Border Crossings and Scammers!!! Bangkok, Poipet, Siem Reap CAMBODIA.

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Up bright and early- ready for another 7am start! mini bus is of course late, only to shout at us to hurry up when we take too long loading our bags!! great start!! Packed and Hot, with the craziest driver ever, this is gonna be a long day! And it was!

Get Visas at the border, for more than expected- think we are experincing the first of the 'commision' based culture! Que in a sweaty hot room to leave Thailand, only to walk 1 km in the sun, with Packs, to que in a sweaty hot room to enter Cambodia! with plenty of stops in the sun to tell us about the dangers of scammers in this area- begining to think the guide might just be one of the scammers, as the bus we have a ticket for is actually just the public bus- leaving 4hours later!!!! give in to the heat and grab a Taxi, with another english couple: Cara and Dave, only to feel like the scam continues when we discover the Taxi will not go all the way in to Siem Reap, and we have to change to a Tuk-Tuk, and although this is free- we are asked to consider using there service when visiting the Temples!! well the guilt trip just doesnt work with us!!

We find an Ok guest house and met back up with Cara and Dave for Dinner! i didnt know alot about Khymer Food, but everything we ate in Cambodia was good! The restuarant we went to was recommended by the guy from our hotel, the LP and "mick Jager" but we have learnt recommendation doesnt always mean it is great. The Khymer Kitchen Restuarant was really good tho, cheap, fresh and really full of flavour, we had a good Khymer curry and amazing fresh vietnamise spring rolls!

We headed to the night market and a few drinks as we knew we would be too tired for Angkor Wat at sunrise the next day so nice lie in!!!

And we definetley needed that Lie in- travelling seems to have far too many early morninga and late nights!! soo much to do- and the more you do and see the more you wanna do! So in the heat of the day we decide to get a Tuk tuk and go to see the smaller temples, pre dating Angkor Wat, The Rolous Group as a little taste of what the Angkor Wat Temple and the other more famous ones will be like tomorrow!!

It was a pretty impressive afternoon, but incredibly hot- definetely 35 degrees +, which lead to me being sick at the first of an afternoon of temples!! nice! Cambodia is the hottest we have been so far, and I swear every mm of my body was sweating!! the temples got more interesting the more you learn about them, especially as one currently had a festival on- and although this meant there was litter everywhere- it was good to see the everyday use of some of the temples.

Siem Reap is a great travel and party town, but also has some of the best restuarants that i think i have ever been to- good, cheap, but done out as nicely as any back in England and the best fresh curries, soups, and fresh spring rolls - my favourite! We had a lovely dinner with Dave and Cara at the Red Piano- Green Veg Curry- and of course Ice Cream- soo hot it is essential!

Angkor Wat

We actually manage to get up and out for 5.30am- ( the early starts are getting no easier!) but nearly miss the sunrise anyway, as our Tuk Tuk driver says it is too cold if he goes fast!--hello, i didnt get up at five to miss this! Except for the other people the Angkor Wat at sunrise is stunning! Tom and I walk straight through the complex in to the central corridors and courtyards while almost everyone else watches the sunrise on the lake, it is magical to be in the corridors of the massive temple in the eerie half light alone! we stop for Oreo-Breakfast at the ruined lake on the far side of the complex and watch the day begin. Beautiful!

It is soo hot by 9.30am it feels like 1pm, the sun is soo strong its exhausting, but we continue on to 4 other main temples (ill fill in the names later)- i think for me the most impressive was the ones with the giant stone faces, where we saw a PhotoShoot of Landmine victims going on. Although simualr after a while " Same Same, but different" each temple was really interesting and you just want to see more and more!

We then, pretty tired, decide to make the most of our time in Siem reap and Head to check out the Floating Village, which now we have seen several more in Vietnam, it was def not worth the money- there was the classic,"" my tour was good- you tip!! ""

After a busy day for our last night in SiemReap we have another fantastic meal- Cambodian BBQ, where you cook all your own meat on a stove in the table, with a broth of veg, rice and noodles, amazing- but too hot to have a BBQ in front of you!!!

Soo "Angkor WHAT?"" had to happen on the last night ( for anyone who has been recently you will know this is a bar - not another temple) Buy to pitchers- get a free T-Shirt- enough said- Congratulations Dave and Cara!- think they missed the 7.30am Bus after that!

Phnom Phen

Soo a little hungover we head off for the bus to Phnom Pehn- little did we know that the bus would break down 3 times and we would do more than half the journey without AC, taking regular road/ field side breaks to let the engine cool down, but the Cambodian people are soo chilled out and happy that it was a funny journey- not too painful! We got through it just because the bus driver had the funniest laugh i have ever heard, and had all the locals in stitches, everytime the bus broke down the driver would whip off his shirt, tinker in the engine and then after half hour of tinkering there would be some cheers and off we go!
The good nature of the people, the lack of arguing and confruntation, espcially after China, was interesting when you think of how much some of these people and there familys have been through in the recent history= read "First they Killed my Father" Good Book.

Our guest house in Phnom Pehn was pretty much representative of the place- a bit of a dump! Good old lonely planet once again has no clue! (Bribery??) but good food- this country can do no wrong, and played chess on the riverside.

The main reason for visiting the capital was to go to the 'killing Fields' and S21- the Khymer Rouge Prison for 'enemies of Angkor" in Phnom Pehn, such an interesting, an yet depressing, thought provoking day, epseacially considering the recent nature of events. One of the bizzariest things for me was the number of tourists viewing the killing places as an attraction- Arty photos of a skull of bones in the ground- it felt like a depressing lack of respect for all the lifes lost there.
This place really made us think what our life would be like born in another country. S21, with its images of emaciated prisoners and the heat of the day in the prison created from a high school was pretty dark and oppressive. We head to BoeagKak Lake area and do nothing else after the day.

Sihnoukville and "Otres Beach"
Make it to Sihnoukville- after the bus accidently- on purpose forgot to pick us up- apparently they do that if you buy your ticket from the tour operators not the Hotels! and Grab some little Moto Men and with back packs balanced between thier legs we head off to ""Otres" Beach- however they have obviously decided they dont want to go there moto men take us to thier friend guest house, and then to another hotel, and then even to the top of Otres beach, telling us they cannot take us any further as the beach is too dangerous for us and there is no power after 9pm!! So What! we are ready for a remote beach after soo many cities!

Find the cutest little beach bungalows, and stay one night there, but more to a matress above a bar for the second night- much more our budget! It is a beautiful beach, but the Full Moon Partys, never really happened nice chilled out BBQ and drinks with some local ExPats tho!

It is great to spend a few days just chilling out- getting some sun, we meet lots of people and Hire a Moto to drive out to a waterfall, monastry and ophnage, (mamages to get a flat tire within about 3 mins of leaving but $4 dollars and 15mins later we are on our way again!)

Diving: Koh Rong Samleon Island

Dive Boat - the Swinging Lady- possibly the scariest boat ever- this 2 storey beast felt like it was going to dump us in the Ocean any minute! On our first Dive the current was soo strong we almost didnt find the reef- had to be towed by the boat, but the reef and Micro Fauna was amazing, plenty of small fish, star fish and a forest of Anemoes. We head to the Island for lunch chill out and swim in the amazing blue sea-soo good. The second dive was simular sealife, cold by the time we surface and a storm hits as we are heading back to harbour!- even scarier time on the boat!
BBQ Barracuda for dinner=bit strange after seeing the Barracuda in the sea earlier- but yummy still!

Kampot
Time flew on the bus to Kampot, with the Elton tunes at full blast- $5 a nite for a nice guest house- gonna like this place!! Kampot is a chilled out quiet town, a bit of a ghost town, heavily hit by the civil war, with european architecture- famous mostly for distinctive black pepper- a nd a national park- that was closed when we went there. But it is the kind of place you could actually imagine living, we found the cutest cafe serving homebaked cookies, all profits to support disabled people in the local area, also providing jobs for them. And then found a pub run by a mancunian Expat for the foot ball on the evening! so lovely! P.s. The best fish Amok for dinner- i love this country

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