Siem Reap
Laura: We awoke at 6 am to catch the bus to Siem Reap in Cambodia, an 18 hour journey with border crossings. In typical fashion the bus failed to depart on time and the driver wasted a further hour by stopping for gas, buying bbq chicken and getting his wind screen washed! Buses in South East Asia are good quality, all air conditioned and pretty cheap HOWEVER, they are completely disorganised which surprised us a lot considering the amount of tourists who come here. After about 3 hours we arrived at the 4000 islands to collect the rest of the passengers but there weren’t enough seats for everyone and a British couple had to sit on stools near the absolutely rank bus toilet (they also got to the border with no money and had to borrow from the driver who charged them $30 for the service – idiots!)
The border crossing was an experience. We were approached on the bus by a guy who asked for our passports and visa fee. He said he would sort everything out for us for the same price as border guards. Virtually everyone on the bus had complied with his request but we declined (stunned that all the tourists had just given their passports to a random bloke) and decided to do it ourselves as we did all through Africa. Laos charges you $2 pp to leave the country, the Cambodians charge you $1 entrance fee, $23 for the visa and an EXTRA $2 to stamp your visa – ridiculous. Also, the first bloke gave me $5 with a microscopic hole in the end and the stamp man wouldn’t accept it, I took it back to the original bloke who refused to accept responsibility, what a surprise! Turns out the passport guy didn’t have to pay all these additional charges so he just pocketed the tourists money!
We had to change buses at Kampong Cham at 7pm and arrived in Siem Reap at 11pm. Ahmad was feeling quite deflated because of the border charges (not the cost but the fact that people are trying to squeeze money out of you at every chance) and our mediocre experience in Laos. We hired a tuk tuk who didn’t try to rip us off and arrived at our guesthouse. The owner had waited up for us and was absolutely lovely, making sure we had everything we needed. We went to bed feeling a bit more positive.
Our first day in Siem Reap was spent looking around the town and doing a bit of shopping. As you will know from our photos, Ahmad is looking somewhat skinnier these days, so much so that we can both fit into his swimming shorts! He bought some shorts from the market (which started falling apart hours later) and I bought some xmas presents for the family (hopefully better quality!). That night we headed into town, had some traditional Cambodian food (amok – fish curry in coconut) and drank cocktails for $1.50 until about 11pm before heading back. We had just started discussing the fact that we hadn’t seen much sex tourism in SEA (mainly because we can’t afford to drink much and therefore are rarely out late) when we spotted a group of prostitutes literally begging a guy to hire them. They were following him down the street like a pack of wolves. Apparently in Bangkok tourists are approached every 5 minutes by people trying to sell them sex in some form. This side of SEA is really hard to take and it amazes me how little tourists think about the impact of their involvement. Most of the tourists here don’t give a shit about the locals or their culture. Some girls walk around town wearing bikini tops, we haven’t seen it yet but there are signs everywhere saying ‘DO NOT SHOW YOUR BODY!’
The next day we moved into probably the best hotel we have stayed in to date. For $15 we got a huge, immaculate room with AC, mini fridge (first time ever!), en suite, patio and a beautiful swimming pool. We decided to upgrade a little to lift our spirits and it was well worth it. We even managed to stay within our £10pp budget. I realise that we sound pretty miserable in these recent blogs and there must be people reading this thinking we are mental so I will try to explain! Travelling in SEA is completely different to everywhere we have been. It is incredibly hot and humid, the travellers are mostly idiots and nearly always unfriendly and there is not that much to see or do unless you can afford tours or adventure activities. In Africa, India or China you could start random conversations with people, end up going for dinner and hanging out for a week. In some cases we have met people and arranged to meet them again in other places, even other countries. In SEA people are suspicious of you if you talk to them! This is what our experience has been anyway.
Obviously we spent a day seeing the Temples of Angkor, they were quite impressive. It was absolutely baking the day we went and we were exhausted after 4 hours of exploring the ruins. You had to climb one of the temples and it was really steep, we looked like someone had thrown buckets of water in our faces from sweating so much! I am so looking forward to winter in South America where the average temperature will be 15 degrees.
We extended our stay at the hotel since it was so amazing and the owner gave us a discount. The rest of our time in Siem Reap was spent lazing by the pool, feeding the hotel owners cat (we named him Clover) and having a few drinks every third night. My Nana had a hip replacement on 28/7 and we went out the following night for a few drinks because I had been out of my mind with worry. We had a wee bit too many cocktails and tequila which resulted in us getting absolutely wasted (for the first time on our travels would you believe it!) and dancing like lunatics! We left about 10pm (pathetic isn’t it) and Ahmad had to arrange the tuk tuk home because I couldn’t talk very well. When he dropped us off I kept telling him he was a nice Cambodian man and then proceeded to fall over. Needless to say the hangover was a shocker.
After two weeks we caught a 6 hour bus to Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital.
Phnom Penh
The bus journey itself was pretty standard except for the ridiculous Cambodian music blaring out at full volume and the fact that an Australian guy went psycho on Ahmad. The guy was tapping the back of Ahmad’s chair so he turned around and politely asked him to stop, at which point the Aussie rose out of his seat, towered over us like a complete nutter and told Ahmad to can it. His eyes were totally scary, I thought he was going to punch Ahmad in the face! After that he muttered a bit to his friend and moved to sit behind me. Thankfully there was no further incidents although I was seething the rest of the journey.
We arrived around 4pm and got a tuk tuk to our hotel which turned out to be cheaper than we expected and pretty decent! We headed straight back out for a beer and dinner before having a quiet night.
On our first full day in PP we went to see the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda. It was raining pretty bad but we still had a nice afternoon wandering around the buildings and gardens. That night we went to a restaurant called Mama’s because it was recommended by the Lonely Planet (this is always a risk as once mentioned, standards tend to slip!) It was actually really good. Ahmad had stew and if you closed your eyes you could picture yourself in an English pub! Trust me, when you get western food to that standard after 7 months away from home, it’s time to celebrate! We went there for breakfast every day in PP.
The day after we went to Tuol Sleng Museum which was used as a centre of imprisonment and torture in the 1970’s. It was the most barbaric place I have ever been to and really left a lasting impression. Inmates were taken to the Killing Fields following interrogation during which they were forced to admit guilt in crimes never committed. We planned to go to the Killing Fields later in the week. Cambodia’s history (along with Vietnam and Laos) is really interesting if somewhat morbid! That night we went for an awesome curry and called it a night.
A trip to the National Museum came next. We always try to visit these to get a flavour of the country’s history but most of the time they are boring as hell! This one rated about 5 out of ten. We also moved hotels at this point because the bed at Spring Guesthouse was a joke – too bad they didn’t use any springs in the mattresses. We moved to Burly Guesthouse down the road and got a fridge in the room (always exciting when you are living on £10 a day). I think Cambodia has the best value for money on accommodation. You can get an AC room with all mod cons for £7 total, bargain.
The main highlight of PP (and SEA) was a half day quad bike adventure with a visit to the Killing Fields added on. We spent three hours driving through the countryside which was incredibly beautiful. Every time we went through a village, loads of little kids came running out trying to high five us! They were so excited; it was really cute, even the really small toddlers came out with no clothes on! Ahmad was quite embarrassed as he was the only person who had a motorbike licence and crashed into a tree after 5 minutes! He got hit in the chest quite hard and broke the rear view mirror off but he was fine. The guide didn’t even charge us for the breakage.
A couple of days later we flew to Singapore for the last leg of South East Asia.