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Published: September 22nd 2007
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Dave at Bayon Hey all!
Well, we're nearly at the end of our stay in Cambodia. We've seen quite a few places here, the best has to be Angkor Wat though! Check out the pictures! There are more to come but it really takes AGES to get them on so there's only ones from Angkor Wat and the boat trip over to Battambang. Will add a few more from Cambodia when I get a chance.
So, we flew from Pakse (Laos) into Siem Reap. We saw the Danish couple we met way back in Laos again. They did the overland border crossing, which took them 2 days to get to Siem Reap - they said it wasn't worth the money - we only paid a little more (in total) to fly and it only took an hour and we had the whole plane to ourselves!! Haha!! Cool! So we were glad we did it that way in the end.
we arrived in Siem Reap lateish evening and each sat on the ack of a moto to get to a guesthouse we'd chosen. siem Reap has lots of, um, 'massage' parlours, all lit in a beautiful shade of red! Went down plenty
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Laura with a Bayon head of back streets to the guest house, so saw (I just wrote 'sore'- unintentional comedy, brilliant!) various establishments! Probably luckily for us, the guest house was full so we ended up going for another further out of the way of the sleaze! We spent a day looking round the markets and bartering hard - it's good fun! Bought some pressies for ourselves that day! Checked out the night market too which was realy nice also. Next day we went to the immense Angkorian temples. We hired a tuk-tuk driver for the day who took us to the places we wanted to go. Particularly impressive were Bayon (faces!), the great Angkor Wat itself and Ta Prohm where great trees have woven themselves into the ancient ruins - they look awesome. So we took lots of pictures!!!
From Siem Reap, we took the boat to Battambang. The boat journey was good fun if a little uncomfortable - about 7 hours or so I think in the end, on wooden benches where the back rest came just a little too short of where we needed it!! There was a Belgian couple on board too who made us laugh because they looked exactly
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Bayon relief like each other!! There's vanity for you!! Haha!
Battambang itself wasn't too impressive but we caught a rare gem on the Friday night. A traditional Khmer dancing show put on by an NGO looking after street kids, orphans and chldren with HIV/Aids. It was really cool, we ate while we watched - thought Dave didn't exactly enjoy the long black hairs that made it into his noodle dish! We met a lovely local girl called Salorm who spoke very good English. She volunteers witht he NGO, goes to university every week day morning and learns English and computing in the afternoon! she's very busy! We joined in with the dancing at the end of the night and laughed at ourselves as we endeavoured with it. Dave was especially good at this...?!?!! Heehee. A fun night. The next day was, well, an adventure! We'd hired a car driver for the morning to take us to a couple of places we'd read about and then we would catch the bus to Phnom Penh in the afternoon. The Toyota Camry...what a car! We weren't expecting the roads to be quite so bad as they were. Dave wasn't expecting to have to change
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Cool doorways at Bayon a car wheel that day. Neither of us were expecting the driver to be quite such a clueless driver! Oh well, some how we got to all the places we wanted to go to! Phnom Sampeau was cool. we had a guide with us who told us a lot about the killings of the Khmer Rouge, showed us a cave where people were pushed into - and where the bones still remain in a glass-enclosed shrine. Nice. There was also a huge teaching Buddha part way up the hill, 2 old guns and a cool temple and stupa that can be seen from the road. After this, we went to Wat Banan and climbed the 359 stone stairs to the top! Nice on a hot day! At the top are 5 towers akin to those of Angkor Wat. Apparently built in the same century, the locals believe it was inspiration for the great Angkor temples in Siem Reap. Hmmm...maybe! After this, we took a ride on the bamboo train - good fun! Basically, we got to the tack, watched them put some wheels on it, place a bamboo raft-like thing on it, whack on a small motor and then we
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Bayon were on our way. Think kind of Alton Towers Runaway Mine Train without ANY of the health and safety features!! Cool! Managed to get back (somehow!!!) in time for the bus and headed to the capital Phnom Penh.
Stayed one night in the Spring Guest House and the service here was poor - don't stay tHere if you come here! Checked out the central market (not brilliant) and then the Russian market (pretty good for souvenirs etc), then looked round the Sorya Mall - the first 7 storey shopping mall in Cambodia - first place with escalators I think! Walked past the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda before splurging with some strawberry icecream! Yum! Went south to Sihanoukville but this place definitely needs the sun. The beach looked nice to be fair and we did go and stand in the Gulf of Thailand (so warm!) with our umbrellas up - hardcore! Found it to be a little sleazy here and to many western run things for our liking, and we had a bit of a to do with a tuk-tuk driver who didn't like us (politely) saying no! He started going on about 'fíng tourists' and how it was
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Near Bayon! his country and not ours...etc etc. Severe chip on his shoulder for some reason. Decided to get out of there the next day and head to Kampot. While waiting for the bus, went to the lovely Starfish bakery and had breakfast and also got a sarnie to take on bus with us.
Took about 2 hours to get there from Sihanoukville. Checked into Long Villa guesthouse for what cost about two pounds for a twin room! Wow! Bargain. Went on a tour the next day to Bokor National park. Thought we were going in an offroad vehicle as the road up the mountain was fairly bad but no. Wait for it... another Toyota Camry!! Wicked!! Except it was a little older, though a manual rather than automatic. Bokor was cool - the buildings on the mountain are now in ruin after the various times of unrest experienced here over the years. They were shrouded in misty cloud too which added to the eerie feeling we got while we were there. Somehow made it up and down in the Camry, though the driver didn't really seem to have a clue how the gears worked! Made it most of the way
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Dave's at the top! Pretty hairy stair way! up in third!
Arrived back in Phnom Penh yesterday and checked back in to the Chan Trea guest house (where we stayed after the Spring), as the girl there was great and the room is fairly cheap too - about 3 quid for a fan room. Just chilling over next couple of days before heading to Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh City on Monday morning). So that's it raelly for Cambodia! Hope you enjoy the pics, we'll do another one after Vietnam.
Thanks again for all your messages - it's still great to hear from home. We love being away but it really makes you appreciate what you have at home. Enough soppiness, no actually, there's never enough soppiness - love you allllllllllllllllllll!!!
Take care,
Us :o) xXx
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