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Wow, so here we are in Siem Riep, after areally bumpy journeyfrom Phom Pehn. I am sure the journey use to be worse, but its definetely no where near as smooth as what the Lonely Planet makes it out to be!
So first of all what a lovely place! We arrived at about 2pm and already had a tuk tuk and accomodation booked. Was pretty cool as well because the tuk tuk driver was frantically waving my name (Mr Gara Collings is it apparently) , although i wish for a much funkier name like Master Collings, or Sir Gary Collings the great, ahhh there will be a next time :)
The place we stayed at for the first 3 nights was affiliated with theguest house we stayed in previously in Phomn Pehn. This meant similar price rooms with a discount for us! 10 US dollars for a big room for two, hot shower, air con, fan and cable t.v. And some really cool staffandlounge area to boot!
On the first full day we arranged for a tuk tuk to drive us around angkor for the day. Only 15 dollars! and ended up covering a good distance between all the temples.
So we get up at 4am that day, as we were wanting to watch thesun rise over Angkor Watt. We left the guest house at 5am with Map the tuk tuk driver, who also was a waiter at the place we stayed at, awesome guy who was really friendly. We head straight to the Angkor Watt temple, where we grabbed a chair and a coffee while we waited for the sun to rise. When it finally did it wasa beautiful and relaxingsight, pictures of this I will upload shortly.
From here we had an amazing trip around thesite, with thetuk tuk driver driving us to each destination and then waiting and sleeping in his tuk tuk until we returned ready to be transported to the next destination.
These temples are magnificent and beautiful and its crazy to think that they have been there for nearly 900 years! A fantastic dayout andwell worth the20 dollar entrance fee and the early morning wake up.
So we return back, chill out and have a couple of drinks and a early night.
The next day we wake up and go to the JWOC (Journey Within Our Community) which Kelley had donated several hundred crayons and pencils to. This was a pretty cool journey and it was real interesting to see what they were doing there. I was going to offer some help with IT there, but there computers that they want will not be able to be purchased until they sort out the power supply in that area!
From here we just had another relaxed day. Then over the next day we had to say goodbye to Kelley who had to fly home, with me and Chris continuing to stay in Siem Riep, although we decided to move closer to the centre of Siem Riep.
From here we went on a tuk tuk journey 30km out of town to the Land Mine Museme, to learn of the hard work that is done to clear the country of mines, one of the most heavily mined countries in the world! although getting there was scary, as our tuk tuk driver had to go offroad to avoid an overtaking bus, resulting in us nearly over-turning, but hey! he was a good driver :) we should of fell over, although i think moving my weight to Chris's side and shouting 'Woah, Woah, Woahhhh!' helped :)
Then from here we then went to the war museme, to look at all the left over tanks and stuff that the soviets provided for the Cambodian wars. Also got to hold and play around with some old guns, felt so much like rambo that i wanted to just run around the jungle area with it screaming and hiding behind tanks and stuff, very cool. Obviously war is not though, very bad.
All in all i have had a fantastic time so far in Cambodia. Beats Thailand hands down. The people are so friendly, which makes you wonder how so when they are so poor. There are alot of beggers here, and also alot of people with arms and legs missing, although lots of these people do there best to get by by selling books etc.
Anyway, I am now going to be moving to another place that i forgot the name of. I will be sure to write from there tommorow, its about 3 hours south on the bumpy road between Siem Riep and Phom Pehn.
Hear from me soon!
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