Wahoo we reached Cambodia!!

Well, what can we say? The border crossing between Thailand and Cambodia is just as hectic as we expected. The day started at 3.50am getting packed up and a taxi ride (100 baht) to theMor Chi bus station in Bangkok. 4 hours 20 minutes later after a nodding dogjourney on a very nice air con bus we arrived at Aranyaprathet - the end of our bus journey, where the fun began!

Bartered with a tuk-tuk driver to get us to the border at Poipet (80baht), only a ten minute ride away and straight away he dropped off a little further away from the border than he should of so that some locals could offer to arrange our visas for us - this is inevitably more expensive and probably isn't even a real visa! We quickly moved on!

Walking though the border following the countless trade carts and dirty faced children laughing and running about our feet. A kind local pointed us in the direction of the right immigration desk where our passports were checked - we thought this was the border done...oh no!

We get hearded through another walkway where there were a lot of press reporting on the passing of a new law - anyone caught with narcotics can now be given the death penatly...our first taste of Cambodia!

A man wearing official uniform thenasked us if we had a visa, then took us into a room saying that it would cost us 1000 baht (32USD) - the rate should be 20USD officially and so I told him that I ahd rung my embassy this morning and taht we knew this to be an inflated price - he quickly sent us on to theofficial visa desk.

Despite officials wathcing everything that goes on, they let it happena nd even seem to help the locals try and scam you out of an inflatedvisa cost. As we filled out our official visa forms another local tried to tell us it was 1000 baht. I persisted on telling him about our embassy and he came up with many escuses as to why the price was more than the sign stated above his head(!) i.e. it was an old sign! We evetaully got him down to 25USD but this was still wrong - we should have persisted really but we just wantedto get moving across the border! The visa looks great in our passports though!

Then the funbegins - locals start following you saying that they are working for thegovernment and try and get you to go on a free 'government bus'to the transport area becuase it is dangerous to walk down the road and there are no taxi's in the area. We kept on walking and no further than a few metres away we finally got a taxi for the 3 hour journey from Poipet to Siem Reap - 40USD.

3 hours on a pot holed road in the middle of nowhere, with a driver you don't trust who keeps trying to get us to put our bags in the front with him, then for Lee to sit with him... a test of nreves ut I secretly quite enjoyed the whole border crossing once we were on our way!

The sightsalong the dusty road were brilliant and just what we had imagined Cambodia to be like... people in the river up to their waists fishing, lines of school children smiling and waving, motocycles loaded up to the heavens with everything from dead chickens and pigs to a whole family of people!

One last tuk-tuk to our guesthoue, Shadow of Angkor (after telling hm we had stayed here before so that he didn't take us anywhere else - a common scam!) and we're ready for another 4.00 am start to see the sun rise at Angkor Wat!

After walking round Siem Reap we love it here already. Lee has found some nicelazy bars where he can happily people (a few more intersting characters than in the Frog and Con Club!) watch whilst I read by book on the temples! The people are so friendly and happy to help; always smiling and there are a lot of shops etc that go towards dissadvantaged children. So, after arriving in Satan's back garden (Poipet!) and a 3 hour taxi ride over a road with more craters than the moon, we are happily in Siem Reap and looking forward to experiencing the Temples.

P.s. Thanks for all the emails - sorry we haven't had chance to reply as internet time is limited. Hopefull will be able to upload lots and lots of photos soon!

Kelly and Lee

P.p.s Backgammon score kelly 5 Lee 1 (soon to be 6:1!)