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I had a couple of quiet days in Bangkok on my own prior to the tour starting on Friday. I made the most of the beauty options with a couple more massages, including the most authentic Thai massage I have had. Thai massage uses some yoga positions to stretch and relax the muscles, I didn't know my back could bend that far!!!
On Friday I headed to the new hotel in the afternoon ready for the welcome meeting. My roomy, Jade, was already there so we charted for a bit before heading down to the meeting. There are 15 people on the tour, mostly Brits, and ranging from people just on a holiday to people either at the start or end of their travelling. A good mix of people though and seven of us who are travelling on our own so didn't know anyone else.
After the meeting, we headed out for a local dinner and had a couple of drinks and started to get to know each other before heading to bed ready for our early start on Saturday leaving Bangkok. We were up and meeting at 7am where we got on a mini bus to head to the Cambodian border at Poipet.
Most of us slept on the bus journey but along the way you also saw all the paddy fields growing. It is a month into the three month growing season of the rice at the moment so they are about a foot tall and green. In two more months they will turn yellow and the heads of rice will be harvested.
We got to the border town just before lunch so had something to eat, including trying the local delicacy of fried locusts (see photo soon) and then joined the queue for the border.
First we had to queue to leave Thailand, then queue to fill in the medical check form and then queue to enter Cambodia, the whole process taking about an hour and a half but we got there, eventually. We were then back on a different bus to do the final leg of the journey to Siem Reap.
We arrived at the hotel at about 4pm and with time for a quick shower and change we then headed out for the evening. Gap adventures try to support local projects in the areas where they do tours and we went to visit a local house where they support the poor children in the village.
The first part of the evening though was the journey there. The Siem Reap river runs through the town but there had been a down pour of rain earlier that afternoon and the river had flooded. This happens about once a year but not every year. We traveled in the back of a pickup through the town with the road in part covered in over a foot of water. The kids were playing in the road, enjoying the free swimming pool and the adults were trying to sandbag where they could, but generally everyone was just getting on with it, laughing at the vehicles struggling to get through the water. There were even cyclists giving it a good go to get through the water. Quite a sight.
Once we eventually arrived at the house, we were treated to the most amazing, home cooked, Cambodian meal. Cambodian food is similar to
Thai with rice and noodles but less spicy so right up my street and it was gorgeous!
After we had all finally admitted defeat with the food some of the local children that are supported by the project came to sit with us to practice their English. They were the cutest kids ever, ranging from 5 to 12 years old and with good English understanding etc. We played some games with them and took lots of pictures before heading back to the hotel and bed. A really lovely evening.
Yesterday we visited the area of Angkor and particulary Angkok Wat (wat meaning temple). Ideally we would have been up super early to get there for sunrise but it was raining so we got a bit longer in bed and met at 8am instead. We then went on another minibus, through the water again and arrived at Angkor.
Firstly we headed to Angkor Thom, a walled city where one million people live. There are a number of temples inside Angkor Thom, the largest being Bayon (a bhuddist temple) so we headed in through the gate (guarded by 54 guards and 54 demons) and arrived at Bayon. We had a chance to look around the temple and learn more about it from our guide Kim.
We also went to see the temple Baphuon which has had some efforts to restore but due to poor foundations has had to be closed again. We got back on the bus and carried onto see Ta Kev and then Ta Prom. Ta Prom is best known as the temple used for the film Tombraider so we all got a chance to have our photo taken with the 'Angelina tree' (see cover shot).
We got back on the bus and headed to the main temple, Angkor Wat. It is a huge beautiful hindu temple and took over 30 years to build. It has a huge moat surrounding it and is 65 metres tall at it's highest point. No other buildings in Siem Reap are allowed to be taller than this as it is so sacred. We were able to climb up about two thirds of the height to see the great views from there.
By this point the humidity had got to us all and with the threat of rain we headed back to the hotel and a late lunch. We had the rest of the afternoon free so did a few chores and relaxed before meeting for dinner a bit later.
Last night we went to a local club/restaurant that shows local dance each night. I order a very yummy roast duck curry (£3) and we watched the different dances like the blessing dance, coconut dance, peacock dance and fishermans dance. It was really good to see this and learn a bit more about the meanings of the dances.
After dinner we headed to the night Market for a bit of a browse and some more massage! I had a foot massage although it seemed a bit pointless in the end as the river had risen further and we ended up wading through the water to get to the bar! Then it was time for some drinks!
The bar was called Angkor What? and we had a great evening drinking and dancing the night away. They even serve G&T's the way I think they should be...in a bucket!
This morning it was time for a lie in before out next bit of travelling. I am now on a local bus on the way to Phenom Phen, the capital of Cambodia. It is a six hour journey so a fair distance, but apart from the interesting overtaking manoeuvres (they basically beep the horn and then drive down the middle of the road) it isn't too bad. We will get there in time for dinner and then have tomorrow to explore. So far though, cambodia is fantastic country with such friendly people but a very sad history which I knew little about. We will visit the museums etc tomorrow so I will update you more in my next blog.
- comments
Nikki Glad you noted the Khyber food - can you believe nobody has picked up on that and opened a Cambodian restaurant yet? There is a Cambodian cafe in Camden but looking at the menu doesn't serve much of the stuff you want..... new business venture????? xxx