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Published: April 14th 2010
Hello Again,
Wé're in the land of Smiles (we thought that was Thailand but we're not arguing) Cambodia!
We finished up our microstop in Bangkok only seeing ONE truck full of red shirts driving through the streets and managed NOT to get ripped off driving back to the airport; Airport to Hotel 45 minute drive 500B, Hotel to Airport 20 minute drive 200B (and that's WITH being pulled over by very scary looking army people who searched the car! - we knew it was serious when the taxi driver put on his seatbelt!)
All our miraculous savings disappeared when we ate at the airport though - it was almost our most expensive meal in Thailand! Note to selves; never eat at the airport again!
Boarding for the plane was normal; get on a bus and drive to a..... aeroplane? The entire bus full of people's draw dropped on seeing our 'plane'... I'd hesitate to say it was bigger than the bus! It was painted very nice pretty colours though!! I've also never seen so many people take a photo of a plane while boarding, Phil wasn't quick enough getting his camera out (it was only 4 steps from the ground to the plane) and our pleasure at being row four was short lived when you could only board from the back as the front is where the pilot gets on! There was a big whirry thing right next to my face out of the window but I remained VERY calm. Despite all of this Phil reckons it was the best take off we've had and we even got provided with meals!! And hot towels! Landed at an airport looking very Port Macquarie esk (aka small for those people who've never been there with palm trees) our expensive pre purchasing of visa came into its own as we skipped ALL the queues! Even saw an italian girl with the exact same high heel bag tag - how random!
So it's hot here - when I say hot, think hot and add a few more degrees... 45!! It's crazy luckily our hotel has a lovely salt water pool. It's very french colonial here, with wide open boulevards and streets, heaps of space (very different to Thailand). Our smiling taxi driver offered to 'guide' us round the temples.. We're too nice, we accepted. The night market here is the same as night markets everyone else, everyones got the same stuff to sell except things seem more expensive here - everything is in $US which I think allows them to charge you more. Phil dragged me in to see a historical documentary to try and understand the countries history - he came out much enlightened!! (Actually he slept through it!)
Our 'guide' was very disappointing - we paid to have him drive us to the temples, drop us off and be there when we came out. We found out though that what we're paying him is the going rate for that service so other than decieving us that he would 'walk' us round the temple it was ok. Well in saying that it took us both at least an hour to cool down about it.
Angkor Wat is truly spectacular - the bas reliefs are amazing and bizarrely where people have touched them over the last 1000 years has actually highlighted them rather than rubbing them off. Luckily I dressed 'appropriately' and we were able to go right to the top to have the full experience and excellent view. We were very disapointed to see people who'd wrapped sarongs to cover their legs remove them up there (very very scary stairs - apparently I stopped a bus load of people when I took a while to come down) because it was ''hot'' - so disrespectful.
Ta Phrom - aka Tomb Raider was incredible - I so wanted to play hide and seek and we managed to move away from the crowds and find our own little nooks and crannys. The trees have totally taken over and it's truely amazing to see. We even managed to find the spot where ''Lara Croft ran out of there, smelled some jasmine here and then ran through there shaking her arse" as one Brit described it!
Ended the day at the Bayon with the 216 scary heads staring at us, the bas reliefs were even more impressive than Angkor Wat (there was one of the people picking nits of each other's hair) and when we clambered up to the top (more scary stairs) we both thought of Hanging Rock.
More temples tomorrow; Happy Khmer New Year!
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Will
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Phomn Penh
Not sure if you're going down there for S21 / Killing Fields but the Russian market in Phnom Penh is something a bit different. You can buy authentic Diesel / GAP jeans for 5quid if nothing else (sold directly by factory workers from the sweatshops). Not too far away from the shooting range either, probs best to stick to the AK47 rather than anything explosive though. Also the Cambodia Royal Palace makes the Bangkok Royal Palace look like a cheap Disneyland imitation by comparison. Finally, Happy Herbs Pizza. Assume the Red Piano in Siem Reap is still milking the "Angelina drank this cocktail every night" line...