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Published: January 3rd 2010
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So after another early start Tuesday morning, another long crazy bus journey, we finally arrive in Siem Reap some time in the afternoon, after a little bit of searching found a good hotel $10 once again with air con and tv 😊 We do spoil ourselves a bit, most other travellers we meet go for rooms with fan only no tv and that cost $4, but its just too hot to not have air con!! They must be crazy!
Anyway, after settling in we head over to the main area of Siem Reap to have a wonder and grab some dinner and just as we were walking across the bridge towards the markets Carine and Sandra were walking in front of us. We were planning on meeting them anyway, but was crazy just bumping into them there and then. Headed out for some cheap dinner together, meals for $1.50 😊 yumyum, and had a wonder around the town a little. Its a great little place the end of the town we are in with loads of markets and stalls up all over the place and throughout the night. Loads of little streets and alleys with bars, restaurants and shops in.
Some of it looks a bit european with all the nice tables laid our along the street but then other parts are crazy, busy full of locals with the markets and all the moto taxi drivers and tuk tuk drivers. After wondering around we headed to pub street where all the bars are and had a drink with the girls and ended the night meeting some other random travellers and sharing stories.
Wednesday we didn't really know what to do with ourselves as they are really any sights to see in Siem Reap, mainly people come here to visit the famous temples of Ankor Wat which will we do after new year. So we wondered around the town again, walked through some of the markets, such a shame as this isn't our last stop as they have some brilliant souvenirs here but we wouldnt have any room for them in our bags. We stopped off for a drink as just walking around in 34/35 degrees heat is just so unbearable at times, so need to stop and refresh ourselves a lot!! Later on we headed to the workshop place where you can watch all the locals working and making
things like statues, paintings, was pretty interesting walking around there. That evening we went to this other restaurant which was a bit more pricier than our dinner last night but it does a free dance show every evening or traditional Khmer dancing called Aspara dancing, so we had a nice dinner and spent a couple of hours watching the dance show before heading down for a wonder around the night market which was pretty cool too. It was different to all the other markets as its mainly made for tourists, but its much more pleasant to go around as its much more open and all the stalls are little wooden huts.
Thursday we didn't do much at all during the day, had a late long breakfast relaxing and reading and keeping out the sun. Took a stroll around on the other side of the river that we hadnt been down, and just generally strolled around. In the evening Ste and I headed out for some cheap dinner on these street stalls, fried rice for $1, bargain!! We headed down to the pub street and were a bit annoyed to find they had all changed their menus and put their
prices up for new years eve!! No more 50cent beer, they had cleared the road so it was juts for pedestrians and had loads of outside bars on the streets and loads of speakers set up for the street party. But we thought we would head somewhere else for a few drinks first to save on the pennies. Went down this little alley that had loads of restaurants and beers for 50c, vodka coke for $1.50, better than the pub street. Sat here for a few drinks before we randomly bumped into 2 dutch people we had met back in Hoi An in Vietnam when we were working for that bar. Was quite embarrassing because I didnt recognise the guy at first, but then recognised his girlfriend after. They joined us for some drinks and later the french girls joined us too. Nice little group we had to celebrate new year with. We ended up staying in this bar till about 11.45pm before deciding to go back round to the street party for the countdown. As soon as we got around the corner it was mental, there were just hundreds of people spilling out on the street. It was absolutely
rammed and Sandra was determined to wriggle us all into the middle which we managed to just in time for the 10...9....8.... etc. Was brilliant at midnight!!! The crowd went crazy, drinks went flying everywhere, people throwing water all over the place, fire works going off everywhere!!! The rest of night pretty much stayed like that till about 5am, just dancing on the street, meeting random people, getting water thrown over us continuously which was actually really refreshing before deciding it was time to head back to our bed.
The only thing in the night that was a bit sad was that about 3am all the street children came back out, the police had stopped them earlier in the night, but now they were all back out begging, some were really nice and dancing with us but then asking for money. There were tiny children pushing through the crowds barefooted picking up cans (they get money for recycling them) getting covered in muddy water from the floor and getting pushed everywhere. I noticed one little boy drinking a cup of beer (which I took off him) then this random little boy about 5 years old came over to us
and then handed me this baby! A baby! I dont do babies and this was a new one, cant have been more than a few weeks old just got thrown in my arms and it was crying so much, it was so sad his little face just screaming! It was awful the little boy was saying money money then pointing to my chest and saying milk milk, I was like no sorry have nothing, was so awkward then Ste came back and gave the baby back before the little boy ran off to someone else, god I hope that poor baby is ok. Apart from that, it was a great night.
Friday, new years day we decided to give ourselves a day off. We laid in for ages, had a nice breakfast and then sat in an internet cafe for ages catching up with bits.
Saturday, we decided to give ourselves another day off 😊 Neither of us have been feeling that great and seem to constantly have an upset tummy and couldn't really hack a day sight seeing in the heat around temples.
Sunday, we finally did something productive! We got up at 4.30am to go
to Angkor Wat for Sunrise. Angkor Wat is a huge collections of soooo many different temples and the main one is where we watched sunrise. We then spent most of the day there visiting all the different temples. Some were really interesting, others were a bit samey, but definitely an interesting afternoon. Tomorrow we have an early bus to Bangkok! So excited, another new country now. Think we will have an early night tonight after our ridiculously early start this morning and prepare ourselves for another long, hot, sweaty, crazy driving, asian karaoke blaring out bus journey + slow process of a border crossing...oh the joys!
We have really enjoyed our time in Cambodia, its different from Vietnam because it is soo much poorer but sometimes the intensity of it all gets a bit too much, like constantly seeing children on the street selling things to you every 2 seconds you walk, and the guilt of saying "no thankyou". Its been good to see and experience, but think we are both ready for a different country now.
To update you on our itinerary - we are planning on spending 2 weeks doing north thailand (when you enter Thailand
by land you only get 15 days....such a pain) after which we will enter north Laos heading down South for 2-3 weeks before entering Thailand again for 2 weeks in the South enjoying our last few days travelling on some hot nice Islands...then home 😊 Not sure on exact dates, depends on flights/money but most like end of Feb/start of March, we are both really look forward to it.
Write again soon,
Lots of Love
Layla & Ste xxx
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michel
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Salut, J'ai rencontrer carine et sandra au 1000 iles au Laos, mais j'ai perdu leur adresse de blog. Peux tu m'aider. Merci Michel