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Published: December 2nd 2006
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Sunrise at Angkor Wat
Stunning as we watched the colours changing Sua S'Dei from
Cambodia. Oh yes we are learning the language much to the amusement of the locals. Now I thought Bangkok was hot - this is burny burny hot and I have not stopped sweating since I arrived (pleasant I know!) - thank goodness for air conditioning.
Met Nikki and Debs at Bangkok airport at some ungodly hour so was not that communicative. Hilarious as none of us had a clue where and what we were doing but...we had a guide book and an email from one of Debs friend recommending where to stay - what else would we need. Nik had the first aid kit, we had our malaria tablets and photos for visa!!
Arriving in
Siem Reap - could it really be any hotter than Bangkok - oh yes, unbearable and this was the cool season. Managed to get ourselves an air conditioned taxi to take us to our guest house which turned out to be really central (not that Siem Reap is very big!) and friendly. During our time there the ladies thought we were great as we tried to learn Camdodian - essential phrases like no thank you, hello, yes, no, very good, how
are you, you are very beautiful, too expensive!! Which were needed (apart from you are very beautiful!!) as we got hassled quite a bit - lady/madam - you want tuk tuk, more rice, you give me good price.
What surprised me the most was just how comericalsied the place was. We had read about the blue pumkin restaurant as a place to chill - well it was just unbelievable - total white with big relaxing cushions and sofas (and essential air conditioning). People were so friendly that you felt really safe and it reminded me of southern india and I took on the role of Lucy by saying hello to all the locals and managing to get some good photos. Shocking was the modern feel yet such poverty just round the corner. There were lots of children selling postcards and books that would not leave us alone and would come up to you with "Hello, where you from? You from England - the capital of England is London, there are 10 million people live in London, the Prime Minister is Tony Blair, Tony Blair bad man" The same for Australia and France but they struggled with other places we
tested them on.
You cant come to Siem Reap without visiting the temples and visit them we did.
Angkor Wat was just amazing (apart from the hoards of people - unbelievable, majority Korean or japanese, few westerners) as we saw it at sunrise and sun set. Then Nikki and I got an obsession with the monks - their orange dress just made for a great contrast against the stone. I also have to mention Debs new husband - we named him Eric, our taxi driver who took an instant like to Debs and we made sure she was sitting in the front to take all the pain - sorry Debs but it was very funny!!
Traffic was mad - there was no rules and the road was up for anyone so crossing it was...interesting. Just walk and they avoid you...stop and hesitate and there is trouble. Thing is although it is mad it seems to work - yes we saw near misses, but surprisingly no accidents. Funniest was crossing at night - thank goodness for my white trousers as the girls sent me off first.
Next amusement was our boat trip from Siem Reap to the capital
Monk - so cute...
They were fascinating Phnom Penh (6 hours). We sat up on the roof so we could see our journey, passing through the river to the lake but we didnt expect all kinds of weather - we had sunshine, rain, hail, torando (yes, I did get a photo but not great), rainbow...but we stayed on top and watched it all.
Getting off the boat was crazy but we had a little man to greet us and quickly get us into an air conditioned car to take us to our hotel...we had managed to get one with a pool (well it was a pond but served its purpose to cool us down - have I told you how hot it was?!?) Phnom Penh is big with a massive colonnial influence so took us a while to get familar with the layout.
We visited the Tuoi Sieng Museum which was the dark side to Cambodia - a school turned into a mass torture centre and it was horrendus - the cells just big enough to stand in, the rooms where the prisoners were tortured and lots of photographs of the victims. Whilst reading the details of the seven survivors both Deb and I got
quite emotional - it was shocking and to think this happened within our life time. We also went on to the killing fields where they were executed - a series of mass graves. So, a very depressing day.....
Still in search of our perfect picture of a monk we headed to the Golden palace where Dev and I were inappropriately dressed so I was given a t-shirt and looked pregnant and Debs was given some very fetching trousers....sorry no photos for you to laugh at! Our final evening was spent at the well known hangout of the FCC which had good views of the river and was a relaxing place to hangout before having a relatively early night as early flight back to Bangkok the next morning.
Arrving back into Bangkok actually felt familar (and cool!!)
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Lennon
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Awesome.
That sounded like a really awesome trip, I'd like to Travel through Cambodia myself after reading about your trip.