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3rd, 4th and 5th December
Siem Reap -
We arrive at 6.30am, what an awful journey, not a sleeper bus as originally thought but an upright coach with slightly reclining seats although we did get blankets and neck cushions - which is something I suppose! We are being collected by a friend of Dan's from Phnom Penh called Jackie, who funnily enough had a sign up saying Miss RAT (HA HA) unfortunately neither of us had our cameras to snap the shot as we were still half asleep.
A short ride of about 20 mins to our hotel, we get there and check out the room, seems very nice and reasonably priced, so in we check!! Then comes the negotiation of Angkor Wat, we were told it should be about 10-12$ - we ended up paying 15$ - not so good, but this did include going to sunset tonight, sunrise and all day around the temples and back again, so not the greatest price, but feasible!!
So another early night for RAT is in order, we were told we would be picked up at 4.30am!!!!!!! for sunrise!!!, for Sunset however; our pick up time would be 4.00pm today, we would be taken to Angor Wat to see the sunset, so after a little sleep and explore round town RAT decide to get something to eat - 1$ a dish, so cheap!! R decides also to get her eyebrows threaded........well actually it turns out that they would be Razored, R sits in the chair thinks she is getting threading when in fact it is a razor the women uses, R sits as still as she can so as not to end up with half an eyebrow or worse a cut!! 2-3 minutes later R is very impressed with the result - 1$ later - mono brow no more!! Bargain! After a bit of surfing the net it was time to go and get our tuk tuk to take us to Angkor Wat, it took about 20-25 mins to get there, after climbing a steep slope and crossing some rickety old bridges we get to the top... now to climb the steepest steps you have ever seen... R decides as she is somewhat accident prone that she would wait at the bottom, so off T goes climbing the treacherous steps to the top!! Beautiful sunset, we wonder if Sunrise will be as impressive?!! After getting back from Angkor Wat we venture out into the town to get something to eat, we end up at a roof top bar/restarant, RAT decide to share a meal as the menu was a bit pricey - note to self review menu before sitting down!!! After half a plate of phad Thai noodles RAT decide that the next meal will be from a street stall the cheap option!! We had agreed also to skype our mums & dads so had to wait up until 12, so not such an early night afterall - oh dear less than 4 hours sleep before our early start and Angkor Wat sunrise - we can do it, oh yes we can!! :0)
Very sleepy we are awoken by the alarm at the ungodly time of 4.00am, we get ready and go outside into the dark to start our journey to one of the most amazing temples - Angkor Wat, after about 25mins, we reach our destination, still dark, Jackie tells us he will wait for us, so off we go!! Over a long bridge headed straight toward the marvel of Angkor Wat, wow amazing, after about 10 mins or so the sun rose and created the most beautiful colourful sky!! We took our time to explore the temple and RAT did end up getting lost in the vastness of it all, after taking endless pictures of the temples and eachother (David Bailey we are not) we headed back to the tuk tuk and were taken to the next temple on the list but not before having some breakfast, it was here that RAT discovered a beautiful stall selling paintings of Angkor Wat, Oh dear!! R is very keen to buy one and thinks it will look good above a fireplace....well that is when she eventually gets a place of her own, what a good incentive she thinks, strikes a deal with the lady R is now the proud owner of 2 paintings all for the bargain price of 23$ about 15 pound! Oh now comes the after thought - how the hell do we carry them - hmm maybe an impulse buy! Next was T's turn, 29$ later, T is also proud owner of painting!! RAT decide it will be their incentive for their own places and try to convince themselves that it was a good buy!!!! After our impulse buying and breakfast was over we were taken to the next temple this was where Tomb Raider was filmed, although no sign of Lara!! must have been her day off!! Very impressive temple, RAT felt that one day visiting the temples was enough.
Our driver Jackie took us back to our hotel and RAT decided that they could do with a little Nap. 3 hours later we awake and feeling hungry go into the town, R sees a sign that says Dr Fish - so basically this is a tank with fish in that eat your feet,.... well the dead skin on your feet, sounds grosse but actually a very strange sensation, after R got over the initial tickling feeling, it was actually very relaxing and much needed after our long day on our feet!!! Just what the Dr ordered - Hmm pardon the pun!!! After this we went onto Pub Street this is a mini Koahsan Road, this time we ate at a street stall, 1$ for anything - that's more like it!!! No late Night for RAT though, we would be leaving to catch our bus in the morning at 8am, a quick beer in one of the bars and RAT head back to the hotel, but not before a quick skype to the old folks!!
RAT had arranged a wake up call at 7.00am, what time did we get it? - 7.55am giving us 5 mins to pack all our stuff into our rucksacks and get the bus to take us to our coach, ready for the 12 hour journey back to Bangkok. The quickest packing we have ever had to do, in we throw everything at high speed praying to god we haven't left anything behind, we board our bus and surprise surprise no need to panic, we had 6 more pickups after us, to this day I will never know how they managed to fit all our bags into the mini van along with us, somehow they managed it - we were crammed in like baked beans on toast!!!
10 Mins later we arrive at the bus stop to take us to the border, but when we get there, it appears there is not enough room for everyone and their bags, luckily RAT located 2 seats however; one was at the front the other at the back, RAT gets settled in our respective seats, with everyone crammed in but seated, the driver then deems it necessary to put the remaining bags including RATS in the aisle of the bus, as there was no room underneath!!! The joys of travel in South East Asia!!!
I-Pods on and off we go, it took about 2 hours 3o mins to get to the border, we got off the bus and were given a label of colour to indicate which group we belonged to, our bags were unloaded and no sooner did we get off a man was karting them off in wheelbarrow, RAT were so pleased as they are now very heavy, little did we know that he wanted to charge us for this, 1$ which is not alot, but at the time RAT did not have it!!!
After some queuing, tooing and frooing we finally reached passport control on the Cambodian side, quick as anything we are through to the other side, now we queue for another 2hours 30 mins to get through to the Thai Side, another 45 minute wait and we finally get out to the other side, now all we have to do is locate our group, after being pointed in the wrong direction we finally get to our minibus - talk about a trek, sweat pouring from our faces and exhausted from carrying our bags a man takes them from us and on the minibus we get, a short 10 minute journey and we arrive at a cafe, we wait here another hour or so, thankfully enough time to get food, at 2.30pm we board the coach and off we got to Bangkok, we arrive at 8pm back to where it all began..... RAT decide to take a taxi instead of bus to Hua Hin but no before a Burger King stop, we negotiate a good price and 2 hours later we arrive in Hua Hin - 3 Days on the beach await us - Bliss!!!!!!!!!!
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