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We arrived in Asia after two flights on Sunday at 11pm. We checked straight into a hotel near the airport and went straight to sleep. That morning we went to breakfast which was by the pool. It was a really nice hotel and I think we only paid £20 each for the night. I was so busy looking at the pool and then the lady that said Morning that I didnt see a low step, tripped and ripped my big toe nail up about 3/4. It bled quite abit and Scott had to calm me down. The lady came over cleaned it up and bandaged it. Then three members of staff came over and said they would take me to hospital. Scott told them we would be ok and didn't need to go. I limped back to the room to pack as we needed to head to our hotel in Bangkok as our tour began there. The hotel called a taxi to take us to Bangkok Centre Hotel, he turned up said he didn't know where it was and went. Another taxi came, he said he would take us but didn't know where it was either even when we gave him the address. His driving was pretty scary too but we have learnt that everyone drives a bit more excitingly in Asia and tend to use the horn abit too much. The driver pulled over a few times to try to call the hotel but his battery died so he left us in the taxi down a street in Bangkok and ran to the pay phone. Good job his meter had broken. He was very nice though and we laughed about it. We finally got to the hotel which was massive. The tour itinerary said that we would be staying in simple hotels, if this was simple we were quite happy with that. We met our group and tour guide at 6pm. Everyone seemed really nice, we have German, Swedish, Canadian, French and even a Norwich girl on our tour. Only 3 of us are doing the full 30 days and the others are either doing just Cambodia, Cambodia and Vietnam, and we will have other people join us when people leave. Our tour guide's name is Bond, he is from Thailand and has been a tour guide for 10 years. After the group meeting we went for a meal at a restaurant accross the road. We had a drink and a main dish each and it cost £2 each! Soooo cheap. After dinner we were tired so went straight to bed as we had to be up at 6am the next morning.
We woke up and went down to breakfast at 6am. We weren't ready for noodles for breakfast so stuck with cereal. We left the hotel at 7am to go in two mini buses that would take us to the Cambodian border. Leather seats and air conditioning was great. It took 4 hours to the border when we got there we had to fill out forms for our visas and had a short walk accross the border. Our luggage was being brought accross for us too so we didn't need to worry about that. We got on a public bud to take us to the depot then we had a private bus to take us for the 3 hours to Siem Reap. Our hotel here again is so nice and clean. We met at 5pm this afternoon and there were 4 tuk tuks waiting for us outside to take us to the New Hope Cambodia charity. This was our first tuk tuk experience and we loved it! On the way to the centre we drove through areas of poverty. As we went past the children would run out and say Hello. When we got to the centre we were given information about the area. All of the people that lived in the area cannot afford a house or to support their families so the charity provides them with help. It also provides all children with schooling. We then had the opportunity to visit the classrooms where the children were learning English. 3 of us went into each classroom, Scott and I went in separate class rooms. When we walked in all the children stood up and said hello and asked how we were. We then went to sit down and a girl grabbed my arm and asked for me to sit next to her. She was so sweet and was asking lots of questions about myself. A boy in front of me told me that the charity looks after his family as they are too poor. The children were so friendly and it was such an amazing experience. It was now 6pm and school had finished the children said goodbye and the little boy said I hope to see you again. We then all met up again to go for dinner in the new restaurant used for tours that come to the centre. We had a five course meal and the food was amazing. The money for our meal goes to the charity. I also got the opportunity to try a deep fried cricket, it took me a while to get the courage to eat it. It was virtually tasteless and was a bit like eating a crisp. Scott refused to try!
So far it has been exciting and so different to what we are used to. The tour guide organises everything for us do we don't have to worry about anything. We have an organised trip tomorrow to take us to Angkor Wat at 5am to watch the sunrise and in the afternoon a boat trip to watch the sunset.
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