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We left Hoh Chi Minh City (Saigon) by bus and 8 long hours later we arrived in Phnom Penh in Cambodia. Ended up staying in a room that reminded me of a concret bunker, bars for the windows and a big padlock on the metal door. Not a great start. Cambodia is a very poor country, a lot of corruption and with a very grim history. 35% of the population is under 14 years old and 96% are under 64. The average age is 20!!!!
Phnom Penh was very smelly in places and with lot of rubbish lying around, I wouldn;t go back. But it still had a nicer area with the king's palace and a few Wats(temples)...a lot of gold and money for some...
The day after we took another long bus to Siem Reap. This was the reson for visiting Cambodia. Near Siem Reap in the jungle lies Angkor Wat with surrounding temples. Angkor wat is a very old temple (built between 1113- 1150)and the largest religious building in the world. We rented a Tuk Tuk man the following day and spent the day going from temple to temple. Angkor Wat was amazing. But our favourite one ended up being Bayon Wat, a very cool ruin with over 122 Buddhas looking over you. Another famous and great temple complex is Ta Phrom, in the middle of the jungle.They left it just like they found it, so there are large trees growing on top of the temple ruins and nothing has been restored. This was where the movie Tomb Raider was set. It is quite an eerie temple. I have to tell you when we both almost shat our pants. We were busy taking photos of the beautiful trees with large roots going through stone walls, when all of a sudden, pretty much out of the blue. Lightning hit!!!! It was the loudest noise I've ever heard in my lift and we saw a flash hit a large tree about 60 meters from where we stood and it pretty much split the tree in middle. Let's say there were quite a few screams around. We made our way out of the temple back to our Tuk Tuk and another BANG and lighting hit again, but we couldn't see where. Our Tuk Tuk Driver had to go in to the temple to help out, unfortunately some local people got injurd by the falling branches. An ambulance came and took them away, we hope they were alright in the end. Shortly after that on the way back in the Tuk Tuk we also saw a terrible accident where a man on a moped got badly injured. It was a lot to take in, in one day.
Leaving Cambodia was an experience in itself. We ended up sitting 4 people in the back of a cab for 4 hours, going on a road that was more like a building site. We read that an anonymous airline(bangkok airways) is paying the Cambodian Government a sum every year for delaying the completion of the road. After walking across the border we got on another bus through Thailand, down to the coast and after that a ferry and we arrived in Koh Chang. After all the hard traveling in Vietnam and Cambodia we decided we were just going to chill the last week before flying to Hong Kong.
Koh Chang was absolutely great and we got a beach hut right by the sea and we had a lovely pool and beach as well. Currently in Bangkok and we fly to Hong Kong tomorrow morning! photos will come shortly
Phil and Sofia
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