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Hello everyone, here is the 6th installment of our Travel Blog: Cambodia.
Our first stop in Cambodia was Siem Reap, a city known for being an ideal base to explore the nearby Angkor Temples. We stayed here longer than planned (mainly due to pub street, which is self explanatory) as expected the Temples of Angkor were pretty s**t. Only joking they were truly spectacular and really lived up to their reputation as being the 8th wonder of the world. Our favourite was Bayon Temple located in Angkor Thom. This particular temple is characterised by the large faces carved into the walls. We also managed to catch a glimpse of many of the other monuments such Angkor Wat, Ta Keo, Preah Khan and Ta Prohm.
During our remaining time in Siem Reap we explored the local market (which was necessary at this point as Rich had broken yet another bag). We also tried out a lot of the traditional Khmer cuisine such as Chicken Amok (a scrummy coconut based curry) Beef Lok Lak and Pizza. Whilst in the city, as chance would have it Rich's chum Pierce was in the area so we naturally made time for a night out
with him. This involved 2 4 1 cocktails, pool, banter and of course 50 cent beer.
After a few more days of fun and relaxation we decided to embark on what was set to be a soul and bum destroying journey to Ban Lung. This is a place located in the North East corner (Rantankiri province) of Cambodia. Despite being warned that the journey would be tough to say the least, from what we read the area sounded to good to miss out on.
Our journey didn't get off to the best start however, as the bus ended up leaving an hour late. Also when being sold the bus tickets, we were told that we would be traveling in luxury and in hindsight this was a glaring porky pie. Things soon turned from bad to worse when we were dropped in the middle of nowhere for 2 hours not knowing how we'd actually make our way to Ban Lung. After a tense wait, a taxi pulled up and we thought we were saved. Unfortunately our excitement was short lived when we realised we were in fact sharing our ride with 7 other people- 4 of which were monks.
It was certainly very cosy in the car which was only designed for 5 people, and as a result Jeni had to spend the next 4 hours sitting on both Rich's and the taxi drivers lap. She was not impressed. Anyhow, we were dropped in Kratie where the final leg of the journey awaited us. We were then crammed into a minibus (once again with too many passengers and lots of random industrial machinery) and then had to endure 6 more hours of the bumpiest roads known to man. To say we felt relieved on arrival would be an understatement.
Despite arriving late that evening, we managed to book ourselves into a nice and surprisingly cheap hotel. Little did we know that the spawn of Satan worked there. All the staff were friendly enough but the 12 year old son's practical jokes that he insisted on inflicting on us every hour of everyday soon wore thin. While in Ban Lung we booked two moto drivers to take us around the nearby sites of interest. These included Chaa Ong, Ka Tieng and Kin Chaan waterfalls and the volcanic crater lake. We were also supposed to to get an elephant trek
the same day; however it turned out the elephant owner had run off with his mistress (presumably on the elephant) and left his wife to pick up the pieces.
It was a real shame we missed out on the elephant trek, however we really enjoyed our time in Ban Lung and managed to swing from vines (Tarzan style), take the ultimate power shower and swim in a volcanic crater. All in all, definitely worth the journey. Its fair to say that the journey back from Ban Lung wasn't any better than the way there, as it had rained that day which made the red dirt roads extremely slippery with mud thicker than Vicky Pollard on stupid pills. We eventually made it back to Kratie in one piece where we hoped to catch a glimpse of the famous Irrawaddy Dolphins.
We headed straight for the guest house recommended by the lonely planet, only to find what appeared to be an animal sanctuary, with Dr Dolittle a its owner. He greeted us with a budgie on his shoulder and we soon spotted a monkey manning reception. While in Kratie we were pleased that we did manage to see the Dolphins
and were taken through Kampi a nearby riverside community where all the houses were on wooden stilts and a hammock was on every door step.
Unfortunately it is here that our time in Cambodia took a turn for the worse. That evening Jeni thought she was choosing the healthy option of a warm chicken salad. This however led to a pretty severe case of food poisoning and saw her out of action for a week. A quote that sums up this traumatic time "oh dear god, I think I just shat myself". While confined to our hotel room, we tried to make the best of a bad situation and came up with various ways to entertain ourselves, i.e. making hats, spit balling and of course the ever faithful paper airplanes.
After a few days, we were more than ready to leave Kratie and headed to Phnom Penh where Jeni could continue to recover. During our time there, Rich managed to take in a few of the sights such as the Royal Palace (a collection of impressive buildings and structures set in a number of complexes and can only be described as the jewel in Phnom Pehn's crown) Tuol
Sleng museum, and the killing fields of Cheung Ek that are both associated with the Khmer Rouge and certainly made a lasting impression.
For the third stage of Jeni's recovery, we headed down to the South of Cambodia and a seaside resort called Sihanoukville. It had an extremely tranquil feel with golden sand and clear blue sea on our door step. Whilst catching some rays on the beach on our first day, we realised that the tat sellers were ever present and used a somewhat alternative selling technique to what we had experienced before. Basically they would take our belongings and not give them back to us until we had bought something, the cheek. In fairness to them though, it worked.
Having sworn off Chicken for life after the food poisoning incident, Jeni soon came round when we realised what fantastic BBQ cuisine there was in the beach front restaurants. The food here really was gorge and combined with the picturesque views and friendly atmosphere it made for a pleasant few days.
Our final stop in Cambodia was Kampot. As our next destination now is Thailand (in other words beach central) we decided to head here for
a change of scenery. The town is known for being a place to 'be not see'- so we took the time to relax and take in the beautiful backdrop, Elephant mountains and the Mekong river meandering through it. On our final day we booked a tuk tuk driver to show us around the surrounding countryside, where we saw some more interesting sights. These included The pepper/fruit plantation, Salt fields and the Elephant caves. We were also taken to a local Muslim fishing village and finally headed to Kep for a spot of lunch on the beach front with our driver.
We also chose to do a Sunset River Cruise on our last night in Cambodia, which we felt was the perfect end to our time in this unforgettable country.
Love to all, Rich and Jeni xxx
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