Siem Reap was the first stop after another enjoyably long journey and border crossing. Everyone on the group was slowly getting everyone's names right after the long journey (Lorcan = Logan, llachlan, Larry and an assortment of other names apparently).
Hotel in Siem Reap was pretty sweet, as all the hotels with the tour have turned out to be, i was expecting a lot less to be honest. We were offered the opportunity to see Angkor Wat at Sunrise, but with it being a 1 in 20 chance of actually seeing this we decided we'd rather have the slight lie in the next morning. this meant we could go on a proper "group bonding" experience at the "Angkor What?! Bar" (oh the wit) after letting Dr. Fish work his magic on our toes. Standard night out as ever, some one suggests drinking games, not everyone knows the rules, so more people drink.....the night ends, i'll let you fill in the gaps. (No where in SEA is yet to make a good Long Island Ice Tea, i had one with Kahula in it the other day, jesus wept)
Next morning it was easy to spot those who knew the games better than some, they only need one arm to prop their head up off the table. To go round the temples today Tuk Tuk drivers would be doing it in groups of 4. I went with Jamie, Giles and Eddie, our driver was called Pumba, or at least i'm very sure that is what he said. It cost about $20 to get an all day ticket round all the temples. This would be understandable if the majority of this went to the up keep of the temples, but it doesn't really. Each Temple has an over seas sponsor who gives a smidgen back to the upkeep of the temples. Naughty, naughty.
Angkor Wat itself is huge, just bloody massive. It fills me with a massive amount of respect for whoever built it, that they could produce something so grand and so beautiful, yet half the time you can't even get a chippie to cut a plank of wood right! Ankgor Wat is the biggest tourist attraction of all the temples, but it was by no means my favourite. I much preferred the Bayon and The one that was used in the Tomb Raider Film, whose name complete escapes me but if you google them i'm sure it'll tell you....The temples do have a lot of kids around them, they run up to you all at once counting up to 10 to try and get you to buy postcards they all seem to know the phrase "onnnnneeee doorrrrraaaa". Apparently the best way to avoid being hassled is to not make eye contact and keep walking. We discovered that if you "moooo", "Baaahhhh" and "woof" it confuses tem even more than when you try and sell your stuff to them.
It probably would have been easy to stay there much longer, but the heat was unbearable and if i'd drunk another litre of water i would have drowned internally. We headed back to the hotel, paid Pumba his dues (he wanted to take us to a local club later and we mumbled a "no") and went to the hotel next door which had a pool. Since being here i don't think i have ever appreciated ice cold drinks and swimming pools more in my life. God Send is an understatement.
Some of us wanted to go see the sunset at another one of temples so we headed off for that after our swim swim. Being the raw blooded male that i am Sunsets make me go weak at the knees and this one did a little as well, it wasn't the best i'd seen, but i was sitting on top of a very old temple, with great people around me in Cambodia, not exactly a lot i can complain about.
After Siem Reap we headed down to (i can't say the name nor spell it) Pheom Pheon (i think) which is Cambodia's capital city. It had a very french feel to it, especially on the promenade bit, not surprising as the french pretty much dominated the area for quite some time....The main sights we saw in (i'm going to call it PP) were the Killing Fields and the S21 Detention Centre. We did this in one day, it certainly wasn't a very cheery day but it is something you have to see, not to get your head round it in a way as it wasn't always making crystal clear sense to me but just to try and understand. I wasn't the biggest fan of PP, i liked how busy it was but there didn't really seem to be a lot to do that was easily done. We did find another nice pool in a 5 Star hotel....a very nice pool.
The next stop was (again the names here are just to hard for me) Sihanoukville or "Snoop-Doggy-Dog Ville" to make it easier. We were staying in some pretty sweet beach bungalows, although mine was a little bit toasty at times due to some failing air-con. On the way down we had been told about a thing called "splash" which is just a big playground in the sea. So clearly this is what we went for first. Spend a good few hours chilling out and messing about on the beach before the group meal in the evening. the next morning we went on a boat trip round the islands. This was probably my favourite part of the trip so far, little bit of snorkeling, not the best snorkeling but i love swimming in the sea anyway, bbq on the beach...Sun, Sea and Sand, nice sand at that as well.
I wish i'd written this sooner than when i'm halfway round Vietnam as i am 100%!s(MISSING)ure i'm leaving bits out but i had no time so i am sorry! i'm sure if i do remember i'll let you all know!
From Snoop Doggy Dog ville we headed across the Vietnamese Border to the Mekong Delta and Chau Doc in Vietnam. From all i'd heard about Vietnam i was expecting the border to be patrolled by 7ft tall gorillas with laser beams for eyes, not a little fella wearing a hat that was too big and sandals that didn't really go with the army outfit....Still, it made the crossing easy enough. After we had all had our temperature taken we got onto another bus and about an hour later arrived in Chau Doc. It was an odd place with again little going on but we were only there for one night. Some of us went on a boat tour to the floating market and then a village that regularly gets flooded. This was another little thing that to me made the trip all worth it, for 15 minutes myself, Ami and Steph just messed around with the kids there and it just made me happy. Little people love high fives. The evening was really good as well as we went on a motorbike ride up to the top of a nearby hill to see the sunset once more. This sunset was much nice than the one in Cambodia, with the light reflecting off the rice paddies and shining back up at us. Just like to point out that i came second on the way down after a cheeky Giles stole the lead by sticking a certain toe out in front....
After our night in Chau Doc it was time for the fun trip to Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon if you prefer. Bangkok and Saigon are very similar to me, both busy, always busy, lots of traffic, but still quite quiet when they need to be. However it is in Ho chi Minh where things went a little wrong for me. I was meant to be heading down to the Coast to go surfing, the two companies who were meant to do all the organising for me (who i won't name as after i named a company on here before i got an e-mail saying i had a very good writing style but they were upset i felt the way i did so lets call them STD Trivel and Baffali Tyres) didn't quite organise it right. That meant i had an extra night in Ho Chi Minh where i sat round waiting to here back from either one and in the end was told i could gfo surfing but would have to start the day after, so 3 days later than originally planned and that would mean i'd miss the Laos part of my trip, surfing can wait, the beaches of Connemara are good enough for me.
So that brings me to where i am now, i got on an overnight train from Saigon up to Hoi an (18 hours of realising that being over 5 ft 5 in Asia is an issue)and now i'm waiting to see the rest of the people out here and be that annoying guy that you can't get rid of as hard as you try. I'm good like that, the name makes it easy.
Larry? Larry vs Lorcan the only simiilarity is they start with an L... silly foreigners!, but another good read Lorcs shame about the surfing cock up :(
p.s. Yes it is hard to find someone who makes a good Long Island Ice Tea, but they are definitely worth the wait! x
Mummy
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There's still time.....
to grow a beard, you've got two more months....xx