And now... the end is near... da da da dee etc etc!!

After travelling back up to Bangkok from the South Islands in Thailand (Samui, Ko Tao, Panyan) with Kirsty and her friend Ellie, I took part in another Thai Boxing training session at a local gym. It is such good exercise and definitely in keeping with the motto "no pain, no gain".

After a nights rest we jumped on a bus to Cambodia!! The bus left at 7.30am and it is by far the bumpiest journey I have ever done! Upon reaching the border crossing we were hurded through various checks and controls, all seeming rather pointless and un-rehearsed! The guides were extremely helpful, enjoying themselves using English terms like "Lubbly jubbly"... all well and good until... across the other side in Cambodia we were "advised"that there were no ATM's in Siem Reap (second largest city in Cambodia) and we had to change our currency there. Ellie's out of date guide book backed up these claims, so we changed our currency to Cambodian Reil, at a less than adequate exchange rate, thinking it was the best idea...

We hopped back on a bus and travelled for 5hours along a dirt track where there were no sides of the road, a free-for-all! It was fascinating to take in the landscape, the terrain, all reminded me of Afghanistan or the like, such a contrast from the surprisingly westernised Thailand. I thought to myself "this is real travelling". I just wish I could stay longer... then I read that Cambodia has the most undetonated lanmines of any country in the world, which is very scary! Stick to the tourist routes!!

Once we arrived in Siem Reap we were taken to a recommended hotel, $6 a night (the first clue) which by the time we arrived at 9pm it was dark and none of us fancied looking around for somewhere to stay. So we set base for the night in this seemingly nice hotel. Never have we experienced such incompetency by resteraunt staff, we waited over an hour for spring rolls, and even longer for food! Chatting away nicely with each other, every five minutes a guy would come and sit with us, ask us where we're from, names and what we plan to do etc. Ok for the first time, annoying after the second, driving us mad by the 7th and 8th time! Go away!! Then our room had no running water...

Needless to say we checked out ealry morning and took a "free" tuc-tuc into the main hub of life. As soon as we stop, the driver said would we like him to take us to Angkor Wat tomorrow, we said no thanks, he carried on at us, and once he realised we we'ren't going to budge, started swearing at us and chucked a bottle top at me, i managed to keep my cool and just laughed at him! Which ofcourse enraged him more. If Chris was with me and I wasn't alone with two girls I would have told him what for!

So first impressions weren't great and I thought, they can only get better. Until, wait for it, everything is paid for here in US Dollars and there are ATM's everywhere. We were ripped off big time, actually out of pocket because of scammers! At least it's not a whole lot of money otherwise i don't know what we'd do!

Not all bad news thought, found ourselves a lovely little family run guest house for $2 a night each, can't go wrong! And we're off to visit Angkor wat? what? wat... tomorrow which is where Tomb Raider was filmed. Really looking forward to that! Then I am travelling back to Bangkok on Sunday for more thai boxing and then flying home on Tuesday morning!!!!!

Thoroughly enjoyed my travels and thanks to everybody who has lent me money for Xmas and Birthday etc!!