HELLOOOO!!

Well i made it safe and sound to Siem Reap, but it was not an easy journey!! The first leg was fine, in a minibus to the border - but then it all started to go pete tong! Id read about and been told about the 'bus scam'on this route so was on guard anyway. Five minutes before the border we stopped at a "restaurant" (just a few chairs at the side of the road basically) and these men in smart trousers and ties, started collecting everyones passports up.....I said i was getting my visa on the border and they started to feed me lines about how you cant and blah blah blah, and i said NO! I know i can get it on the border, but i had to fill out a visa application form anyway which they gave me and i got my passport out to get the number off it, and they whisked it off me and drove off!! AARRRGGH!! I was starting to panic a little! But they did come back and had got a visa put in my passport from the visa, and then said i had to pay them! How rude! I didnt even want their help but they just did it anyway, and then try to charge me for it! Anyway, there was no way out of it cos they said they had given me a service now i have to pay. Pfft! But they wouldnt give me my passport back till i paid so i had to in the end. Turns out i only (i say only, every little counts eh?!) got ripped off by about $10....and having my visa already in my passport meant i only had to wait in a medium size queue instead of a big one!

Anyway, so got through immigration (phew!), compared to airports at home or anything like customs and excise it was a complete joke. Was a little intimidated because as soon as i walked through into Cambodia all the men wear those desert scarves and hats so all u can see is their eyes staring at you.....bit scary! But i coped :) Then i was supposed to get my connecting bus but surprise surprise scam no.2 was awaiting....there was no bus, it would come in about 4hrs apparently....but in that time you could get there by hare taxi....i couldnt be arsed by this point, which is all part of the scam, so just shared a taxi with other folk to Siem Reap. OH GOOD GOD!! The road is well....basically not a road just a complete dirt track...it was awful, potholes the size of houses, mopeds everywhere, trucks with about 30 people in the back, painfully skinny cows just roaming into oncoming traffic, really poor kids running around naked and dirty :( It was a real eye-opener and absolutely nothing like thailand! We stopped at the service station (haha!) for the toilet, which i almost cried at but was burstin for a wee so when needs must! And this little girl called Jandeel started talkin to me and gave me a bracelet, for free! Well....she asked me for an english coin cos they dont have coins over here so all the little kids try to collect different coins from around the world. I gave her 20p (which i now feel really bad about but....nevermind), she really liked it cos all her other coins were round and this one wasnt!....Anyway, 4 and a half hours later, with a sore bum from the bumpy roads and feeling slightly nauseous, i got to Siem Reap, and had to get a tuk-tuk to the hotel which was scary cos it was night time and even more mopeds come out after dark!! Anyway, got there, ate and crashed out - not before being brave and arranging to go to Angkor Wat at 4AM the next morning!!! Early start indeed, but meant i got to the sunrise at Angkor Wat :)

Words cant really describe how fantastic Angkor Wat is, its amazing, and huge! And theres so many more temples to visit too, i also went to see Angkor Thom, Bayon, Ta Kao and Ta Phrom and thats not even half of them that you can visit! It cost $20 for a one day pass, that lasted till 5.30pm but i only managed till 3pm and had to come home, it was so hot and i was sooo tired from climbing up temples and walking around all day, and travelling the whole day before. Wish i could describe the day a bit better but when i can upload the photos, i'll write nest to them, and probably update here too.

Have to run now, my hours up on tínternet, think im going to head to Phnom Penh tomorrow cos there isnt much else to see or do in Siem Reap apart from the temples and i done them already :)

Thanks for your messages

lots of love to all xxxxxxxxx

UPDATE!

So...ended up staying another day here :) read some guides that i found lying around the guesthouse and decided to visit the Childrens Hospital and see the work that they do there. They provide free medical care for orphaned kids, and street kids and the doctors and nurses get paid very little to work there! Unfortunately, in my muddled travelling state i didnt realise it was saturday so the infomation centre there wasnt open..d'oh!! But you could give blood so....i was very brave and took the plunge! I did it! I gave blood to help the little kiddywinks - good deed for the day done. So starnge seeing a Cambodian Hospital, absolutely nothing like our hospitals at all! It was quite sad tho, i saw loads of little children and babies all thin and alone in little make shift beds :( but they all smiled at you as you walked past, im glad i done my bit to help out! Turns out my blood group is O Positive (there ya go mum, now we both know what i am!) The needle was huge that they stuck in me...the size of a tree at least.....maybe a little exagerration but it was big and it hurt! Got a t-shirt for donating blood, a can of coke and some of those tube wafer things with chocolate in 'em! Mmm so it wasnt all bad....treated myself to an ice cream on the walk back, told myself i had to get my sugars back! Hehe!

Plan is to get the bus to Phnom Penh tomorrow now, not sure what time yet as i havent booked it but im off out to do that in a sec! Want to visit the Tuol Sleng Museum, which was a high school taken over by Pol Pot's Forces and turned into Security Prison 21 (S-21), it was used as a detention and torture centre. All the people that survived the torture there were later taken to the extermination camp at Choeung Ek to be executed. Grim....but interesting history. Also want to go to see the Killing fields at Choeung Ek, dont know how i'll cope though seeing actual skulls and such....blargh, but still wanna go see! Anyway, will let you know how that all pans out :)

UPDATE NO.2!!

Opened the curtains of my room for the first time in daylight the other day to find......A CROCODILE PIT right outside my room...had been wondering what the strange noises i kept hearing at night were!! There is no less than 41 crocs (oh yes my friends...i counted!) all huddled in this pit....i dunno what they're there for, probably waiting to be turned into handbags and shoes! Cant believe i omitted this very important bit of info so thought id let ya know! Made me chuckle though cos id been a bit freaked out the night before cos i had a lizard in my room, it took me ages to go to sleep cos i kept thinkin he was gonna run over my face or summat while i was asleep! Little did i know what was lurking on t'other side of my window!! Aaaah crocs....gotta love 'em (the animals that is, not the terrible shoe variety, which by the way have made it all the way over here)

Hope everyone is well back home xxx

Love to you all xx thanks for messages again, it makes me happy to read 'em! xxxx