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Published: August 31st 2009
When will we ever learn - they will tell us whatever we want to hear in order to get our money!!!!!!
We were leaving Sihanoukville for Siem Reap on another night bus. The journey was to take 10 hours so we wanted to make sure we were on a sleeper bus. We asked; they said yes. We asked for photos, written confirmation, price comparisons to the regular buses; it was a sure thing this was a sleeper bus! But when we arrived to the bus station in town there was a regular, run of the mill bus. It was the most uncomfortable 10 hour journey we have ever had. We didn't get a wink of sleep. To make it worse, when we arrived in Siem Reap at 5am, the hotel pick up we had organised didn't show up so we went with the first offer we got. Bad idea!!!! The guy brought us to a ''guest house'' and showed us a room. We were so tired that the filthy dirty walls and the mosquitos didn't put us off. We took it and went straight to sleep. Three hours later we woke up absolutely eaten alive in the most disgusting place we've
seen. Needless to say we packed our bags and headed off in search of somewhere decent to stay.
As it turned out Siem Reap is really a cool place, a nice little city with lots to see and do. We met a lovely Cambodian man, Chang, and befriended him soon after arriving. He was great, showing us around the city in his tuk-tuk. We set off for Angkor Wat to watch the sun set over the temples and then got back up again at 4.30am to return for sun rise. It really was amazing. As we are budget travellers, we didn't splash out on our own personal guide, instead we just followed other tour guides, gathering as much information as we could until they started getting suspicious and then we'd move onto the next group! After about the third temple, Paulo was done with leaching onto other groups and decided to get out the guidebook and become my tour guide for the day. In fairness he did a pretty fantastic job. I was very impressed. The temples were so spactacular and Chang really added to the experience.
After the temples we went for a little walk around the city, stumbled
across a quad bike company and went in for some more info. We were all templed out at this stage and figured that a day on the bikes around Siem Reap sounded like a great idea. During the briefing, before we took off on the bikes, we were told not to look back because they're might be cows, chickens, ducks or children crossing the road out of nowhere. This seemed like a very simple instruction to follow but yet, five minutes into the drive Paulo spotted something in a field and looked back! There were no children, cows or any other animals on the road, thank God, but there was a big, fresh, wet, mound of cow poo! Needless to say, Paulo didn’t spot it, drove straight through it and it splashed all over my face, conveniently missing Paulo, who found the whole situation hilarious. The sights were amazing and we met so many kids along the way, waving us on as they had done in the Mekong Delta. Still loving this celebrity status!
The highlight so far for us, without a shadow of a doubt, was our visit to the orphanage. When we arrived, the children were just finishing
up their morning lessons and two of the older kids showed Paulo and me around. They talked about their school and their home with such pride. Forty-eight children live here but two hundred attend the day school. They showed us their schoolwork and told us what they wanted to be when they grew up. It was a really great experience. We played volleyball with them and played in the playground too. I think Paulo and I enjoyed playing with them as much or possibly more than the kids did themselves!
We headed back to Phnom Phen to pick up our passports and visas for Laos. On the stopover we found a great little restaurant offering cooking classes so decided to sign up. We headed off in our tuk-tuks to the markets to buy our ingredients and get a little tour and explanation of what was on sale. Our teacher was great but tough! My God if you hadn't crushed or chopped or sliced to perfection she would be quick to point and tell you to work harder, (I got that a lot). Our arms sure got a good work out by the end of the day, but our tummies were
treated with fantastic spring rolls and traditional Cambodian curry. We'll be all set to host a multitude of South East Asian themed dinner parties when we come home!
It wasn’t long before we felt the itch for another border crossing, so headed north, destination Laos to see what is has in store.
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orl;aith
non-member comment
glad to see you took my advice;-)