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Published: June 16th 2007
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Hello!
So, as V stated in our last blog we were in Cambodia when she wrote so here are our Cambodian adventures.
I’ll start with the border crossing journey from Bangkok to Siem Reap. This journey is particularly famous for its many scams along the way such as dodgy buses and bent border guards trying their best to over charge you for visas and Cambodian money.
So with our research done we set off for the border on a recommended local bus instead of an organized tour and the plan was to cross the border on foot and then get a taxi to Siem Reap. At the border the guards tried their best to overcharge us for visas demanding 1000 Thai Baht ($30) instead of the $20 it said above his head. In the end we came to a stale mate when he wanted an extra 100 Thai Baht on top of the $20 to process it quicker than 4 hours. After an hour and a half of calling his bluff we caved in and paid the extra money, after all it was only the equivalent of one pound fifty and he seemed to be a pretty stubborn
one motorbike towing another...
..on the dusty and bumpy road to Siem Reap sod!! A couple of us were also told we needed to change money to get into Cambodia but we weren't fooling for that old chestnut and told him where to stick his extortionate exchange rates. After the border we got a taxi between the four of us to Siem Reap along the dustiest and bumpiest excuse for a road I have ever seen but despite a couple of pesky tuk tuk drivers trying (unsuccessfully) to take us to their mates guest house and not where we wanted, we arrived in Siem Reap in good time and pretty much scam free feeling very pleased with ourselves.
On our first full day in Siem Reap we just relaxed, tried to get used to the immense heat and did a few chores such as washing and Verity wrote the Thailand blog. In the afternoon we went to see the Cambodian war museum which was quite horrific especially because our guide whom had lost his entire family to the Khymer Rouge (The Cambodian army led by Pol Pot who basically committed genocide on the whole country), recently lost his wife to a land mine (off the beaten track, the whole country is still
full of them), had one leg, had been shot three times and was riddled with shrapnel from various bombs.
After the war museum we bought our 24 hour tickets for the temples of Angkor and went to watch the sunset from the top of one of its many famous temples. This was all very nice but we were also joined by hundreds of Japanese tourists!!!
The next morning we got up at some ridiculous time in the morning and went back to Angkor for the sunrise. We watched it come up at the famous Angkor Watt temple which was quite spectacular and being very early in the morning there were considerably less people around. We spent the rest of the morning looking at other surrounding temple ruins and the amazing sights of Angkor but by midday we were all templed out (we had been there since 5am) and were all also sweaty messes as it is so hot in Cambodia.
Next day and we headed by bus to the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. Not much to report on this day except for when we got off the bus we were absolutely mobbed by tuk tuk drivers/hotel touts
which ended up being quite funny as we were so rude to them, shouting and swearing at them to leave us alone until we decided where we wanted to go (we’ve become quite assertive since we’ve been in Asia) but they took no notice at all, if I spoke to someone like that at home I’d expect a slap afterwards!! We ended up basing ourselves right by a picturesque lake, although I’d never swim in it as it was pretty polluted! The area was pretty nice but you couldn’t go anywhere without being asked if you wanted a tuk tuk even if you were already on one!!!
Our First full day in Phnom Penh and we sorted out our Vietnam Visas and then went on to the now disused S21 prison which was another horrific reminder of the terrible acts that took place in Cambodia not so long ago.
Our second full day in the capital and we headed to the famous Killing fields for another piece of morbid history. The fields were sights of mass graves that have since been moved but the reminder is still there as a huge Stupa filled with skulls marks the fields.
It was all pretty heavy and emotional, especially as you could see bits of clothing etc sticking up from the unexcavated areas of ground. On our way back from the fields we decided to take a detour to a place we had been told about, a rubbish dump!!! Although it was photographically great as many Cambodian children were there all day scavenging and also lots of NGO’s work there on various projects we didn’t stay long as the stench was awful!!!!
The next day we boarded a bumpy bus to Ho Chi Minh City, better known as Saigon, in Vietnam leaving Cambodia behind. We’ve been here two nights and are leaving and heading north tomorrow morning. Yesterday we visited the War remnants museum for more history but this time on the Vietnam War. The museum was great with a huge collection of artifacts and amazing photographs but one couldn’t help feeling it was a little one sided in the way they portrayed the war. After that we went and had a look at the old royal palace which was stormed in the war and still looks today as it did back then. In the evening we feasted ourselves on
local Pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) and Saigon beer!
Today we felt like we needed some relief from all the morbid (but amazing) sights we’ve seen over the past week. So this morning we headed to the local water park!! Oh yes, we’ve just got back from hurling ourselves down many a waterslide and are all nursing bruised bums from one too many goes on the Kamikaze!!!
We’ve got until the 29th June until our 15 day Vietnam visas run out so you should here from us around then.
Take care, love to you all.
G&V
x
ps. we promise to get more photos up asap!
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