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Jenn's Trip through Asia
Dear all,
Thoroughly fantastic day. Took the bus from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap and got here at around 2pm, nice journey actually. First signs indicated it might be a bit of a nightmare here... about 60 touts surrounded the coach we arrived on, trying to persuade us to accept their lift into town, to their particular hotels etc. Some even held up signs with our names - which apparently get sold on by the guesthouses in Phnom Penh. So I ignored the guy who carried a sign with my name, and arranged a lift with another guy instead - who turned out to be absolutely lovely, his name is Bothay (approx...) and he's working as a taxi driver to finance his studies at university etc. He held up a sign saying 'I don't want to hassle, I just want to help' which is what attracted me to him. Anyways, turns out the guy who'd been looking for me figured out that since I was the only Western woman travelling on my own, I had to be Jennifer, and he had a huge go at me for ignoring him. And I just said I simply dón't like being hassled but want to make my own decisions. To which he replied that he'd been waiting for me for ages - and I said, well, errrrr, it's not like I'd asked you to!!!
Not such a good start then. But Bothay was really lovely and he'll be picking me up tomorrow morning as well to take me to Angkor Wat... at 5am. Oh dear. The things you do. It better be good. But from what I've heard, it's supposed to be the most amazing sight on the planet, so it should be absolutely worth it.
And I got a nice hotel as well, 6 dollars a night, two beds (one for my teddy??), bathroom, and free tea, coffee, bread, jam, bananas 24hrs. Can't complain. The Khmer people seem to be soooo absolutely lovely. I think a lot of travellers get here and are so utterly frustrated and suspicious of everyone after having been to Vietnam and/or Thailand but it seems like everybody is just genuinely lovely.
And then I made my way to the offices of Lao Airlines... took a motorbike taxi, oooh, I hate them, but it was bearable. Better than yesterday, 16km to the killing fields, absolutely horrendous journey. Felt close to being sick even before I'd seen the mass graves. Anyways, and I got myself a flight to Pakse in Laos for Sunday morning... Siem Reap to Pakse i.e. the middle of nowhere to the middle of nowhere. This is where the cheating begins.. but roads in northern Cambodia and southern Laos simply do not appear good enough to travel with any efficiency at all, so I'm taking a shortcut. Best way to go would be by boat, but for that I'd have to go back to Phnom Penh etc. etc... so I'm taking the plane, hehe. Excellent, and I got a special deal as well. They charged me 70 dollars while on the ticket it says 90...
And then I took another motorbike taxi, I'm sort of getting into them, and am amazed that nobody's trying to rip me off or so, to a restaurant where I had an absolutely amazing meal of amoc, the local delicacy, it's fish steamed in banana leaves, mmmm, very tasty, something similar existed in Vietnam but the two taste very different actually, the Khmer version tastes a lot like a Thai dish actually, with lemongrass etc. Seriously yummy. So I'm all happy and in a fantastic mood and am now emailing a few people I met in Phnom Penh and elsewhere who should be in Siem Reap now or get here tomorrow and arrange to meet up. Else... there's laundry to do plus... an early night to be had, I need to be up for 4.30am!!!
Hope you're well everyone,
lots of love
Jn x
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