Advertisement
Published: February 24th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Terroist Greg....
A vain attempt to fight off the dust on route to Siem Reap Boarding our ferry, walking in front of coaches, with our new friends from Canada and Sweden. Destroying 6 bags of crisps that were gross (sesame, chilli squid, seaweed and chicken nugget flavour - as there is no salt n vinegar anywhere. Boat ride turned into a seasaw ride as the sea was really rough although this seemed to only aid Katy in her napping. Quick bus journey to the training, enjoyed some street vendor food -yay. Our train was delayed meaning it would be there past middnight. Hitting a chang we got a bit silly on the platform, practising our German/French and busting out everything we knew which took about 5 minutes............
On the train our beds were already made, we both had a quality nights sleep but then realised we still had another 4 hours to go!!!
As it was our second time in Bangkok, we sort of knew what we were doing - or at least where we wanted to go. So when a tuk tuk driver wanted to charge us 300 baht we knew was a 100 we laughed in his face (to be fair we were tired) and then told him how much we would be paying,
Missing pieces.......
Katy filling the gap!...... he soon agreed.
Quickly (well as quickly as you can with your house on your back in Midday heat) found somewhere to stay. Booking our bus to Cambodia we forgot we didn't actually have visas! So mugshots taken, and we were almost done.
Walked around bangkok for the rest of the day, enjoyed it a lot more second time around, we were both ridiculously tired which could be the only reason Greg chose to buy a bright orange Hawaian type shirt.
Next day, very excited when our Disney bus turned up, and the toilet looked like the inside of a disco ball!!! 4 hours to the border, walked across and then had to wait for hours to get our passports stamped etc.
On our new bus, that was the opposite end to Disney -air con was replaced with open windows, that would have been nice has the air not contained more dust than oxygen. The road was ridiculously bumpy, but we were safe in the knowledge that our bus driver assured us there were no landmines... good.
Arrived 6 hours later in the dark at some random guesthouse, we left pretty sharpish to find our own. 40 minutes later we
Wrong......
Monkey drinking Fanta!....(not me giving it to him) were still walking on the same main road, turning down numerous tuk tuk rides. Decided enough was enough and enlisted the help of Mr Tuk Tuk. Got to our hostel, which we would probably have never found, a dollar well spent.
Got straight on it and booked our trip to the Temples the next day....
Heading off far too early we spent the next 5 hours of looking at an array of different temples, the last being Angkor Wat, which was well impressive. Realising we had a 4 hour wait to watch the planned sunset over the temple, we called it a day and went in search of our driver we had affectionately named Pepe. Waking him from a deep sleep he did not look impressed, and after telling him we wanted to go home, he definitly looked very unhappy. He said it was too far, we were both a little puzzled, after some negotiating he gave in. Driving for ages we ended up at Cambodias cultural village, very nice we're sure, but not where we were staying as previously explained. After realising his mistake he laughed as did we, yet again trying for home. Ended up at
Random temple....
Us at a temple dunoo which one though...... another random place, Greg was now in charge as Katy was about to loose it. Drilling home the fact this is not where we were staying and third time lucky we were home. (last tuk tuk in Siem Reap).
Got some directions from our hostel bloke, and in the safety of our own flip flops walked into town, a bit dangerous at times as we truly couldn't decide what side of the road they drove on, so figured the best thing to do would be to walk slowly and they could drive around us.
We settled on a Mexican for dinner as there didn't appear to be an authentic Cambodian food about, unless of course you wanted dried fish....yummy.... Mexican was the t*ts and was washed down with ice cold beer. Whilst enjoying our first ever frozen margheritas which were super strong, we were joined at our table by the funniest little Cambodian trying to sell us postcards/books etc...He took a shining to Greg as follows:-
Cambodian - is this your girlfriend?
Greg- no
C - Just friends huh?
G - Yep
C - You dont have a girlfriend?
K - (pissing herself laughing)
G - No
C
Ouch.....
After running to get positioned in time for the 10sec self time Greg whacked his head!!!!!.... - You want to know why you dont have a gf?
G&K now in hysterics
G - Please enlighten me
C - Cos you dont buy my books, buy them and you will get a gf....
This boy (about 10yo) also knew the capital of England, how many people lived there, the last 4 prime ministers (which even Greg didn't know) it was well impressive. Show me a 10yo in England that would know that....
Went to the Angkor What? Bar, which was located in which we assume was the strip, it was a cool bar which wouldn't have looked out of place in MK.
Our 6 hour bus journey to Phnom Penh driving on actual roads this time, tired and weary stepped off the bus and as luck would have it our Woolley Rhino was just around the corner. Dumped our bags and headed straight out, basically got lost for hours, and trying to look as if we knew what we were doing to ward of the hundreds of tuk tuk drivers.
Driving out to the Killing Fields we were both amazed at how much the locals carry on their motor bikes, anything from pillows
Katy in her tree.....
erm Katy and a tree..... to people, also realised that our original plan of biking it may have ended in tears....
The Killing fields were a very sad place to be, although it was literally a field, a small one at that. The reality of what happened there was still evident in the atmosphere. We paid our respects to the victims that had been excavated, not quie believing a place so peaceful could have harboured such attrocities. On the drive back got to see the Royal Palace, Independance Monument, Wat Phnom all of it in sharp contrast to its poorer surroundings.
Cambodia in our Nutshell:-
Most people we came across stared shamelessly at us even if we smiled back their stares never faltered and not once did we get a smile in return. In their eyes all Westeners want to do is shoot chickens with AK 47's or in Katys case a handgun. The begging was well in your face, they would touch you, watch you eat and when you did say no they would quite happily follow you for 5 minutes.
Although saying that people will try anything to survive and seeing as 30 years they had nothing they are doing pretty well
Greg in a tree....
erm Greg in a tree...... for themselves, and one kid even offered Greg some fruit on the bus.....There are nice people out there...
Its fair to say we probably wouldn't come back, but we are both glad to have had the opportunity to find that out.
Stuff we found amusing on menus...
Scrimble eggs
bubble and squawk..
morning glory in oyster sauce...
Sit on the beach
Damn it there was more but we can't think now....
Anyway roll on Bangkok.
xxx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.091s; Tpl: 0.021s; cc: 7; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0398s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Muv
non-member comment
Wow!
What a fantastic place - I wish I was there it sounds truly amazing. Love the photos too.