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Our boat to Cambodia took all day, but by the evening we arrived in Phnom Penh where we had our first taste of Amok, a Cambodian speciality, and it was delicious! We decided to do all of the depressing sights in Phnom Penh and went to both S21 (formerly a school, used by Pol Pot's regime to torture people, and now a museum about the genocide in Cambodia) and the nearby Killing Fields where there are numerous mass graves. Both were really interesting but so depressing to see, especially as it all happened not that long ago. On a lighter note, in the afternoon of our second serious day of sightseeing we were back in Phnom Penh and looking for somewhere to get a drink. I was being usually indecisive, Lois was getting annoyed and decided she really needed to pee and so took charge of the situation. We walked through some seriously dark glass doors and got funny looks from all 3 or 4 barmaids, one of whom kind of offered us the menu but at the same time didn't seem to want to give it to us. So I took it from her and we ordered a couple of drinks, chose a table and Lois ran to the toilet. It was at this point that I realised we were having a drink in a brothel!! No wonder they were confused by Lois' choice of apple juice (they actually bought the apple juice from the shop next door as they surprisingly didn't even stock it!) - surely that's not the usual drink choice in such a place! As we drank more and more "barmaids" arrived for work and confirmed we were not in a respectable bar!
Avoiding brothels the next day we visited the palace - it was pretty boring except that Lois had to wear a silly looking big white t-shirt! We collected our laundry back from the hotel that evening, and in keeping with the silly theme we had a random pair of silky knickers in the bag along with our clothes!
After Phnom Penh we spent a couple of days in Battambang, being taken around the sights by Mr OK who harassed us into staying at his friends hotel as soon as we'd gotten off the bus. It turned out to be pretty good and we had a great time on the bamboo train - this little bamboo truck that runs along some very bumpy rails and goes a lot faster than you'd expect from the tiny engine. We took in the temples and killing caves at Phnom Sampeau and Prasat Banan on our second day, as well as Cambodia's only winery (we had a taster and could tell why it hasn't made it to tesco's!). We left Battambang for Siem Reap, opting to take the slow boat rather than the bus (the Lonely Planet said it would be a nice trip - it was wrong). 8 hot and cramped hours later we arrived in Siem Reap, picked up by Nan who was to be our tuk tuk driver for our visits to Angkor.
We had a lazy first day in Siem reap, visiting the Angkor Museum to get some understanding before we went around the temples. The rain was hammering down during dinner that night and eventually we had to brave it and run back to the hotel. On this dash I was rescued by two ladies and their umbrella - it took me a moment to realise they were prostitutes (the clue was when the older one asked me if I wanted her and her younger sister)! They thought it was hilarious when I motioned towards Lois and told them I didn't think she would be too pleased! Through the laughter they were very apologetic to Lois! We started our three days of visiting the different temples the following morning; luckily there was no rain. We were blown away by the temples we saw during the three days - the size and detail was amazing! Some of the highlights were Angkor Wat (obviously), Bayon (within Angkor Thom - with lots of depictions of massive faces), and Ta Prohm (where they filmed Tomb Raider). Some crazy people were cycling around the temples but we both thought that tuk tuk was a much more civilised (and easier) way to travel. It was a great three days and the best thing for me to say is to look at the photos (we posted them ages ago!). At the end of the three days we decided we needed to indulge ourselves and so went to one of the many Dr Fish massage places in Siem Reap and had little fish nibble at the dead skin on our feet. It was a very weird sensation and not really as pleasurable as either of us thought! On our last day in Siem Reap we did a Cambodian cooking course (Lois cooked our now favourite dish of chicken amok) and we thoroughly enjoyed eating the result!
The next morning we were up at half four to catch the bus to Kratie. By 6, and after driving around the whole of Siem Reap (we did at one point end up back where we had started), the bus left. The bus (the second bus) dropped us at a little café, from where we climbed onto the back of two motorcycles and were driven to a very cheap hotel in town. That afternoon we went to see the Irrawaddy dolphins, and considering there are only about 36 that live in that area of the Mekong River, we saw lots! It was a funny boat trip as the only other two passengers were an old Belgian bloke (59 - the boatman asked) and his Cambodian girlfriend (23 - again the boatman)!
The next day we boarded a minibus, heading for the Laos border. We were dropped by the side of the road near the border (in the middle of nowhere) and were told to wait for the big bus which would finish our journey to the border. Amazingly the bus arrived after just ten minutes and we finished our trip to the border!
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