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A 7am departure from Bangkok, firstly a bus to Poipet (Thailand-Cambodia border). I had some issues with my visa for Cambodia because I bought it online, but I got through eventually, was a bit nerve racking though. The border crossing took a couple of hours, not only were tourists crossing the border but a lot of import trucks carrying all kinds of things, inclusing pigs squashed into trucks. The scenery changed immediately, poverty seemed much more obvious, the cars drive on the right hand side, well technically, but most just drive anywhere in the road.
We had lunch in a basic restaurant which was good food and cost a grand total of $3.
We continued onto Siem Reap, the scenery was pretty vast and very flat. In Cambodia 50% of the population are 18 years old or younger due to the genecide of over half the population back in 1975.
Other distinct things I noticed were that the children wear school uniform which suprised me for such a poor country. They keep their makeshift houses/hut really lovely with little plant pots, gravel gardens and so on.
Tonight we went to New Hope School. First of all to the old school, then to the new one which has been built by volunteers and charity organisations, the difference was outstanding and it is amazing what they are doing here. The kids were so happy to see us, jumping on us and holding our hands. We sat in on a class, I sat by two 17 year old girls and their English was really impressive.
We had dinner at the school which was like a posh restaurant. The food was great including fried crickets (yes I did try one!!), morning glory (!!), a vegetable curry, fried sweet potato and a green mango salad.
We followed this by going to the bustling night market of Siem Reap.
The next morning we woke at 4.30am to get to Angkor Wat to see sunrise. We took a tuk tuk and sat on mats over a lake, drinking tea made with condensed milk (yuk!!) from some cute little cambodian boy.
We returned for a proper look around Angkor Wat after breakfast. Angkor used to be the very original capital of Cambodia. After this we went to Angkor Thom (a huge town of temples) and Ta Promh (which featured in the Tomb Rairder movie). This particular temple had trees growing all over it, caused by three and a half thousand years of neglect.
Tonight we went to a bar suitably called 'Temple Bar' for a traditional Khmer dancing show whilst eating a gorgeous fish amok (curry). We went then to another bar called 'Angkor What?' and then a rooftop bar, barely spent a penny and was rather tispy.
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