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Published: February 14th 2006
Yet another shitty bus ride - I'm well getting sick of these you know! Definitely gonna have to purchase one of those travel pillows so I can at least get some kip I reckon. Ah well, I'm here safe and well now so fuck it. After an exhausting tuk tuk mission to find a spot in one of the guesthouses listed in LP we ended up staying at Angkor Sina Bright guesthouse where the driver worked (I know before you say owt), but it was really nice place and rooms were only $7 a night so we were happy. Spent a good couple of hours playing shithead with Roya and Matt then decided to go check The Red Piano out for tea in the centre of town. This was the place the Tomb Raider film crew hung out at when they weren't busy shooting and Angkor Wat a few years back and don't they just want you to know that! You can even get a "Tomb Raider" cocktail there as devised by Angelina herself but despite all this latant plugging over their 15 minutes of fame the food was quality so can't knock the place too much. Had a few more
Roya and Matt at Banteay Srei
These are the Scottish and Aussie couple I was knocking about with in both Phnom Penh and Siem Reapbeers round town then decided we were knackered and crashed out around 12ish.
Right then, it's time to do what we came here for and see some temples! Rented out mountain bikes for $2 a day and away we went on our mission. The 3 day pass for Angkor to see the temples was only $40 (a lot out here like but fuck all compared to what it'd be back home for the same privilege), and within 15mins we were parking up and on our way into the magnificent Angkor Wat. Now I've seen the photos of this place 100 times over and I never expected it to live up to my expectations but I can safely say that it did with ease, only downside being the number of tourists there but it's not as if I can say owt eh? Found out that bats live in the points of the temple which was pretty mad and all, they weren't stirring much though coz it was still light. After a good look round Angkor Wat we headed on to Bayon where you are literally watched by 100 pairs of eyes as every point in the place has a face sculpted
Crocodiles in the pit @ Dead Fish restaurant
It was well tight this, they were piled on top of each other and everything plus the water looked like it hadn't been changed in years, (smelt that way and all - grim)! into it on all 4 sides. Personally this was my favourite temple as it was so different from all the others, it's far too easy to fill your camera up at these places though so we decided to move on after an hour or so. Next stop was Ta Phrom where Tomb Raider and Indiana Jones : Raiders of the Lost Ark were filmedand you see why as soon as you get there. This place is exactly how you expect a long lost temple to look like - overrun by trees, falling down in more than a few places but still as impressive as it must've been when it was first built but with an added eerie quality. Got plenty of pics of the place and all along with having a scan round a good 4 or 5 other temples but eventually it got to 6pm and we had to leave coz the place was closing.
Went for food at The Soup Dragon after we dropped the bikes off then them two fancied an early night so I went over to The Temple 'Club' to see if they were lying or not with the name. They most definitely were coz
The faces of Bayon
I thought this place was quality, you should see how many pictures I went and took! that was as far from a club as you can get but they sold Beer Chang and had a pool table so fuck it. Met a lad from Oxford called Matt in there and spent the night playing doubles with him and two prostitutes till some stupid hour. I decided I didn't like the tunes and the DJ wasn't actually mixing so had a word, banged on some tunes I liked and stole the headphones off him to show him how it's done - did a good job and all considering I was shitfaced so was pretty chuffed, don't think he was impressed that I'd just shown him up though. Ha ha. If you wanna see what I play then check out my mixes on www.danbevins.co.uk (blatant plug I know but it's my blog so why not?). Some bird I was copping off with wouldn't answer me when I said "do I have to pay if we have sex?" so fucked her off at the drop of a hat coz I thought she was a hooker and went home alone, I don't do paying for sex I'm afraid.
Fuck me, hangovers and early mornings don't mix do they?! We'd already
Sunset on the hill
Don't ask me what the name of this temple is coz there's that bloody many I've forgotten, it's the one on the hill overlooking Angkor though... sorted our tuk tuk for the day with the guesthouse so we were off for a fry up by 10:30 so no worries. To be fair, we saw most of the main temples the day before so most of the ones we saw today just paled in comparison really. We got our driver to take us to the Butterfly Garden bar for dinner though and that was quality. It's a bar/restaurant set in a butterfly garden (as the name suggests), and it was proper nice. After a few hours playing shithead (shithead's a mint card game in case you were wondering btw), we headed back to the temples to catch the sunset over Angkor. One of the temples is on a massive hill so we thought it'd be the best place to watch it - little did we know that 1000 Japanese and Korean tourists were also thinking the same; fuck that for a game of soldiers! Decided to head off early coz of the crowd and head for Dead Fish restaurant for tea to see what it's like. Lonely Planet describes it as "something from the set of Mad Max" and that's absolutely bang on in all honesty. It's
Real live wild monkeys!
Never seen them in the wild before - I was fucking well chuffed! :oD set on all different levels and has a mad pond with a massive catfish in and an actual crocodile pit (although it was tight as fuck keeping them like that); the place is fucking ace bar that though! Them two went home after we left there but United were playing Fulham so I set off in search of a big screen showing it somewhere and ended up in the place next door to Angkor What? (Le Tigre Papier I think it was called), and we won 4-2 (even though we played shite), so I was happy.
We decided not to have an early start next day as we'd seen most of the sights already so didn't get up till 11am. Went off to The Red Piano again for breakfast then set to one of the further away temples Banteay Srei. I wasn't sure it'd be worth the 1hr moto ride but that couldn't have been further from the truth; that was place was stunning! Fair play, it didn't have the size of Angkor Wat or owt but the detail in all the carvings and that plus the sheer amount of them was superb. All the other temples we saw that
Monks at Bayon at sunset
They were everywhere around one side of it plus loads and loads of nuns and all, pretty mad to see anyway I thought day were just more of the same to be honest so after we'd seen the monks praying round Bayon we fucked off to The Blue Pumpkin to see if it lived up to the pics I'd seen of it and thankfully it did. It was modern as fuck, air-conned and would look slick in any major city in the world and the food was good so well impressed. The rest of the night was spent playing shithead back at the hotel and watching the footy so not a lot to report.
We'd intended on walking into town when we got up next morning but half way there we saw some electric bikes up for rent for only $4 a day so we jumped on them and took the easy option on getting there. Breakfast was spent at Banana Leaf where I had some quality tapas (a bit odd for breakfast I know but I just fancied them), then we set off to the childrens hospital to do my good deed for the year. Anyone who knows me probably knows how much I hate needles but I didn't pass out as I was giving blood and it wasn't actually as bad
Wouldn't like to fall down that one!
Only downdside of these temples - the steps were steep as fuck and if you fell your dead pretty much. Don't turn up pissed anyway kids (I didn't either for a change. lol) as I expected so it's all good. Went to drop the bikes off around 7 @ Mommy's guesthouse where there was this proper cute little girl terrorizing anything that moved, at one point she even hit Matt in the head with an empty beer can - it was piss funny (for me anyway)! lol. The rest of the night we played shithead and carried on drinking then at the end of it I said my goodbye's to them two as they were leaving Siem Reap at 7am next morning and went to bed.
Ah, back to my old ways of lying in till lunchtime again - good shit! 1st job for the day was to find the landmine museum, I went and got a moto driver who spoke no English though, not a good move. After 1st being taken to the war museum and having to get many other moto drivers to give my guy directions to the place I wanted we eventually got there thankfully. The owner, Aki Ra, runs this place solely on donations and is doing a one man fight to clear the country of the millions of landmines it still holds so I had a lot
Some of the deactivated landmines at the museum
There were loads of massive piles there and they were just a few of the ones the owner Aki Ra's sorted, good on the lad of respect for the guy. Had a chat with Tony and me Dad on MSN later that day then went for tea @ Taj Mahal curry house down the road as recommended by LP. Now I'm sure the guy makes mint curries but someone needs to tell him that chicken tikka massala is NOT mad with gravy sauce; it was minging. On the way outta that place I got mithered by 2 kids selling postcards (Tom and "Spidergirl" lol), but coz they were so helpful in me finding the currency place I got them both a drink for their efforts (2 good deeds in 2 days - wtf?!). If anyone's in Siem Reap and gets a kid chatting to them about Manchester then you've got me to blame, they kept going on about London so I decided to pass some knowledge on. lol. Ended up in Laundry bar from there which was definitely my favourite bar in Siem Reap coz they played house music and had a pool table - quality. Met shitloads of people in there including an American called Scott who owned Viva!, the local Mexican restaurant and his missus Bambi so didn't get home till 5am but
Ta Phrom overrun by a tree
There were loads of places in this temple that looked like this, this was the best pic by far though so thought I'd best use this one I had a good night so it was cushtie. One noteable thing that happened was that I was copping off with this bird in Temple Bar but she wouldn't answer when I asked if I had to pay her if we had sex so I wrote her off as a prostitute and wandered out; she then followed me for half a mile pleading for me to take her home and when I give it legs she jumped on a moto to catch us up - take the fucking hint luv, FUCK OFF! Got rid of her 5mins from home anyway so it was OK.
Next day I could go and get the results of my blood test. Absolutely cacking it I wander in but 10mins later the guy turns to me and goes "you're A+ and you have good blood", I'm officially disease free - get the fuck in! The rest of the day and night was spent pretty much the same as the last except I went for a quality Mexican at Viva! (make sure you go if you're in Siem Reap), and I met 2 English lads called Brian and Luke and won a few quid on Killer.
Me holding a grenade
This was at the landmine museum and all, don't worry though Mum, the explosive bit's been taken out! ;o) Finally got my visa for Laos back next day so made plans to leave at 6:30am the next morning on the bus, is was pub quiz night though so we ended up getting TWATTED and rolling home at 4:30am; the next morning was by far the worst I'd had since I'd been away but I still made it on time - fucking hardcore! On to Si Phan Don in Laos next, laters kids...
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jesus
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piks all black
wanted to sea piks of town, wats aroundit...