Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Saz and Dave's travels
We had to get up at 5:30 am today (not a pretty sight!!!) to have breakfast and leave the hotel by 6:30 am. The first leg of the journey was fine, we were in a nice air conditioned mini-bus for about 4 hrs, which took us to Poipet (the border town for entry into Cambodia). We had to get off the bus here and carry our (massive) bags for about 1 km where we got our passports checked and our visas stamped. Next came the bad part of the day, where the 12 of us in the group plus our tour guide, the driver and his son had to pile into ONE pick-up truck which just had a bench down each side (no roof). It was a big squash. Four people got to sit with the driver in the cab and then we swapped over about every 2 hrs. Me and Dave were among those who got to sit in the cab first (through the mid day sun luckily). The truck set off from Poipet along the worst 'road' we have ever seen - it was really pot holed with no tarmac and increadibly dusty. It felt like a rollercoaster ride as we lurched and swayed along (anyone that suffers from motion sickness would have puked a couple of times). We stopped for lunch at some small cafe feeling slightly worse for wear, and then it was our go in the back. We had to tie bandanas round our faces to stop the dust (Dave has an ACE Bob Marley bandana ROCK!!!) and hold on for fear of being thrown out of the truck. The road was just one long bumpy red dust track and when we finally arrived in Siem Reap 6 hrs later everyone was absolutely filthy (the only clean part was round our eyes where our sun glasses had been).
The guesthouse that we checked in to (The Khmer Memory House) is really nice with air-con and best of all a shower where we could wash all the muck of the journey off. After showers we all met up for tea in a traditional Cambodian restaurant, Dave had Khmer fish curry with pumkin (Delicious) and I had Angkor fish curry with lots of coconut milk (Also delicious). Dave sampled the local beer - Angkor and Leo (he says Angkor is better but not as good as Chang (simply too expensive at 1pound 50 a pint)). Cambodia is a bit more expensive than Thailand but that may be because Siem Reap is quite touristy. There are loads of beggars as well, even little kids - on the way back from the restaurant a tiny girl of about 3 grabbed my hands and wouldnt let go. She was all alone at about 10:30 at night and was doing this to all of the tourists.
Sok (the tour guide) has signed us all up to get up at 5:00 am to go and watch the sun rise behind the Angkor Wat tomorrow so that should be fun.
Sorry its taken a while to update the ole journal but there arnt many computers in Cambodia let alone internet cafes!
- comments