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From Battambang, we opted for the slow boat to take us to Siem Reap. We had read that this is one of the most scenic river trips in the country, and so we assumed that a few other travellers might join us, but we were wrong. We were the only tourists on the boat, much to the amusement of the 4 local businessmen travelling with us, who couldn't work out why we would put ourselves through this journey....for fun! (particularly as we had paid ridiculous tourist prices for the privilage, and the bus was faster, and cheaper, and more comfortable!) However we were very glad we did it in the end, and these guys took us under their wing, chatted to us and bought us snacks! The river trip was really beautiful, with lots of twists and turns, which the boat driver was having trouble negotiating...we ended up barging into the riverbank at least three times, having to duck from spiky shrubbery and huge branches. Each time this happened the business men laughed hysterically, unable to believe we were doing this! Every so often we would motor in to one of the floating villages, to pick someone up, or drop them off. We took endless photos at each one; of the colourful floating houses, boats, and smiling, waving children which kept us entertained for the 7 or so hour journey. When we approached Siem Reap, you could tell we were nearing tourist central, the floating villages are one of the attractions you can pay to visit on a day trip, and as we got closer, the villages became more exaggerated and brightly coloured in style, to be more of a spectacle for the visitors. We were really glad we had got to see the real thing, even if our bottoms were very sore.
Getting off the boat was a scary ordeal, the minute we docked about 15 men clambered on board and surrounded us (our boat was pretty empty by then as all the locals had been dropped off, leaving just us and the businessmen) they all wanted to drive us to the center, and you couldnt escape them. We had already organised a tuk tuk driver who we could see above the heads of these people holding a sign with our name on....so we made a beeline for him, which wasnt the most graceful of exits as you had to clamber over quite a few other boats to get out. Our bags disappeared off into the distance with 2 men....we didnt ask anyone to carry them for us, they effectively just took them, and all we could do was scramble after them. They then demanded a dollar per bag, which we refused to give them. This sounds stingy of us, but considering we had a few days before got a 10 minute taxi/motorbike ride to our hotel for about 20p, we knew that they were ripping us off to walk our bags 10 meters from the boat, apart from anything else we didnt have 2 dollars in change, which caused a slight arguement, but we eventually got away in our tuk tuk!!(with our bags and everything!) phew!
Siem Reap and it's Angkor temples is the main reason most people come to Cambodia and so is obviously extremely touristy. It had a really nice feel to it though, with lots of good bars and restaurants to come back from the temples to. We stayed there for 5 nights in total, planning on spending 3 days at the temples and doing not much else before and after! We were really good and resisted the extra expense of aircon (this was pretty stingy as it would have cost about 50p extra a night!but we didnt want to get used to the luxury!!) We ate lots of yummy meals, and spent a large proportion of our spare time on the internet trying to get photos on the blog (6 hrs I think, 2 days in a row!) Most bars sell a drink called the "Tomb Raider" supposedly invented (or asked for) by Angelina Jolie while she was staying here for the filming of Tomb Raider..we tried one, it was cointreau, lime and soda...nothing special really, but quite nice!!
For the temples we hired a guy who would drive us round in his tuk tuk, for a bargainous 15 dollars a day. The distances between each temple was huge and you could not do it on foot. We paid for a 3 day pass (40 dollars each) but were a little "templed out" after 2 days, and didnt use our last day's ticket. The temples were really impressive, and each one was so different, with its own character so you really couldnt get bored with them. Angkor Wat itself, looked exactly as it does in all the famous photos (obviously!) and was a lot bigger than I expected. the most impressive part was the intricate carvings that ran floor to ceiling all the way round the whole of the inside of the building. No part of the picture was repeated, and each of the walls told a different story. Angkor Thom was another collection of temples, including Bayon, which was one of our favourites, a less intricate temple made up of larger stone blocks with huge carved smiling faces peer from the top of the columns, apparently there to protect the temple from danger. This one was a bit more tumble-down and much more fun to explore, with bats whizzing past past our ears and plenty of large spiders to contend with. Another famous temple on our tour was the setting of the first Tomb raider film. This temple is overrun with giant tree roots which are literally breaking the temple apart, but make a pretty good photograph! We saw so much in one day, we were pretty tired by the end of it.
One of the most draining things, was the amount of people selling you things as soon as you stop, they chase you down the street and wont leave you alone. The hardest to ignore were the adorable children, who you just couldnt say no to (the reason the children are made to do the selling in the first place....and it works) we bought so much stuff we didnt need.... including about 15 bracelets, and some strange origami stars and fish on strings...Craig was the one who gave in here....2 little girls picked him out as an old softy and wouldnt leave us alone while we were eating lunch...they kept on and one, and eventually Craig cracked...and we bought 2!!!! (what do you do with origami fish on a string?!) They were all very sweet though, and apparently they do go to school for half of the day (which is better than nothing) and sell these things for the other half... we had heard that there were a lot of children around so we bought 2 big bags of sweets to give out if we didnt buy anything, which they really loved, and seemed more happy with these than the money (I doubt they see much of that). Another clever trick was to ask you if you had any English coins for their "collection", which leads to lots of people giving them 50ps etc, which they they go up to the next English tourist with and say "can you swap this 50p for Riels?" which of course you do, because why wouldnt you?...clever! After 2 days of temples, we felt we had seen enough, and couldnt face the sellers for the last day, so we were lazy and didnt do the get-up-at-4am-and-see-the-sunrise thing, which maybe we should have, but we were happy with what we had already done.
We were a bit apprehensive about the journey back to Bangkok. The bus you take has been labelled "the scam bus" particularly in the Bangkok to Siem Reap direction. The bus is extremely cheap, but when you get off at the border to get the second bus, apparently, they are often "full" so you have no choice but to take an expensive taxi. Another thing that is common apparently is for the bus to "break down" for a few hours, so that you end up arriving at Siem reap in the middle of the night, with no idea where you are and have to stay at the bus driver's friend's guesthouse, where you are dropped off, which is conveniently empty. Soooo.... we were worried!! The rickety old bus turned up, completely full of people and bags piled in the aisle (there was no luggage hold!!) were threw our bags on the pile and got a seat...it was a horrible journey on notoriously terrible roads (there is a rumour that an un-named airline is making considerable "donations" to the government to ensure that this road is their last priority to resurface, just to make sure that people continue to fly to Siem Reap rather than take this hellish journey!!(why else would the main road direct to their only tourist attraction be in this state?!)...could be just a rumour!
...anywayyyy.... it was a pretty bump road... when we got to the border (our lungs full of dust) it decided to absolutely pour with rain....I was in flip flops and could barely walk I was slipping around so much, let alone while carrying my huge bag... as we stood in the queue at passport control, hot and tired, bags weighing a ton, we saw Charlie Boorman, from "the long way round" merrily hop into his giant and sparkling Land Rover with his entourage in tow, and be driven straight through....grrrr! We then sat on the other side of the border, very wet, waiting and hoping that all the rumours were not true and a that nice shiny coach might come and pick us up... After about an hour of waiting and losing hope, our prayers were answered, a nice shiny coach did arrive! It was luxury, with reclining seats, plenty of leg room, a tv...we were so excited!! (although Craig said it smelt...but i thought he was pushing his luck a it at this point!!) At about 9pm, (we started travelling about 13 hours before) we arrived at our beloved Khao San road, in our "usual" hotel!! Then we went out to our "usual" restaurant, and "usual" internet place! It felt very comforting!!
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