OK, this is a week's worth so go make yourself a cuppa!!

Holiday in cambodia.

Sun
After a massive night in bangkok, i met up with my tour group right near the hedonistic Khao San Road. Due to the trouble in bangkok, some of the group would be joining up in cambodia. But those that had arrived went out for a meal with our cambodian guide, Bouna. It's mostly aussies on the tour, with some english and irish thrown in for welcome variety. With a long day ahead, it was an early might for me.

Mon
Around 7 the next morning, we piled on our minibus for the border, an easy 4 hours away. Once over the crossing, it was a wholey different story. The road looked like a war zone - dirt and gravel piled high down the middle with cars and bikes and buffalo drawn carts jostling for room. The distance from the border to Seam Reap is a fraction of that from bangkok, but this "dancing road" would also take 4 hours. Shuddering along through clouds of dust, the poverty and lack of basic infastructure was immediately evident. All the way along road, piles of rice lay on tarps drying in the sun. Naked children washing themselves in roadside ditches. But every face had a smile.
Late in the afternoon, we arrived in Seam Reap; a tiny little town teaming with life!Overflowing markets and crowded streets with a french colonial charm give Seam Reap a very cosmopolitan feel. After a delicious dinner and traditional dance floorshow, we all dropped in at a bar far hipper than any chapel st wannabe could hope for.

Tue
The next morning i loaded up on pho noodle soup, ready for the day ahead.
We started out with the jewel of cambodia, Angkor Wat. Entering the walled city through a massive stone portico, the shear scale of the place is unfathomable. The temple itself rises from the jungle before us. Ornate doesn't convey the skill and detail. No surface is unadorned with carvings.
Next we moved on to the Bayon with it's 216 four faced Buddhas - a maze of towers and corridors.
After a lunch of amok, cambodian curry served in a coconut, we moved on to the jungle temples. These ancient palaces are both being destroyed and held together by massive strangler figs. Left to nature, they will surely crumble but the beauty and the balance of it all makes it feel that to intervene would be wrong.
Ecstatic and exhausted, we went out for cambodian bbq where hot coals are placed in the middle of the table and raw ingredients are cooked over a hot plate. With a selection of beef, chicken, squid, crocodile and snake, hot soup, noodles and vegies, it was one of the best meals of my life. And yes, it tastes like chicken!

Wed
The next day started with a cooking class, taking a tour of the market, with all the different vegetables and confronting meat and fish hall. I then learnt how to make fish amok and cambodian tom yum, sharing my creations with a bunch of fellow gastro-travellers. The smells from the kitchen were fantastic! The spread looked like a banquet.
Our group then took a boat along the Ton Slap lake with it's floating schools, basketball courts and crocodile farms. Kids in large steels bowls paddled out holding huge snakes for pictures. For the price of a few lady finger bananas, i got to hold a beautiful diamond python. Very cool.
Finished the afternoon with a beer in a hammock bar, watching the sun go down behind a pagoda peaked hill.
After dinner at an amazing multitiered former crocodile farm, i wandered the night markets and had hundreds of small fish nibble dead skin off my feet. The first minute is death by tickle but then it starts to feel really nice!
As a gecko skimmed across my wall, I said a reluctant farewell to Seam Reap and packed my bags for Kampong Cham.

Thu
We boarded a public bus and took the 5 hour journey to this small town, water buffalo wallowing beside the road along the way.
Kampong Cham sits beside the Mekong, a massive bridge spanning its width. Hiring bikes, we rode along the river to a simple barge already laden with bikes and mopeds. After a quick river crossing, we rode around a small isolated island community; every child on the island running to their front yards to greet us with a cheeky "hello" and huge smile. I was always waiting for the sales pitch but it never came - they were just genuinely happy to see us.
On the way back i got into a race with a guy on a horsecart, speeding thru the dusty tracks - at least i was racing.
That night we sunk beers and poolballs with likeminded travellers and put giant crickets on Anto, the jumpy irish.

Fri
Another early morning and another bus, heading south for a homestay in the wilderness. The countryside was amazing, much more lush and tropical than the flat savanahs we'd been driving thru.
Down a long dirt track, we finally reached our destination. A simple yet beautiful wooden shack on stilts would be our room for the night. Sitting on straw mats, drinking fresh coconut from the tree, watching the sunset over mountains and palms, it definiteley felt like some kind of paradise.
As the cows, piglets and ducks brought themselves home for the night, we headed off to an outdoor dining area run by the local community. Amazing fresh food came out plate after plate.
Stuffed to the gills, we did as the locals did and turned in early.

Sat
After restless sleep, due to a hard, thin matress and an over-zealous rooster, we woke early for a hike into the mountains and a swim under a waterfall - definitely a good way to clean out the cobwebs!
Back on the bus, we headed south again for Sihanoukville - a sleepy little seaside town with beautiful stretches of long white sand.
Tomorrow it's off for a snorkel and island bbq adventure, so the stories will keep coming!

Missing you all but I'm at the halfway mark!

T