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Hey Ho,
This blog comes from the slowest Cambodian computer in Battambang!
So we made it here in one piece, but certainly had one of the more ''interesting'' journeys! All was fine up to the Cambodian border, and then the corruption started....firstly our tuktuk driver took us to a fake border to try and get us to hand over money. Then we went to the real border, the officials there wouldnt accept our dollars (which is the Cambodian currency) and wanted a ridiculous amount of Thai Baht instead (which he wanted us to change with the mafia/currency exchange booth at and appalling rate). We refused, and ended up haggling over the visa price for about half and hour. In the end we managed to get it into dollars, but had to bribe him 5 dollars...ridiculous, but what can you do!. This was then topped off with a 3 hour taxi ride; 6 fully grown adults in a Toyota Camry over the worst road I have ever seen. During the ride I was chatting to the taxi driver and he said...''in Cambodia we are not afraid of the law, we are afraid of power'', which speaks reams about this country. All in all it was pretty funny, but I wont be doing that again, like...ever!
We got to Siem Reap (Angkor), and stayed in a guesthouse recommended by some people we met in Ko Tao. It was easily the nicest place we have stayed (other than Singapore of course!). It was clean, the staff where super friendly, the food was yummy and it cost us all of a pound each a night...bargain! from here we hired out ''Mab'' our tuk tuk driver/ guide for three days around the Angkor archaelogical site. So, Angkor is really something else! Most know of Angkor Wat, but the site actually comprises of about 40 seperate temples. We started off with Angkor Wat, which was just incredible. It is much larger than any photos can relay, and considering how old it is it is in immaculate condition, the sunrise was magical. The best of the rest has to be either Ta Prohm or Bayon. If you take a look through the photos (apologies for the amount!) you will see Ta Prohm is a temple that has really been given to the jungle. It is famous as being the set of Tomb Raider, and we enjoyed clambering over the stone, doing our best Lara Croft impressions (I was fooling no-one, but Toms pout was uncanny!). Bayon, is the one with all the faces. It is kind of creepy, but pretty cool when you think you are looking at a wall and a face emerges from it. Some of it was pretty hard work, it was really hot at about 35 degrees, and quite a few of the temples are mountain temples. Where there were stairs they tended to be about 2 foot high at a time and no wider than 2 inches and we were frequently on all fours, but it was great fun, I enjoyed the way it was quite disorganised. Some of the temples were empty and it was great just wandering where you wanted. There were no signs, no pathways, no rules.....very Cambodian!
In Siem Reap we also went to a tiny land-mine museaum and orphanage. It is well worth the trip and is owned by a man called Aki-Ra. He was a former Khmer Rouge fighter, and laid mines both for them and the Vietnamese. He is now dedicated to removing landmines and educating communities, as well a running the orphanage for land mine victims. Land mines are still a huge problem in Cambodia, and there are hundreds of goverments and NGO's trying to clear them, it is incredibly sad out and about the towns around here, where beggars are invariably missing limbs. This country is still in real turmoil; it lacks the money that Thailand has, or the self-suffiiciency of Laos. It has become westernised to a certain degree but cant maintain that way of life. It is an issue that became patently obvious to me and Tom the second we crossed the border.
Moving on from Siem Reap we went down to Battambang (where I write this from). Battamang itself isnt so great. It is a provincial town, not really a tourist destination but a commercial hub for the locals. However, the reason we came here was to see a bit of rural Cambodia. Yesterday we had a great time; hiring out a tuk tuk and driving around the countryside. It was absolutely beautiful! It is really farming land, the locals rarely leave their villages and the women and men work the paddy field. People still use cows as tranportation, our tuk tuk got chased by a cow at one point!. They dont have tvs and they rarely see westerners, so we had quite an extrodinary reception. Everyone was interested in us, they were all smiling and waving, and it was so infectious, by the end me and Tom had massive grins on our faces. We also went on the ''Bamboo railway''. This is a form of transportation, laid by the french a long long time ago, but still in use by the villagers. It is basically a railway line where you assemble your own train (being a bit of bamboo to sit on and two wheels) you connect this tiny engine, and whiz along at about 30 mph. It is abolutely crazy, you definitely wouldnt get away with it in England, every time someone comes in the opposite direction you have to decide who has the heavier load and then dissemble to let the other one past. You cant feel your bum, but it is great fun!
I have a load more photos to put up soon but I dont think that slowest computer in Battambang will like that too much, so they will have to wait! Tomorrow we move on to the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh (just in time for the Cambodian general election..well done us!) so we will go on the internet properly there.
Hope you are well, see you all soon!
Liz and Tom x
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