Cambodia

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Crossing the Laos Cambodian Border

In the lonely planet it suggests that this can be quite tricky and advises you go with a tour operator to your chosen destination in Cambodia. What it does not say is that it is still tricky even if you go have a tour guide.

We had arranged to leave DoneDet island in Laos at 8am. 8am was a mere formality and what they really meant was you can leave whenever you nag us enough to leave. So at 9am after an hour of waiting a guy lethargically decided to get out his boat and take us back to the main land. The relaxed attitude to our day on the road was a sign of things to come.

Once on the main land we border a minibus, that after about another 40mins of waiting took us to the Cambodia border. The border was in the middle of nowhere. All that marked it was a long road and a barrier. It was once we had crossed the Cambodian boarder that things got interesting. The actual crossing itself was fine, get passport stamped, get visa, customs etc... Once on the other side though we had to change buses - not an easy task. A very smiley Cambodian guy came up to us and asked us where we were headed and pointed to a bus for us to jump in. The problem was there was no actual room left in this bus. So me and Fenella spent the first hour or so of our time in Cambodia sat on a dirty bus floor - I wouldn't recommend it.

Fortunately, when we reached the town of Stung Treng the buses got reshuffled and we managed to get a seat for the rest of our journey. Luxury!!!We had chosen to go the long route to Siem Reap first as it fitted in better with the rest of our plans. This involved however a nights stop over in Kampong Cham, before hitting the bus again in the morning. On the bus we met a German guy named Chris who we ended up spending the evening with. Actually, don't think I would have liked to be in Kampong Cham without a guy. It is the only place so far in Asia that I haven't felt all that safe, The place becomes deserted at night and by 9pm it was a ghost town very strange!!!!

Despite all the turmoils of the trip it was actually quite fun. We had a great group of people on the bus who were fascinating to chat to, a round of all the national anthems of the countries we came from really does break the ice, especially when there is 6 nationalities out of 11 people!

Siem Reap and Angkor Wat

The last few days have been spent in Siem Reap in the Northern part of Cambodia. Siem Reap is the former capital of Cambodia but was switched to Phnom Pehn in order to protect it from the Thais. It is actually one of my favorite cities so far. The old market has real character to it and once you get past the "lady you buy from me, lady you need tuk tuk" the people her are really friendly.

On our first evening we headed to Ta Prohm Kel in the site of Angkor Wat to watch the sunset. Unfortunately, instead of watching a sunset we watched a storm gathering. Still impressive but maybe not quite as impressive as sunset over Angkor.

Yesterday, we fully explored the sites of Angkor and its temples. The day started at 4.30am!!!!! (Not a time we are used to) to watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat. Unfortunately, the previous nights storm meant that the clouds still hug overhead so sunrise didn't really happen but nevertheless the sight of Angkor Wat was still highly impressive.

From Angkor Wat we headed to Angkor Ton the former capital city and Bayon the former Royal Palace. Bayon was one of my favorite sights. It has 216 faces carved into its impressive stone structure and truly has a magical feel about it.

One of my other favorite temples was Ta Phoum where tomb raider was filmed. The temple has a number of strangling trees growing over it, making it a highly impressive sight. We were told that history of the temple has been one of turmoil in which its religious origins had been switched between Buddhism and Hinduism a number of time.

Wandering around the temples you can understand why they are such an important feature of Cambodia. They clearly represent a very proud period of Cambodian history during which the Angkor empire was one of the strongest in South East Asia. The architecture is stunning. The site is vast and each of the temples/ monuments are in some cases several stories high with very intricate carvings some of which date back to the 11th and 12th centuries.

After the impressive sights of Angkor Wat nothing else in Siem Reap has quite managed to compare. Today I embarked upon a visit to the Land Mine Museum just outside the city. Not quite as big as I had hoped but it was interesting to learn something about the more recent history. Years of civil war have pulled this country apart and it is quite staggering the number of people you see on the streets who have lost limbs to landmine accidents. There are believed to be over 3million landmines in Cambodia still potentially active. The country has been through a lot in recent year but the people hear are amazingly friendly and it is good to see that they might now finally be on the right track.

Tonight we are taking another sleeper bus down to Sihanoukville on the south coast of the country! Hopefully it will be better than the last bus journey we had but I am not counting on it.

Speak soon.

Lots of Love
Becky
xxx

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Photos

Bus Journey to Siem Reap
Me and Fenella sat on the floor

Angkor Wat
Lakeside View