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Ahhhhh Siem Reap!
We had been looking forward to going there for so long and finally made it! The day we arrived was Caz's bday so I treated her (and me) to a massage, manicure and pedicure - Bliss!! There was also A SHOP there so we spent ages browsing around and I was able to find some good bday candles for the cakes I had got her in Vietnam. (How odd that I got excited by what was essentially a corner shop!?) lol We chilled out that day, the arrival was very hectic, long bus journey, alot of which was across un-roads, you know, dirt tracks, bumpy, dusty and a million miles away from a smooth ride! Also, when the bus pulls in at the station, we immediately heard knocking on our window and saw tonnes of guys holding up signs saying 'Tuk tuk to any resort $1 no hassell!' how ironic. Getting off the bus was trickier, these guys laid their hands all over us and our luggage trying to get them to go with them to their resorts or anywhere. It was also raining, (surprise, surprise!) so even when we picked a driver and got in the tuk tuk it couldn't drive because of the awful conditions. He was a skinny Cambodian guy who clearly had some sort of chest infection and was coughing his guts up, his clothes were wet through and yet he zipped the sides of the tuk tuk up so we didn't get wet and when we reached the guest house one of the staff came to me with an umbrella so I wouldn't get wet, while the driver was ringing out his clothes!? Poor sod.. The guilt relieved a little bit when we offered to pay him to take us to the local spa for our treatments, we paid him for that and also agreed that he could take us to the temples in two days time. (The main reason for all the hassel at the bus station is because they realise 9 times out of 10 they will also get your custom for the temples which is where they really earn the money. (7 pounds 50 for a 12 hour shift!!!)
However, as we got off to walk to the spa, a scary looking policeman pulled infront of him and fined him for stopping where it is forbidden, we felt really bad walking away but he insisted it would be ok and we knew we would see him for the day of temples anyway. That night we went to the restaurant in the upstairs of our guesthouse and sat drinking with an irish couple we originally met in Vietnam, when Caz wasn't looking we pulled out the cake and candles and some little presents I had been accumulating since Laos. She was very surprised but happy I think! When other people in the restaurant heard us singing happy birthday, they immediately joined in and invited us over to play a drinking game that involves smashing the side of a can of beer off your forehead until a hole is formed in it forcing the beer to spray out like a fountain, you then had to suck up as much beer as you wanted and smash the can on our head again before passing it on to the next poor sod sitting beside you. We were literally covered in beer from head to toe with mascara down our faces and our once straight hair (that was the first time we had straightened it since we'd been away), was matted, dishevelled and sticky! Great night though which ended in us all singing songs whilst someone played the guitar. I went to bed in the small hours of the morning and spent the next day peacefully recovering and nursing my sore forehead, apart from at 7:30am when someone banged on our door very loudly, looking over to Caz's bed I could see she was in the room and her the same with me, so naturally, we ignored it! The next morning we arose early to meet our tuk tuk driver at 7:30am only to wait until 8 for him to not show up.. We then realised that it was probably him the day before knocking for us, having got the wrong day. So he earned little money off us and potentially got pneumonia and a whopping great fine for taking us to the spa! Poor git!!!
We arranged for another tuk tuk to get us and headed off for the temples, we saw 6 in total including Angkor Wat (Naturally) and Angkor Thom where Tomb Raider was filmed. Angkor Thom was amazing, the trees have quite literally destroyed the building and engulfed it with their powerful roots and left it holding a magical charm. We saw wild monkeys in the surrounding areas of the temples which was lovely and we had a truly lovely tuk tuk driver who gave us fruit and bracelets! (He also invited us out for drinks that night so I think I can see what his intentions were! haha) Bayon is the temple known for the faces and engraving on the walls which were very intricate and beautiful, again, I really enjoyed this temple, however, Angkor Wat disappointed me, I don't know if it was because I believed the hype too much but I genuinely expected something unfailably breath taking, but what I saw was a beautiful building from the outside with pretty ponds and surroundings but the inside of what could have been any of a dozen temples we'd seen. The heat was scorching that day and we struggled to walk around so many temples, but just prior to sunset we climbed up the side of a mountain (along with thousands of others) to catch the sunset, which I actually missed as i bumped into some girls we met in Vietnam and before I knew it, it was dark! We then headed back to the tuk tuk and begged him to take us home after a quick stop at the night market.
That night we had planned to go to bed early to be prepared for our 7:30am bus to Bangkok. However, the two guys we went drinking with in Pnumh Penh were local so took us into town, this resulted in the consumption of far too many buckets and Caz hugging a toilet rim in a bar for about 3 hours while I checked on her, fed her water and danced my socks off! She had to get carried into MY bed, apparantly hers was just too far away, haha, and spent the remainder of that night and the next day vomitting into the bin at the side of her bed. We missed our bus because she was too wrecked to pack or get on it so while she was in bed all day I lounged around the resort and went back to the shop for another look around, hangovers do strange things to you, we re-booked the bus for the next morning when we headed to Bangkok.
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