My first blog entry!

This is the first time i've had chance to get to a computer in the last ew days, it's been non-stop!

So, just a quick update on the last few days (as i'm very tired, and the bloke next to me keeps asking me to show him pictures of my single friends...)

Flight - wow the flight was incredibly long! but soo god! - we got an a la carte menu and our own screen to watch movies and stuff on any time. not sure if that's normal on long flights, but i was very impressed! Met a really nice couple at bangkok airport who had been to Thailand before, so we shared a taxi to the city centre, and they showed me my hotel and a street that all the backpackers go to for beer/food and cheap clothes, jewellery and stuff - Kao Sen road or something similar. Brilliant!

When i checked into the hotel i met my crazy roomate for the trip - Evelyn. Welsh redhead, and completely nuts. Apart from one old guy, she's the oldest at 27, although this is also her first time travelling. She's great, although she's loud, screams at insects, and is occasionally quite blonde...even if that sounds hypocritical.

We spent a great day in Bangkok; few Singha bottles, and a tuc tuc ride out to a temple and some other stops the tuc tuc drivers get paid to take you to. Everything you hear about bangkok is true - it's loud, chaotic, and smelly, but definitely also really fun.
Met the rest of the group that night. They're mainly younger than me, some couples, but also several blokes travelling alone too. I'm really jealous as for most people this tour is just the start of their trip. Many are now going to be travelling for up to a year.

Went over the Cambodian border yesterday. Was least looking forward to this as i thought it was going to be at least 5 hours drive on Cambodia's muddy roads, and trekking over the border for an hour with my rucksack, as suggested in the itinerary. In the end i was actually a bit disappointed - STAtravel organised for locals to take our bags over the checkpoint while we're having lunch. Seemed reallly wrong. However i was quite pleased that the Cambodian government had recently paved the road to Siem Reap. So only took 3 hours and all my travel sickness pills are still in my (huge) medicine bag :)

You can definitely see how a lot of the land in Cambodia on the border with Thailand has been turned into industry, rather than used by the local people to grow crops or their families. I listened to a podcast and had a talk on how private companies, often closely related to government officials, have seized land unlawfully from farmers for their businesses, leaving Cambodian farmers with nothing.

Another very nice, air conditioned hotel (the acommodtion here is so cheap, that while i was expecting something very basic for my 'basic'tour, i'm guessing only a little money can go a long way here.

Cambodia is very different from Thailand. Thailand is very green, with lots of palms and mountains in the distance. It also looks a lot like the Netherlands from aove, weirdly enough (all organised nature with water channelled out by man made streams and such)
Cambodia is flat, has dusty roads, and is less green. Although while the weather was nice in Bangkok, we've had some showers here.

The food has been amazing everywhere, really cheap but lovely. Not eaten anything weird yet. Apart rom deep fried, dried anchovies someone bought from a shop. These were not nice.

Today has been the best day. We went to the Angkor Wat complex. A few of us got there at sunrise to take photos, but unfortunately it rained and we just saw grey clouds and a million japanese tourists. Still, was really peaceful as we could hear the monks chanting in the background.

Then the rest of the temples - i'll write more about this when i upload the photos - there's loads o them, it's such an incredible place and we only got to see a few of the temples (including the tomb raider one, apparently. not seen the film)

I'm now exhausted, and a few of us have abandoned the rest drinking buckets of rum and coke for an early night. yawn. Off to Phnom Penn tomorrow, and want to get up early for a swim and a massage by the blind masseurs at the local parlour. It's supposed to be amazing, if not a little difficult to communicate at first...

Oh and yes, it's bloody hot

Night all

Caz xx