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Published: March 6th 2006
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Hello everyone,
so after staying in our first hostel for a couple of nights, we moved to Bangkoks more notorious backpacker destination of khao san road. This place has more or less everything you need, accomodation for under a quid a night, food for about 25 pence, yet more fake stuff...and a mcdonalds and burger king.
We also took in some of the sights of bangkok on a tuk-tuk. We originally were just going to go to the Grand Palace, but then our driver said he'd take us to all the sites for 20 baht, or about 30p.
So first we headed to the Big Buddha, a giant golden statue of Buddha, then to some other place that i cant really remember too much about, and then to the golden mountain, where you get a good view of all of Bangkok. When we were at these sites our driver stayed down by our tuk-tuk waiting for us, but after we finished at the golden mountain when we only had the grand palace left to see, our dick of a driver decided he didnt want to wait so he was gone by the time we got back, so we got to see
everything except the thing we wanted, and he never got paid.
The next day we headed to Cambodia to see the Temples of Angkor. So after a 7 a.m wake up and an hour and a half wait for the bus we were finally on our way. The bus journey through most of Thailnd was pretty good, although 20 minutes before reaching the border, some of us were dropped off (abandonned) at a restaurant to get our visas. Despite everything we'd read and been told about getting visas on the border for 20US$, these assholes refused to accept that, and insisted that we buy the visas from them, a roadside restaurant/legitamate visa office. in the end we had to because we were still a 20 minute drive from the border and they were our way of getting there. Shockingly we did get over the border after about a 2 hour wait, and we were finally in Cambodia. As soon as we entered we were immediately greeted by hundreds of Cambodian children asking us to buy stuff off them (a much recurring theme throughout Cambodia.) After another hour or so wait at the border we were gretted by an alright sort
of bus that we hoped would take us to Siem Reap. It didn't. This was just the bus that would take us a couple of minutes to the bus station where we were shown our actual bus/shitheap. The first half hour or so was a pretty bumpy ride...and then the road stopped, and for the next 5 1/2 hours we drove along the bumpiest, dustiest road i can imagine, averaging probably about 15 mph.
When we first got to Siem Reap late at night we were dropped at a local hostel, so we stayed there as it was only 5 US$ a night for all three of us, and it was a private room with an ensuite "kinda bathroom". We later found that the guys who owned the hostel were HUGELY shady, and would tell you anything they could to try and get more money out of you. The guy in charge even wanted me to give him my t-shirt that i was wearing as a "present"
We decided to get a one day pass for the temples beacuse it was quite expensive you needed a driver to get around for the whole day and the passes themselves are also
quite a lot. The day started at sunrise in Angkor Wat, and finished at sunset on the highest of the temples.
We had to leave the hostel at 5:30 to see the sunrise, and it was definitly well worth the early start to see it. For the next 14 or so hours we continued to look around the various temples of Angkor, including the Jungle Temple, which was where parts Tomb Raider was filmed, and Angkor Thom which has many different temples.
At sunset we finished the day at the top of one of temples, and there were even elephants giving people rides to the top of the mountain.
Leaving Cambodia, I have hugely mixed feelings for it, as it seems a coutry of huge contrast. On the drive to Siem Reap you could see a brand new three-story house, and its neighbour would be a piece of plastic tied to a tree.
The people aswell were very different. On the one hand there were people who wouldn't take no for an answer, and who wanted to get every possible dollar out of you. However we also met some very genuine and nice people, like our driver around the Temple's,
and some locals we met who invited us to play a sort of football keepy-uppy game, but with a shuttlecock instead of a ball.
But all in all I did really like Cambodia, and think that anyone in South-East Asia should definitly make time to visit the Temples of Angkor.
After another long bumpy bus ride we came back to spend another night on Khao San road, and today we finally made it the Grand Palace. The best part of that was definitly the tuk-tuk ride there, because we were driven by a friggin maniac, who as we got in was just finishing his beer, and didn't really know or care what side of the road to drive on. We're gonna spend tonight on Khao San again before heading west to Kanchanaburi, so I'll write again after that.
xxx
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