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Published: December 17th 2007
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A monkey at Wat Phnom
Half incredibly cool, half scary and rabies-filled After Ratanakiri, the places I visited were only those I had done at least twice before, thus I decided they don't need much individual comment.
In between all my trips within Cambodia was Phnom Penh. It was the place I arrived in from Vietnam, where I went after Sihanouville, and after Ratanakiri. In total, I think I went there 5 times during my trip, and with such a kicking backpackers district it certainly holds a special place in my heart. My last time there I went and saw something I didn't even realise existed: Wat Phnom. It's a temple infested by monkeys. Now the word 'infested' might sound a bit harsh, and I must say for the most part the monkeys were incredibly amusing and adorably cute, but I felt a decently strong feeling of unease with rabies infested animals wandering around my feet. One idiot of a man decided to entice a monkey with food then hit it with a stick for entertainment. This is very not cool for two reasons: a) that poor monkey. b) he directed one of his kids to hide from the angry monkey behind me. Let me get this totally clear: I don't want
7 Twenty
The only thing that could possibly be cooler than the 7 Elevens of Thailand. A phenomenon found only in Siem Reap to my knowledge. an angry rabies infested animal coming towards me: don't hit monkeys with sticks- you idiot!
Siem Reap was my stop on the way to the Thai border. I had been there twice before, both times seeing Angkor, so for the last time around I splurged on music at the Boom Boom Room, got my last cheap pedicure, checked out the Central Markets for last minute gifts and of course hung out at good old pub street. Oh the memories...
At the Thai border the Cambodian side didn't stamp me out for some reason which caused a decent amount of frustration having to cross back over no man's land to get it done. It was so immensely satisfying getting to cut the long line on the Thai side though. Ahhh.
You could imediately tell the difference between the air conditioned double decker in-built toilet buses of Thailand and the dodgy minibuses of Cambodia which had men sitting on bags in the aisles and no leg room to the point where three German guys almost refused to get on. They stood arguing with the Cambodian driver that there were no seats (which was fair enough, as there weren't any),
but as the Cambodians refused to return their money and some of the British guys started making snide comments, the Germans eventually boarded and we were on our way. Our very painful, no leg room, along the infamous dancing road way....
Bangkok I have been to... a lot of times now. My last time there I was kind of beyond the point of trying to socialise. I was pretty much ready to go home, so I wanted to get some good last experiences in. I went shopping at 7 Eleven of Khao san Road one last time, had some mango and sticky rice, some absolutely divine street side pancakes, 15 baht Pad Thai, in-restaurant movies, buckets... all the memories of Thailand/ South-East Asia packed into the last few days.
I got a henna tattoo on my leg to freak people out when I got home (I wanted to get something rather nerdy and settled on an owl sitting in some branches, I was very close to getting the sillouette of a dugong though). I bought some DVDs and felt ripped off. And then on my last day I went to the airport, was pleasantly surprised by how light
A guy making 15 baht Pad Thai
That's 50c! Proof that not EVERYONE in Khao San Road is there to rip you off. my bag was and got on my flight home (next to an Irish invalid, which I was initially a little annoyed about, because of the difficulty it rendered every time I wanted to go to the bathroom, but it turned out she was incredibly nice and we had a good chat on the way to Sydney).
I got in some good movie watching with video on demand- 'Knocked Up' and 'Hairspray'- the two movies everyone was claiming were must see that had come out while I was away. Then I listened to some music and before I knew it I was home. It was bizarre being home. To a large part because it felt so normal. Everything was still familiar, though the feeling was rather different. And it certainly wasn't as warm as I expected. Especially compared to Bangkok, what was supposed to be the weather a few days away from summer was amazingly disappointing.
But I saw my family. I caught up with friends. Had my birthday. And things went back to normal. Kind of. I can't wait to go travelling again...
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