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Published: February 17th 2009
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10th February Ollie was still sick, and we were all worried he wouldn't be able to experience the Full Moon Party. So we left him alone to sleep and it paid off as he was able to go, but not drink. The rest of us managed to endulge some redbull vodka buckets! They pour a full glass of vodka into them and two small (but very strong) medicine bottles of redbull = lethal mix!
The place was packed, heaps of people, fire shows, music, dancing on tabletops/stages etc. It was what people talked it up to be. We didnt make it to sunrise, but got very close getting home at 5.30.
11th February So after 3-4hrs sleep, we were woken to another beach party 5m from our beachfront bungalow! It was a rude awakening and Tim let them know that. So since we were up, we got our free breakfast. Tim still rather drunk jumped in the pool in his PJ's for some unknown reason! Went back to sleep letting our bodies recover later on the beach. We tried lighting a fire on the beach chilling out that night, but our cadet skills failed us miserably!
12th February We really should have done something productive today, but the temptation to do nothing and sit on the beach just took our fancy. So we had a break from things today relaxing
13th February Today we were enroute to Bangkok. This involved a 3hr boat ride followed by a 2hr bus ride and a flight on Friday the 13th! The connections between transport this time were really efficient and involved little waiting time. So that proved the superstition wrong!
So we finally got to make it out of Bangkok airport thank god! I dont think we could stand that place much longer. Sharing a taxi with two brits, we went to the guesthouse the girls had suggested to us and they would later meet us there.
Tim's camera went out of action at Koh Phangan due to a dodgy computer causing the memory card to become write protected. So we apologise for little photos up until cambodia!
We spent the night quickly with the girls on Khao San Rd who were exhausted from their long bus trip back and said farewells!
14th February We woke at 4am to catch a 5:55 train to the border
of Thailand and Cambodia. It was long, packed and uncomfortable and full of annoying whinging old thai ladies trying to sell sandwiches etc. It took 6hrs and then a tuk-tuk to the border who decided to take us on a joy ride to make us buy more expensive visas. We didnt fall for this and got him to take us to the border straight away.
The border was another story on its own and a big welcome to cambodia - the poorest country in SE asia. Thinking we'd be safe now dealing with government officials for the visa, he stood tall and official in his neat uniform and demanded us pay roughly $US50 (double the price). We felt bad trying to argue incase we did something wrong and would be refused entry or something. But we did argue and he said we couldnt pay with US dollars despite advertising the price $US20. Eventually we settled on 20 US + 200 baht. Dodgy huh?
Furthermore, we were told we had to get a free bus to a station to organise either a bus or taxi to Siem Reap. The people seemed really helpful and nice but took us to
their own company where if we didnt want to pay their price we would be stuck there. Our bargaining skills were useless but we knocked 200 baht off the price when sharing a taxi with 2 german guys.
Arrived in Siem Reap, and found it a tad seedy. The guesthouse was nice and we ventured out for drinks that night. We met some nice Danish girls and a few Sweedish guys (who have happened to have turned up to the same place we're staying here in Phnom Penh).
15th February Sleeping in, we organised a tuk-tuk to take us around Angkor temples! They were simply stunning! One day was enough for us, but the photos show how stunning they were. We'd need a map to tell you the names of our favourite ones but we dont have one. We'll identify them in the pictures.
The carvings on the walls were unreal and there were cheeky little details such as pillars shaped like elephants trunks. In the jungle temple (apparently used in scences for Tomb Raider) we must've missed a do not enter sign and found ourselves with some really good snaps of fallen boulders - stuff like
you would see in the movie or Indiana Jones - not a tourist boardwalk for once!
16th February Today we took a 6hr bus ride to Phnom Penh. Ollie lost his ipod on a sour note. The bus was full of asians and kept playing crappy asian tunes out really loud + all their mobile phones going off with crappy ringtones all the time. Annoying? yes!
On arrival, the embassies made the place look really nice! but then in town was very smelly and rubbish was everywhere. There is a big sanitation problem here, actually, more like throughout the whole of cambodia. Guesthouse is overlooking a nice lake, apart from locals continuously dumping rubish in there.
Went out to the riverside in search of a good bar. We failed, and Tim ate some nasty food to come back up later that night. But we returned to the guesthouse area and had a few nice drinks and met some Norwegian girls.
17th February Today we have dealt with the police to get Ollie's report for his 'stolen' ipod. They seemed to like us and were quite helpful we found (juxtaposed to nicky's experience). The hardest part was
finding the station to sort it out.
We went to the Killing Fields and found it a tad disturbing. We didnt realise how brutal their deaths were or how much of a massacre it was.
Tonight we will stay in the area for a few drinkies and then head out to Sihanoukville tomorrow to escape the smell and for some beach action!
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Nicola Lord
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The Cambodian police were really helpful - it was the Vietnamese police who sucked.