Cambodia

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Welcome to Cambodia - the land of dust, cows and palm trees!!

The journey into Cambodia was HELL!! We got a bus down to Pakse in Laos and then headed for the border - a random man took us in his car to get our passports stamped and then drove us through the desert across the border. We had to get a boat across the water and then we stopped briefly for lunch. We decided to head straight for the capital - Phnom Penh. Our transport arrived - a clapped out mini van with no air con. I have never sweat so much in my life - I must weigh about 5 stone by now!! There were about 12 of us cramped into this thing and the roads were terrible and we had the scariest driver who just went flying over all the holes in the road. You had to hold on for dear life - at one point I dared to let go and whacked my head. Ouch!! The windows were all open too to get some air in so we all had the dirtiest faces by the end of the journey because of all the dust everywhere! We stopped half way in Kratie and were separated into 2 mini vans going in different directions and then finally arrived in Phnom Penh at 10pm so all in all we had been travelling for about 36 hours - tolerance was severely tested at this point!!!

My first impressions of Phnom Penh weren't great - it is a big, dirty city and the men are all pervs!! Absolutely everyone tries to rip you off and you get hassled every few seconds whichever way you turn. After walking around a bit we found somewhere to stay and then collapsed!

The next day we went to the Tuol Sleng Museum (S.21) and the killing fields. The museum is quite scary - each of the cells show the picture of the person that was tortured in there and how they were tortured and their blood is still splattered on the ceilings. We paid for a guide to show us around and explain everything to us which was good and gave us a better understanding of what went on.

That evening we went to Friends Restaurant (thanks Chris!). It was lovely - the best meal we've had so far. It is run by an organisation that trains disadvantaged kids so that they can get good jobs and make something of their lives. The cocktails were great too! We got talking to an Australian couple and a Danish boy in there too who were heading to Siem Reap the next day - same as us. We arranged to meet up the next night.

We had an early bus to Siem Reap the next morning - a very pleasant 6 hour journey compared to what we've been used to - a German woman was beating her daughter up and pulling her hair the whole way which wasn't very nice to watch though!

I really liked Siem Reap - a lot smaller than Phnom Penh and not as dirty. We stayed in a guest house that was recommended by Emile (Danish boy). We explored a bit that afternoon and then headed for Bar Street (another reason why I like this place - anywhere with a street called Bar Street goes down well in my book!!) to meet Emile, Steven and Mel. The object of this was that Emile knows a bit about Siem Reap and was going to use us as his trainees as he was thinking about starting up a bar crawl/learning about Siem Reap tour to make some money for the month that he's there!! Obviously we were the testers so we went for free!! It didn't turn out quite as we'd planned. We had some drinks in the first bar then set off on our tour and then by the time we hit the second bar we didn't go any further and just carried on drinking! Eventually Deaks and I left them and went drinking to some other bars to talent watch!!

The next day we decided to go to the floating village of Chong Kneas - another scary tuk tuk journey - how I'm still alive I don't know!! It was an interesting journey though - you get to see the real poor Cambodians living in open huts that consist of 1 room for the whole family. They just sleep all day as they have nothing else to do apart from fishing - really makes you appreciate what you have at home. There's me whinging about not having a bath/hot water for 3 weeks and these people can barely afford to eat. End of whinge!! The market was quite cool - they have schools on the river, a basketball court, shops and houses etc. We had a boat ride through the village in which our driver kept saying "lady, you have tip for me?" They are certainly not afraid to ask here much to Deaks's disgust!!! We saw some crocs and snakes which was quite cool. The little kids were floating in the river in big metal tins holding the snakes begging for money - can't quite explain some of the sights you come across here.

In the afternoon Deaks and I decided to do a Cambodian cooking class! It was good fun and I made pumpkin soup and Amok chicken and rice - it was quite good even if I do say so myself!! Bit scary to go into the kitchens though and see how dirty they are - washing your hands before preparing a meal is just in a bucket of cold water with a slice of lime in it and there are ants crawling around everywhere - eeeewww!!

We headed back to Bar Street that evening and headed to our favourite bar - Banana Leaf where we spent the whole night chatting and laughing with our favourite gay barman Dino. We want to marry him off with our friend at home - he is so sweet.

The next day we headed towards the Temples of Angkor. First we went to Ta Prohm temple which was quite good - it is overgrown by trees so it was really cool to look at. We walked around it for about an hour and then headed to Bayon temple which wasn't as good as the first one. After lunch (and another morning of "lady, you want tuk tuk?", "lady, you want cold drink?". "lady, you want something to eat?", "lady, you want to buy something?" !!) we headed to the big one - Angkor Wat. Is very beautiful and breathtaking. We hung around there and explored for a couple of hours in the sweltering heat and then sat and watched the sunset before coming home but not before I got abused by a young Cambodian girl - I had gone to get me and Deaks a drink and was following a man that was taking me to get one and I had loads of kids harrassing me on the way offering me drinks but I'd already told the man I'd buy one from him so I politely refused and carried on my journey. On the way back, the young girl found me again and said "so lady, you won't buy drinks off me - you don't like girls, you only like boys". That's generally the way it works, yep!!!

We had some relaxing reflexology that evening as my feet were aching from all the walking! Then we had an email from Felipe (Columbian guy that we did the trek with in Chiang Mai) who said he had just arrived in Siem Reap so we arranged to meet him in Banana Leaf. It was so random seeing him again in another country but we had a laugh and Deaks was again trying to teach him how to talk common which was hilarious!!

We left Siem Reap after 3 nights - sad to leave but keen to carry on exploring. We were now on route to Bangkok. We arrived at the bus stop to wait an hour beforing discovering that the bus didn't exist! 3 cars turned up and they tried to pile about 14 of us into the cars. It was a shambles. We were all shouting at the men as they wanted 2 people to sit in the front seat of some of the cars - I don't think so! The roads here are death traps as it is!! Then they tried to split Deaks and I up into separate cars to which we flatly refused (I think they started swearing in Cambodian at this point - bothered!!). THEN they tried to put us in a separate car to the one our backpacks were in to which we flatly refused again!!! They must have been wishing they'd not got out of bed by this point but we were sticking to our guns! Eventually we got our way :o)

The journey was evil - we were warned that the road leading to the Thai border was terrible. Apparently the airlines pay the Cambodians to not maintain it so that more people will opt to fly. I figured we'd had enough bad roads to take this one in our stride so we set off! All I can say is thank god I don't get travel sick - they drive like lunatics here - I don't know how the cars survive it - I wouldn't even call it a road - more like a dust track with massive holes all the way along. There doesn't seem to be a rule about which side to drive on either (obviously there are no road markings!) and it is not uncommon to see cars heading straight for you only to swerve at the last minute to avoid a crash! We did see one big crash on the way - I'm surprised we only saw 1 though!!

We arrived at Poi Pet (border) at lunch time and went through immigration which was another shambles and took ages - people are really rude here and just shout orders at you or think nothing of grabbing you and pushing you in the right direction! Once again, tolerance levels are severely tested!!!

Thankfully we got through ok and started our 4 hour journey back to Bangkok which was bliss on normal roads again and back to some sort of civilisation!!! Khao San Road here I come!!!!!

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