How things change...

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Geo: 13.3667, 103.85

Well, we left Phnom Penh on the correct 8.30am bus. 5 minutes into the journey, and Stacey informed me that she had left the drainpipe piece, containing her $100 worth of paintings on the chairs outside the travel agency. Fortunately, the Cambodian people are as friendly and helpful as I remember, and the lovely stewardess called our hotel and asked them to go and find the tube. With no complaints, they did so, and the stewardess arranged to have the pipe sent on the next bus to Siem Reap. I don't imagine it would have been quite so easy had something similar happened in the UK! Bless the Cambodians' endless capacity for assitance! Despite the West seriously jepordising the Cambodian's land, people and culture at the height of the Vietnam War, they still welcome us with open arms and a friendly smile. Even though a quarter of their population was wiped out a matter of decades ago, wherever you go in this remarkable country, the people are smiling, laughing and living their lives with a joy we in the West find it difficult to show! remember now the qualities that made it my favourite country! Yes the scenery is ramshackle, yes the smells can be an assault on the senses, but the people here simply exude happiness and a friendly welcome is guaranteed.

We arrived in Phnom Penh to find that our guest house could not accommodate us; they had booked out the room we had reserved in March. The receptionist and management could not apologise enough, and booked us into their sister hotel (3 doors down) at no charge for the night. The porters would collect our bags in the morning while we were out and bring them to the hotel we had originally booked. Until this time, we were welcome to us all of the facilities at the full hotel. Brilliant. I cannot fault the service at either hotel.

We booked our tour to the temples of Angkor for the early start tomorrow (4am pick up - gulp!) and then generally caught up on blogs, facebook and the like before heading out for the evening. The last time I was in Siem Reap, I remember a fairly laid back town: a few bars and restaurants and some simple market stalls, but nothing prepared me for the neon masterpiece, enough to rival Blackpool, that greeted me when the TukTuk arrived at "The Old Market". Siem Reap now has a bona fide "pub street" where touts vie for your attention as fiercly as on the Khao San Road. Admittedly, this made me a little sad, and the bubble of nostalgia for a simpler Cambodia of 8 years ago threatened to well up. However, I reminded myself of the need for Cambodian people to move forwards, and mass tourism to Angkor Wat has provided such an opportunity in this town.

We hit the bars of pub street, enjoying a cold 50 cent Angkor (one advantage of the tourism boom here is the constant price war between the bars), before venturing to the night market to purchase a few last minute souveniers from Cambodia. Then it was off to the street-vendors for their delicious thick noodles with chicken and vegetables and lashings of extra chillies! The cost of this? A dollar. Result!

Then off to the bus station to reunite Stacey with her precious cargo! Motherhome Guesthouse came up trumps again with a phone call to the office to find out the address and a personal tuk-tuk across the city to retrieve the pipe! It was like a scene from a romantic comedy when the hero and heroine finally meet after months apart! Said pipe is now firmly attached to my backpack and will be left in a secure locker at Kuala Lumpur airport until our return from Bali.

Home in the tuk tuk and off to bed ready for the 3.30 alarm to sound! Yikes!

Goodnight xxx

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