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Published: February 27th 2008
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Hello from Cambodia, sorry it has taken so long to write but we have become very lazy since we have been in Cambodia not sure why lets just blame the heat!
Last time we wrote I think we were leaving Thailand to come to Cambodia which involved crossing the border at Poipet and getting ripped off by everyone which it seems is unavoidable and then a 3 hour taxi ride on the notoriously bumpy road to Siem Reap.
A visa for Cambodia is $20 but the police at the border will tell you different despite having a sign hanging above their heads comfirming this, after 20 minutes of arguing with them the guy handed our passports back and told us if we could not afford to pay him what he wanted then we could not afford to come to Cambodia and we had to go back to Thailand, we soon realised we were not going to win and settled on paying them an extra 10 dollars instead of 20...alot of people cross this border daily so they are making alot of money. We then had to get a taxi to Siem Reap which was $30 for the cab but $5
for the police and another $10 to pay the taxi mafia basically you get completley shafted. The good news is however that as soon as you have made it though all this you have entered a seriously cheap country where the people are lovely and not all out to steal your money!
The road (and we use the word road very loosely) to Siem Reap is very bumpy and by the time you get there you are almost loosing the will to live but it was not so bad for us the people we saw travelling by bus instead of a taxi looked at if they had already lost it.
Siem Reap is a lovely little town with suprisingly nice restaurants and bars we stayed in a really nice guesthouse for peanuts and everything was great! We were there for about 5 days during which time we went to see the Mother of all Temples Angkor Wat which is pretty impressive really (but we won't go on about it as we have probably bored you enough with the photo's), cycled around town like locals, drank cheap beer ate cheap food and did abit of yoga (why not).
This was enough action for us and we needed to find another beach to rest up on for a couple of weeks so we headed down to Sihanoukville were the beaches are average to be honest but again it was very cheap and we could afford luxurys like cable TV. The most stressful part of the day was getting through the hords of tuk-tuk drivers on the way to the beach and being called a M***** F***** by the 10 year old beach seller's when you don't buy anything from them apart from that we spent 2 relaxing weeks on the beach. We then went to spend a few days on a virtually deserted Island called Koh Rong Saleom, a couple of English guys have just built 5 bungalows there so apart from a handful of people you have the Island to yourself. It really was paradise
We have just spent a few days in Phnom Phen, alot of people don't like Phnom Phen but we couldn't see why its quite a laid back city and is slowly becoming a little bit cosmipolitan. When you are sitting in the Foreign Correspondents club sipping coktails overlooking the river it
seems like a fantastic city, like we keep saying to each other money is not a problem...we don't have any hence why we are coming home early. We did all the usual tours The killing fields and the S-21 prison without going into one it really does make you realise how amazing the people here are the way they have moved on from such a devestating past you can hardly believe it is the same country that 30 years ago suffered so much during the genocide . The people in Cambodia are so sweet and happy and that's the main reason why Cambodia is such a great experience.
Tommorrow we head back off down the bumpy road to the border for 4 weeks of complete relaxation on the Islands in Thailand, we might manage another blog before we come home if we can drag ourselves off the beach.
Thanks for reading
Bye for now
Lots of Love
Jake and Kerri xx
P.S There is nothing we wouldn't do for a proper bacon sandwich right now.
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Chris
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how was the bunglaow?
Hello! Thanks for posting your blog it sounds like you enjoyed your stay. I've been to Cambo twice and flew from Bangkok both times. Hint if you ever go back there's no scams at the airports, just $20 for the visa and the taxis while steep at $7 all charge the same fare. But I was wondering, do the Lazy Beach bungalows have fans or electricity? Thanks.