Battambong to Siem Reap...

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As it was dry season I asked if the river was high enough for the boat to Siem Reap. Oh yes said the ticket seller as I parted with my 15 US dollars. The following morning I found myself sitting on a small plank of wood on the back of a pick up truck with 11 other people, luggage for 14, boxes of rice and baskets of vegetables as the river was too low... Clinging on we set off along the dusty road. Size is important on Cambodian roads. To make his presence known to the 100s of motos weaving in and out of the traffic our driver honked his horn continuously. As motos don't have rear view mirrors maybe this honking is a necessity after all. Before long we were on smaller, even dustier roads through the countryside and even crossing burnt paddy fields, not going around them, but driving across them. One of the Cambodian guys in the back with us wore his "krama", a checked scarf, completely around his head to protect him from the dust. A great idea but I needed to see the ridiculously huge bumps and dips in the "road" to know when to really hold on, or when to duck under the branches with their nasty thorns. Normally I wish my bottom was smaller, that day I wished it had far more padding! Children from the small houses in the middle of the farmland ran after us excitedly waving and shouting hello with big smiles. We stopped and played with some as the driver got out to cut back branches of trees so we could pass through. One of the little girls touched my hand and blew me a kiss. Two, long hours later we were on the boat, hurray!

Before long though the boat was tipping to one side and the motor was caught in the muddy water. A chap in his shorts jumped in the murky water to fix it. Five minutes later he was there again...and again...and again. The next problem was that the boat was actually too long for the river. Hitting one bank we would reverse with a pole in order to take the bend. Small boats filled with smelly, dried fish floated past us bobbing up and down due to the swell we created and fishermen in the river had to wait as we past by before they could start to fish again. Floating villages with small wooden and bamboo houses painted different colours were on either side of the river. Some houses even had such homely features as plant pots outside and frilly pink curtains. Women sat on their doorsteps and washed clothes in the river while children bathed. Once the chap who had sorted out the trapped motor hopped into his hammock to sleep I thought the journey would be a lot smoother. A few minutes later we realised the driver himself had gone to sleep at the wheel! Small boats rowed out to pick up parcels of rice or passengers. One local lady dressed in high heels and a pretty hat, a rather strange outfit I thought for such an outing, hopped off at a huge wedding marquee. We past schools, community halls, a church, a crocodile farm and even a floating basketball court before arriving, 8 hours later, at the "dock" in Siem Reap. A 40 minute bumpy tuk tuk ride took us into the town. With my birthday looming the next day I went from packbacker to flashpacker and splashed out on a 7 pound 50 a night room complete with such luxuries as an en suite with hot water, air con and an outdoor swimming pool. After the long and hot journey a dip was just what I needed.

Siem Reap seems different from the rest of Cambodia. The traffic is still chaotic with horn honking motos and tuk tuks driving on which ever side of the road they fancy but the clean streets are lined with bars that wouldn't look out of place in London along with restaurants serving cuisine from all around the world and bakeries serving pastries and coffee so wonderful they would please the most sceptical Frenchman. The market still sells the fried crickets, fried rats and fried spiders though. I was neither curious nor brave enough to sample them. It was wonderful to spend a week in the same place; no humping my heavy backpack around or struggling to repack it and especially lovely to spend it with my new flashpacker status. I enjoyed the pool, hanging out with folk I met, the cafe culture, donating blood at the local children's hospital (if you go to Siem Reap you must go and support them as they desperately need blood) and having time to read. Actually reading "First They Killed My Father" was, as the title suggest, not easy reading. Written by Loung Ung, a survivor of Pol Pot's Khymer Rouge regime, the book tells her story and the story of so many families during 1975 and 1979. Pol Pot's vision of agrarian collectivization meant city dwellers were relocated to the countryside to work in collective farms and forced labour camps. She tells of the back breaking work in the fields to produce food to sell to China in return for arms and the lack of food left for the workers to eat resulting in malnutrition, starvation and death for so many including her brothers and sisters. Anyone who opposed a threat to the regime was simply taken away and her father, a government official, was one of them, her mother too. Doctors, politicians, intellectuals or any educated person were killed. In total 1.7 million people died during the brutal four year regime, 26% of the population at that time. Walking down the street you can't help but look at people and wonder what horrors they themselves have encountered.

Oh and I saw the odd temple too! Siem Reap is on the doorstep of the temples of Angkor, the capital of Cambodia's ancient Khmer empire which stretched from Burma to Vietnam. The city once had a population of one million when London was still a tiny town with just 50 000 inhabitants. No houses or palaces have survived as they were built in wood as the right to dwell in structures of brick and stone were reserved only for the gods. The temples left today are a source of national pride. It's part of their history they wish to remember as they fail to forget the horrors of the Khymer Rouge. Angkor is everywhere; on the national beer, the flag, cigarettes and almost, it seems, every second guesthouse is called after it.

The centrepiece of the lost city of Angkor is Angkor Wat, the world's largest religious building. This was part one of my birthday present. Once past the children selling cold drinks, guide books, hats to protect you from the sun and postcards to send home with a technique that was a strange mix of puppy dog eyes and aggression I was standing in front of Angkor Wat. Built in the 12th century it is impossible not to be impressed by its size, stature and all the intricate carvings however wondering around the different levels I'm embarrassed to say I didn't get the wow feeling I was expecting. Seeing Angkor Wat later in the week at sunrise however was magical despite the one hundred people behind me with their cameras at the ready. The slowly changing colour of the sky, the silhouette of the majestic towers and their reflection in the moat gave me the goose bump feeling I was expecting on my first visit.

Birthday present part two was the temple of Bayon in the fortified city of Angkor Thom. Do you ever get the feeling someone is watching you? Well, you certainly do there as 216 stone faces watch you as you explore. Maybe because it was smaller and therefore more intimate or maybe because it was not as grand or maybe because all the faces were so intriguing I spent hours happily wondering around this temple whilst other tourists were eating lunch somewhere in the shade.

Part three of my treat was Ta Prohm. Film fans will know it from "Tomb Raider" and "Two Brothers". I've seen neither and now only the real thing will do as this is the most romantic of temples. Whilst others have been preserved by clearing away the ever encroaching jungle Ta Prohm has been left more or less as the French explorer would have found it in the late 19th century. Trunks and roots of giant silk cotton trees and smaller strangler fig trees grow amongst and over the ruins. Nature is slowly reclaiming the land and the man made temples but somehow it makes it all the more glorious.

My birthday ended with taking a dip in the pool with my newly pedicured feet and painted toes before heading for a Cambodian dinner and birthday drinks with Nik and Paul (UK), Jennifer (Aus), Daniel (NL) and Phillip (D).

My last evening was spent with my god mother and her husband at their hotel exchanging our travel stories over a delicious dinner. Despite being tired from their own Battambang to Siem Reap boat adventure they happily chatted for hours. Seeing someone from home after being away for five months was always going to be lovely but seeing someone really special to me made it really wonderful.

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