Phnom Penh to Siem Reap and Mekong Buckets

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Another very early Cambodian start we boarded a bus for the north. We bought our tickets yesterday from the hotel and were preallocated seats 10a and 10b.... Turns out that 10a and 10b are on the very back row and it was like being on a boat on rough seas.



The road between siem reap and Phnom Penh was only partially paved and our driver had only one speed... Super speed!! We had two stops which totalled about an hour in time and still made the journey in about an hour less than we should have! Cambodia is very different to Vietnam. It's so very flat and very agricultural. The majority of the countryside we drove through (at great speed) was rice paddies. The houses are all up on stilts although I'm not sure why as most of them were nowhere near water.

When we arrived at the bus station in siem reap at around 2pm and had a hotel tuk tuk waiting to take us to our home for the next two nights. The hotel is very sweet. It's a really new place but people are so keen to help. There are two women behind reception who are all smiles, a lad in his mid 20s and a lad who is as camp as Christmas who is about 18 and so lovely!

We planned to walk into town and just get our bearings a little but the tuk tuk driver we have booked for tomorrow passed us on the street and told us to hop in as he was headed that way anyways and would give us a lift for free. He dropped us at the old market and we had a wander but things are so much more expensive than they have been else where we decided against getting anything... Except a few cheeky spring rolls! We arranged to meet up with Ashleigh and her friend, Chloe at the hotel at six but their tuk tuk couldn't find us so we met them in siem reap on pub street for some tea.

They took us to a Khmer BBQ place where you get a huge variety of meats and you put them on a hot plate and they cook with the juices falling down into a soup with veg and noodles. It was really delicious but very limited in terms of what Eireann could eat. After the meal we headed to Angkor What?? a very busy bar on Pub Street with buckets of Mekong Whiskey and a mixer. It was a little like sailor Jerry's run in taste but was probably made out of screen wash! We were good girls and were home in bed by 1:30!

Tomorrow we hit the temples!

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