Angkor What?

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So we got to Cambodia, home of Angkor Wat after an awful trip! As said before we got an overnight bus then a songtheaw to the border. On the other side there was a severe lack of public transport, just a group of young guys sitting next to their cars / minivans in the shade. They started speaking to us saying they could offer us a lift into the nearest town, 2 hours away!We got a wee it of banter then they started getting arsey asking us to make them an offer for transport, refusing everything they said. Then they started saying there was nothing in the town so they could get us somewhere to stay for the night and take us to Phnom Pehn the next morning. OK. We had no other option but to pay an inflated price in dollars and off we went. Along the way the guys weren't very forthcoming about our accomodation (I asked about a toilet and got a very vague answer) but made us another offer to drive us straight to Phnom Pehn that evening for anothe 30 bucks. We reluctantly agreed, being very fed up and tired, knowing it would take about 5 hours and be dark before we arrived. OH yes it was. It took about 8 and a half hours, squeezed into a very small minivan with 5 loud chinese folk, along dirt tracks, in the rain to get there. On arrival, they proceeded to take us around guesthouses of their choice which were out of our budget, and when we asked to be taken to the 'backpacker'area, they played dumb. Eventually we were dropped at a French hotel at 11pm, just glad to be out of the car. The room was beyond basic and a bit mingin. We headed out for our first Cambodian beer and went to sleep, ready to get out of there as soon as we were up.
The next morning we got a tuk tuk to the budget area which was full of white backpackers like us yeeha and we even managed to get 2 rooms between us for half the price of the place before. This place was even less mingin than the French disaster although Stefs and mine en-suite toilet / shower lacked a door.....
This area was like Khao San Road before The Beach was released, just a little track with wee bars off the side and monkeys jumping around on the roof! While in Phnom Phen we did a wee cultural tour taking in a former school which was transformed into a prison during the 70s while the Kymer Rouge were going Communism crazy. We actually learnt a lot and were quite shocked at what happened there. There are kids going around all the bars selling books on their history and between us we ended up with three, I'm now on the third and still fascinated.
So from Phnom Pehn we crossed country to Siem Reap, home of the Ankor Wat temples where we spent a day going round with our tuk tuk driver Sam. The temples are huge, mostly falling down but my favourite was one which looked like a scene from tomb raider, trees growing through the rocks and athing, very cool. I also did a wee bit of shopping and bought some paintings done by locals of the temples, just need to find somewhere to live to hang them now! The other attraction in Siem Reap is 'pub street' where you can drink affie cheap local beer, eat some damn fine food, buy any kind of bracelet or bangle and be offered either a tuk tuk or massage every two steps. This is also home of the (now) famous Ankor What? Bar. ( We saw a lot of folk in Oz with the tshirt on) So we decided to do the same, drinking some buckets of alcohol to earn free t shirts, it was a tough job, but better than paying 5 bucks outright eh! Anyway, Ross can't remember half the night, me and Stef did a bit of dancing and we met a couple of cool ozzies who we were able to meet again in Sihanoukville, our next stop............
Again apologies for the lack of photos, theyre on their way!
xxx

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