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So, today was an early start as we were off to Cambodia. We were getting picked up at 7.30 - so had to be ready and all packed up for then. Unfortunatly the restaurant wasn't opened so we couldn't even get any breakfast.
Just after 7.30 we were picked up from outside the hotel - only 6 out of the original 9 decided to make the journey. The other people traveling with us were a couple from San Francisco - Travis and Myra. As three of out lot weren't travelling, we ended up picking up a couple of extra people- two German girls. Once we got to the ferry dock, we were all a little hungry, so we grabbed some food there. Had some great little sweet/savour pankcake that Jen picked up for 10bhat- they had coconut and spring onions in! Odd combination but realy tasty. The ferry ride back to the mainland was fine. Once we got the mainland, we stopped at a little shack place to sort out everyone's visa's for Cambodia - seemed a bit strange that they had to leave their passports with some random guys! But they were going to sort it out so that we didn't have to wait around at the boarder itself.
The rest of the journey to the boarder was pretty uneventful. We got dropped off at some restuarant near the boader, where we grabbed some food and waited for a lift to the boarder itself. We ended up going in two cars, I had to sit in the boot of this pick up truck thing with another girl (we picked her up at the visa place - no clue who she was but she was very nice).
Got to the boarder and was handed to a couple of chaps there who had everyone's passports. They seemed to be agents for the visa people - they walked us though the boarder crossing. Found it quite sad as there were lots of kids at the crossing who were either trying to sell stuff or were just begging. In the end we lost my crisps to to kids! But no a big deal really considering - it was just a pack of crisps.
Once we got past the Thai authorities, we then crossed into no man's land, it was very odd, straight away you could tell that you had entered some where totally different, - more beggars, the roads were more pot hold and instead of tarmac roads they were just clay roads. Even at the crossing itself, the way it was organised was very old school. In Thailand the immigration office was light, clean and there were a number of desks. The Cambodian one was dark and had one guy behind a screen dealig with us.
We got on one bus that took us to another bus which was packed with other tourists and their bags. Myself, Ross and one of the German girls ended up sitting at the back of the bus on 2 and a half seats surrounded by boxes and bags. It was one of the most uncomfortable journeys that I have ever done (in the end, it turned out to just be a preview of what was to come a bit later in the journey).
After about 4 hours on the bus, we stopped for some dinner. Whilst we were there, some of the Cambodian guides who were on the bus started to show why they were there- they were trying to sell us rooms at one of the guest houses. They were quite pushy with us about it, "you don't have to stay there, but come and have a look at the room". Luckily Travis and Myra came to the rescue, they had been recommended a guest house by some friends and so we could go there too. We all finished our food and were waiting for our bus when we were told that it had got a flat tyre, therefore delaying our journey further. We ended up spending about an hour and a half in this place. Just as we thought that things couldn't get any worst, a rain storm (accompanied by its friends thunder and lightening) started up.
We eventually got back on the bus and there was another problem. The roof over where one of the German girls was sitting was leaking, so for the rest of the journey, she sat with an umbrella over her head! For the rest of the journey I sat in a corner with my legs cramped up to my body watching our bus driver try to avoid going into any pot holes or falling off the side of the road! We happened to also be traveling over very flat empty land during the storm -so we were basically the largest conductor for lightening for miles around! This worried me slightly but after 5 hours we reached Siem Reap in one piece (an achy piece but still alive!)
Again, the people from the bus started to try to sell us some rooms but we were all so fed up, we just wanted to get to the place that had been recommeded to us. One of the guys tried to argue with me that the guest house we were in was in the centre of town (it was no where near - it was at least 15 minutes walk and on the wrong side of the river!). Another guy there tols us the number that we had for the guesthouse didn't exist - even though Myra called it the day before! Eventually we all got our bags and got tuk-tuks to the guesthouse - Queen's Villa (only a 5 minute walk from the old Market). Luckily they had enough rooms for all of us - only 8 dollars per night for a twin room with a fan and hot water! Perfect especially after that journey. We spilt up into two's, got our rooms and had a much deserved sleep!
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