Phnom Penh

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Apologies for the delay in updating - haven't really had the time (or free internet access) in a while.

Our last couple of days on Koh Chang were amazing, if a little rainy. On our final day we went on the four islands snorkelling trip. It was raining hard the whole boat ride over and, to be honest, we were a bit reluctant to go in the water. But I'm so glad we did! I'd never been snorkelling before - it was absolutely fantastic! Like flying over a tropical fish tank. We saw loads of tropical fish (and fed them out of our hands!) and the coral was beautiful. I was so grateful for my contact lenses which worked brilliantly and let me see everything.

The next day was spent on a bus heading to Cambodia. The border crossing was pretty hectic and stressful. We were very annoyed at ourselves when we got to Siem Reap as we realised we'd been ripped off twice in transit. Firstly, when we approached the border, our mini bus stopped at a restaurant (as they often do). We got out and were herded inside. Everyone on our bus was English / Australian and they separated us all up, which seemed dodgy at the time, and got us to pay 1,200 baht for a Cambodian visa. This is about 200 baht more than we should have paid and we knew we were getting ripped off but there wasnt very much we could have done about it. The second rip off (please take notice of this if you're travelling to Cambodia - although, in hindsight, it seems like a stupid, rookie mistake), was when our bus driver told us of a very helpful place where we could exchange our baht for Cambodian reil. We thought that maybe this would save us time in the long run but we were actually charged a terrible exchange rate and, even worse, pretty much everywhere we went in Cambodia seemed to use US dollars as their primary currency so we didnt need to change them at all. Anyway, other than those two incidents (which Im just recording incase anyone reading it is doing this border crossing anytime soon), the trip was pretty good.

We arrived in Siem Reap and everything was about a foot under water! We had to go to a different hostel as the one we'd booked was flooded. The next day was a complete washout - it rained constantly so we hid inside! Finally made it to Angkor Wat the next day and it was so worth all the travelling. Angkor Wat itself is beautiful and enormous. The walls are intricately carved and the whole feel of the place is so relaxed and calm. We spent the rest of the day going to smaller temples. My favourite one was out in the jungle, I can't remember its name, and the whole place was falling down and overgrown with trees. It felt really Indiana Jones. I think one of the things I loved about the temples was how you could explore them on your own - there was no set route for tourists to wander round and very little in the way of health and safety. One of them had really steep steps which you could climb up to get to the top - it looked almost Aztec (thats the best way I can think of describing it). The steps were so high and steep - I found it pretty scary. Joe, of course, decided to run up them and almost fell down.. but he was fine.

After Siem Reap, we got the bus to Phnom Penh. We drove hour after hour through the floods of Cambodia - it was so expansive. Phnom Penh is a pretty exciting city with a lovely, if slightly touristy, river front. We decided to spend our first day sight seeing so we went to the central market (which was closed) and then on to the river. We visited the National Museum which was very interesting and explained all about the history of South East Asia. It also had lots of information on Angkor Wat which helped me get the great temple into perspective and understand how it had been used. Cambodia has so much history and fantastic artwork, its a tragedy so much of it has been lost. After the National Museum we went to S-21 which had been used as a concentration camp during the Khmar Rouge era. It was a sickeningly horrible place. I knew nothing of the genocide in Cambodia before I came here so I am so glad we visited but other than that, it was pretty intense and depressing. Its inspirational how Cambodia has dealt with such a national tragedy (over 10% of the population murdered). Everyone we met was so helpful and friendly - it was such a pleasure travelling here.

The next day we went to the Central market and did some shopping - got some pretty funky traditional Khmar scarves. Then we went to a fancy rooftop restaurant over looking the river for pizza and beer. The rains came hard in the afternoon and we went back to our hostel, hired a dvd player and relaxed for the rest of the day.

On Thursday we got the boat from Phnom Penh to Chau Doc. We got driven to a small village where we were catching the boat. The boat was about two hours late which was fantastic as we got to spend some time in the village. Joe got involved with the locals playing volleyball - there was a pretty large crowd of women and children watching him play and laughing every time he dropped the ball or ran into the net. A really nice group of people. We got the boat and were the only two people on it! Proper VIP treatment. Really nice to relax on the boat and watch the world go by.

After a night in Chau Doc in a nasty, but cheap, hostel (the room wasn't clean and we were kept awake all night and woken up at six in the morning by what sounded like people playing ping pong?!) we got the bus to Saigon today. Its really busy but so exciting to be here! We also splashed out on a slightly more expensive hostel which is lovely. It has hot water AND air con!

Thanks for all your comments and messages - can't get onto facebook in vietnam so its really great to keep in touch on here.

Take care xxx

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Comments

[Andrea]

Glad you two are having a nice time! Sorry to here about all the rain (we\'re having a heat wave here), but it still sounds amazing and I\'m still super jealous!