Cambodia

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Pnomh Penh

We arrived and the lovely Mr Bora took us on his Tuk-tuk to the okay guesthouse where we got ourselves a room. It then began to piss it down so we sampled some of the wares from the guesthouse cafe (consequently becomming addicted to banana milkshakes!) Once the rain had died down we went to get some dinner at 'Happy Herbs Pizza' - say no more. Then went for a walk along the river.
The following morning we recruited Mr Bora again and went to see the sights. The first stop was the shooting range where the ex-soldiers let you shoot guns. We shot an AK-47, a Magnum handgun and some other shotgun - lots of fun and our aim wasnt too bad! We then went to the killing fields which was quite chilling as they have lots of the sculls they have excavated from the mass graves on display in this big tower memorial and you can see the wounds from where they were hit over the head (gun shots were too expensive). There was a huge number of mass graves to and even a tree which was used to torture children (i.e. whacking them against it) a really upsetting place. We then went to S-21 whichis the school turned into a mass prison and place of torture during the polpot era - this is where people went before going to the killing fieds and has been left largely unchanged - there are even blood stains on the walls. We then went to the Russian market for a look around where we purchased some traditional Cambodian Kramas (scarves). The evening was taken up largely making plans and sorting visas.

Sihanoukeville

The next few days were spent at the beach resort of sihanoukeville largely sunning ourselves (or shading ourselves as it was so unbelievably hot) and drinking and generally enjoying doing nothing. Ridiculously cheap drinks 50cents for a beer anyone? The only hassle was locals coming up and offering you fruit/jewellery/pedicures/manicures/massages/VERY cheap lobsters the whole time but hey such is the life!! Was lovely just chilling out outside a bar on our sun loungers being waited on with super cheap drinks we could afford! However I think we were lucky to hit the town when we did, we were staying on the serendipity beach which was described in our rough guide as being up and coming so I can't even imagine what the other more established resorts were like - put it this way at this point in time it was a nice little piece of paradise with possibly too many bars for the demand but still enough to keep you busy but in a few years we see it becoming the new Costa del sol - particularly with accommodation and cost of living being so much cheaper.

Phnom Penh again

We returned to Phnom penh with our tans suitably topped up (well Jons anyway!) and spent a day visiting the national museum and national palace. The museum was a bit of a disappointment with the building itself being far more impressive than any of its contents. The national palace and other buildings in the grounds were quite spectacular but the entrance fee was a little steep we felt. It is currently Khmer New Year (which is new year in Cambodia) which lasts for 4/5 days and things seem to shut down a little in this period so this could explain expensive entry and explains why we weren't allowed a guide in the museum. However this also means transport is more expensive so our bus up to Siem Reap ended up costing an extra $4. To relieve the chaotic stress that we were experiencing from basically not doing much (haha everyone back home sitting finals!) we decided to have a massage in the evening near to our guest house. We went just after dinner (mistake??) and after washing our feet (no idea) we were taken to a room and stripped off! Then we had a rather painful massage for an hour - which ended by being hit over the head a few times (possibly a tactic to wake you up!!??) anyways, we left feeling fairly manhandled, kind of relaxed but perhaps a little more bruised that we had intended! Next time we will follow some advice given to us by some fellow travelers and wait until we are in Thailand!

Siem Reap

So siem reap was our chance to hit the temples of Angkor and hit them we did. We were up stupidly early (for us) to catch the sunrise over Angkor Wat although unfortunately it was cloudy so not much of a sunrise but being there early meant that we could explore the temples before it got too hot. They were pretty amazing, we even went to the one where tomb raider was filmed but neither of us having ever seen tomb raider kind of ruined some of the amazement but they were still incredible (with very steep steps to climb which definitely wouldn't be allowed in England). The tomb raider temple had trees growing through, in, on and around it as well which was amazing. We returned to our guest house around noon and Jon took a nap (poorly boy) and I did some chatting about the next steps of our plans with an English girl and other random stuff we then returned to the temples to watch the sunset from another - nice temple but completely overrun with tourists all there for the same thing!

Trying to get to Laos

So because of the heaving bombing and level of unexploded munitions in Cambodia many roads are impassable this meant getting to Laos was quite a palava especially as most buses weren't running because of the new year. In all we had to catch an early bus down back to Pnomh Penh again where we had exhausted all possible activities and hence had to kill a day (eating - obviously). We then had to get up and catch another early bus to a place called Stung Treng - this bus took about 8 hours but to be honest has largely passed us in a blur. Our original plan was to stay here over night and cross the border the next day but a man in a minibus offered to take us to Don Det (our intended destination) that night and said buses may not be running the next day due to the new year - he could have been feeding us a line and he could have overcharged us but to be honest we were happy not to have another days traveling ahead of us and to just arrive in our destination and we felt that Cambodia had seen enough of our money!!

In conclusion Cambodia is a really nice place with lots of history and quite a sad history as well in parts (especially about the war and pol pot and mines etc) and is a fascinating place to visit however we felt you could do everything you wanted to in about a week - if it didn't take so long to get everywhere but such is life and its all part of the experience!

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