonle Sap and first viewed some coffins in trees. The put them up there every year in the rainy season, then take them back down and bury them in the dry season. We then went out to Prek Toal bird sanctuary, seeing various "neighborhoods" and schools, grocery stores, etc. along the way. After bird watching we had lunch on the lake at a local families house with the two of us, our guide and driver only.

I agree that Tonle Sap was well worth a visit!

The drive out there was fascinating. Little straw shacks right across from some very grand houses.

We had a guide and driver and our guide got us a boat and we went out on the lake. There are entire communities living on the lake. The boat is very large and the two of us plus our guide and the driver of the boat were the only people on it.

Although we were in Siem Reap in the "cool" season, it was still very hot and humid. Being out on the lake in a boat was a cool and refreshing change of pace from tromping around the ruins.

The lake is the largest fresh water flood plain lake in the world with over 100 villages living on the lake.

Here is a link to some of the photos I took:

http://www.windjammer.smugmug.com/gallery/1239647/6

Cheers!

If you're interested in any sort of "voluntourism" you might want to make a visit to a local primary school and donate some much appreciated school supplies. You can have a look at this website www.theplf.org