Siem Reap

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So after our colourful 6 hour train journey up to Kanchanaburi by 3rd class train we decided we didnt have the time or the patience to do this on our exit,so we opted for a 1st class air conditioned bus,100 baht for only two hours! Now when they say air conditioned they mean it! On this bus you couldnt turn the damn air conditioning off! This resulted in me being absolutely freezing and with my backpack in the holdall then I was just gonna have to sit here and freeze for the two hours! Two hours later we hopped off the bus into a very hot,humid and busy as hell Bangkok,I have no idea where it dropped us but I assumed this was the right place as the driver gave me a little nod! After much negotiation I managed to tell the taxi driver I wanted a metered taxi and we were off to Suvarnabumi Airport! See you soon Thailand...Thanks for having us!

We arrived in Cambodia after the shortest flight ever,Lisa thought the cambodian countryside from the airplane looked similar to Englands...hmmm...yes because our countryside is covered in jungle and rice paddies isnt it Lisa? ha

Siem Reap airport has to be the smallest airport we have ever seen,there was no other planes in the place and one baggage carousel.We had to queue outside to sign a declaration confirmed we were not suffering from symptoms of swine flu,felt like we were being slighty shady considering we had suffered from this in the few weeks leading up to our trip! We got our visas and was greeting by our driver Tuna! We arrived at the Kool hotel and was greeted with a cold towel and an interesting drink which tasted like rice! The Kool Hotel is up a little side street,would be hard to find if you didnt know where it was...One of the first impressions we had once arriving here was how friendly everyone is...when I say friendly I mean genuinely friendly..in bangkok we couldnt help but feel that most people are out to rip you off.

We chilled at the hotel for an hour or two had a beer,the beer here is Angkor and rather nice! Anyhow we caught the hotels complimentary evening minibus to the centre of Siem Reap.

We headed to a place called The Dead Fish Tower which i'd heard was pretty cool. The place is all made of wood,it has about 3-4 different levels and you can either sit at western table's i.e table and chairs or you can opt to eat how the locals do...wanting to embrace the whole cambodian culture we opted for the latter. What I liked about this place is they have string from each level going down into the kitchen and the waiters place the orders on pieces of paper and slide them down the string right into the kitchen! What I didnt like about the place is they have a crocodile pit,the crocs are in about 4 inches of stagnant water in the dark and have wounds on their backs where the waiters prod them when westerners want to feed them fish,they prod them to get them to snap their jaws...not nice.. We chilled at the dead fish tower for a while drank a beer and watched some local khmer dancing.

Next we wanted to hit the night market as I wanted to get a fish foot massage,you pay $2 to sit for 20 mins and pop your feet into a pool filled with baby cat fish who eat the dead skin from your feet.It really tickles as they nibble and suck on your feet.You can have it for free if you manage not to laugh,although I had to pay!

I had a foot massage later while lisa had a beer in the bar behind! It felt really stange lying back in a big chair in the middle of the market with people walking past while you relax and get your feet massaged! I like how they always give you a little cup of tea afterwards,nice touch!

We bought some nice loose trousers as we were going to be doing alot of walking tomorrow and needed to be covered up and comfy!

Off to bed as we had a 4am start to see Angkor Wat!

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