Siem Reap

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It's been a while since my last blog.

We left Bangkok on 17 March to travel to Cambodia by bus. I heard before that if you get to the border the border people will try and make you pay in Thai Baht for the Cambodian visa. The visa should be $20. If you pay in Baht it will be considerably more. The same happened to us and I argued with the guy saying that my friends crossed the border two days ago and paid in USD (made up but he lied too!). He refused and we walked out to another office. They accepted the USD but asked us to pay an additional 300 Baht. The whole thing worked out at about $25 which isn't too bad. Advice to anyone who crosses the border at Aranya Prathet, go straight to the border, dodge the offices. At the border you only pay $20, they might ask you to pay an additional 100 Baht for a picture but if you have one you can argue not to pay it.

After crossing the border we took a minivan to Siem Reap. We met loads of nice people on the bus and had a good laugh with the two locals who travelled with us. We checked into the Popluar guesthouse in Siem Reap. I have had bad experiences with guesthouses that are named first in the Lonely Planet (Ahem, Mayagon Hotel, Legazpi, Philippines) but this one was really good.

We teamed up with two guys we met on the way and explored the temples of Angkor over the next couple of days. They are simply amazing. You have to push and shove your way through Korean tourist groups, especially at Angkor, but it's so worth it. I love Bayon, that's the one with the stone carved faces and of course Ta Prohm, the one where the trees grow out of the stones. We spent ages wondering around and getting lost. And as usual we took far too many pictures.

The next few days we spent either chilling out at a hotel pool or cycling around Siem Reap. We cycled all the way to the Tonle Sap lake which was a big disappointment as you can't actually get to the lake. They built a big terminal there, similiar to a toll terminal where you have to pay to enter what is just a parking lot. You can only reach the lake by boat but that's totally overpriced. We decided against it and cycled back. It's lovely to cycle around but I wished I could have had my bike from home. My bike got a puncture right at the end of the day and I had to push it back for about 1.5km. Typical my luck!

We loved Siem Reap, it's a very nice town and not at all what I was expecting. The accommodation and the food is super cheap, the locals are friendly and there is decent nightlife and good shopping.

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