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Wednesday 10th June 2009 Travel day
Today was a very long day starting at 6am. Once we were dressed and completed packing it was into a tuk tuk and to the bus station. The bus left at 7:15 from Sihanoukville back to Phnom Penh. We reached Phnom Penh at 11:30am hung around for half an hour and then caught another bus to Siem Reap. After a very long and sweaty 6 hours (the air con had broken and every time we tried to open the one window we were very quickly told no!!) we eventually reached Siem Reap at 6:15pm. So near enough 12 hours of travelling!!! Thankfully we had pre booked accomadation at Rosy's guesthouse and this included a free pick up. Out of the window we quickly spotted a guy with a sign with my name on. Now I feel special!! Not for the first time may I add. After rescuing our bags before they hit the mud (it was raining) we jumped into the tuk tuk and were taken straight to the guest house. Rosy's guest house is western run with Khmer staff and first impressions were this is nice! And it didn't dissapoint. After checking in and getting settled we headed for the bar and had a well desrved beer or 2!! As we were both knackered and couldn't quite be bothered to explore until tomorrow we had a very nice dinner at the guesthouse bar. I had Chicken Amok (Cambodian mild coconut curry) and Caroline had a Thai dish. Afterwards we had a bit of a battle over Connect 4 (I won much to Carolines disgust! Ha Ha) and then at about 10pmish we headed up to bed with a DVD!! Not that much of it was watched as we both fell asleep very quickly!!
Thursday 12th June 2009, Siem Reap
We had a lay in today so didn't make it downstairs until about 11am. Once down we had a coffee and a pineapple slushie to start the day. Whilst we were having our morning cuppa we got talking to Lisa (Irish girl travelling on her own) and we all decided that it would be nice to do the Angkor temples together tomorrow. We had already decided that that was what we were doing and she was toying with the idea of doing 3 days at the temples but very quickly decided that actually we could actually cover quite a lot in 1 day with an early start. As we were just chilling and exploring Siem Reap today she came with us.
The walk into town from the guest house took about half an hour and most of it was along the river. Quite scenic but certainly wouldn't want to swim in it like the locals. We had decided that we wanted to have lunch at the Blue Pumpkin as we had heard good reports about its cakes and ice cream. Also it had good review in our travel guide. And you'll be pleased to know it was lovely. We had our lunch in the lounge area which was above the deli. On walking in we were greeted with big white bed/sofas, so we swiftly took a seat positioned around a portable table and ordered some very nice salads and smoothies.
After lunch we took a walk around the town in search of the Artisans d'Angkor. We'd been told by the guesthouse it was a good place to visit as it's a community project and no one hassles you to buy anything as there just happy to show you around. It turned out to be very true. It's a centre of arts and crafts. All the workshops are open to visitors and we got a guide to show us around. The first workshop was a silk painting workshop. All the people in the workshop were deaf. As Cambodia does not have any form of help for people with disabilities and in fact their looked down on, it is rare for disabled people to be able to find work. There is also no welfare system so it can be really tough for them. But there are places like this around. They get full training and learn various skills to then enable them to work. The Artisans d'Angkor also provides accommodation and they get paid. All the goods produced at the centre are sold. Sometimes at the centre shop but also to local and national businesses. So all articles of art have to be perfect. As well as the silk painting we also saw wood carvings and masonry. The centre we went to was the Ecoles branch but they also have a silk farm as well. As well as disabled employees it is also a project trying to help rural woman and men learn new skills. After we had looked around the workshops we spent a good long while exploring the gift shop. If this had just been a holiday I/we could have spent so much money. The stuff they were selling was gorgeous.
From here Lisa went off in search of a camera shop and we went in search of a shopping mall. No such luck the only one we found was nothing like we have at home and with very few shops. Around this time it looked very much like it was going to rain so we took cover at The Banana Leaf and had a drink. Then we waited and we waited but the black cloud kind of disappeared and no rain came. From here we went to look at the main market but neither of us could quite be bothered with the constant hassling so after a brief walk around, including finding the night market (but not really open as we were too early) we headed back to The Blue Pumpkin for ice cream sundaes. Yummy!!! After this we headed back to the guesthouse for a shower although we first spend some time reading on the balcony, and then once we were changed we caught a tuk tuk back into town to The Alley area. Dinner tonight was at the Cambodian BBQ. We had a shared platter of meat which included chicken, beef, SNAKE, CROCODILE and squid. Must say the snake was very tasty!! We had to cook it ourselves on a bbq on the table and then it came with noodles, rice, vegetables and a broth. Together all very tasty. Although can anyone tell me how long you cook snake for? No, we didn't know either so lots of guess work!!
After dinner we headed back to Rosy's, had a couple of beers and then bed about 11pmish.
Please see Siem Reap 2 for Friday and temple day! xx
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