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Ok kids, so firstly - my apologies on the delays between updates. I wrote 4 days worth & it didn't save. I was pretty cranky & nearly threw in the towel on the entire blog, but have decided to rewrite it & forge on.
Secondly.. If you have Skype on your phone, please add me (Tash.wills) so that I can call u when I have wifi (might be hard with the time differences & the call will be a bit dodgy, but still worth a go)..
Okii dokii.. So I left you in Bangkok, & that seriously feels like weeks ago now, though it was only 5 days! Haha. So much to fill you in on, so settle in with a cuppa cause here goes nothing...
So after my few quiet drinks when I last wrote, I went to meet my group for the first leg of my tour. There are 12 of us all up for the Cambodia leg & my roommate Julia is actually with me the entire 40 day trip. Thankfully she's pretty awesome & we get along well - stress less though Debbie, she will never replace you I swear :)
As a group we ventured to Khao San Road for dinner & a few of us stayed back for a drink & a wander. The others purchased beers, but I was making the most of the situation & got myself a Smirnoff Black from the 7-11 for less than $2 (#WINNING!).. Already I could tell that I was going to be part of the 'party group'. (Turns out I'm actually the youngest of the tour also). We didn't stay out too late though as we had a 6.45am bus to catch so we headed home :)
The next day, was a big one. OMFG. Thankfully we had private buses for this leg of the journey. We had a short stop at the Cambodian embassy, where we handed over our passports & 1000 baht ($30) & our guide Sareth took them way for 20 mins to get us some dodgy visas. We had a few interesting food stops along the way at very local fuel stations. Lets just say that all those squats & lunges have paid off, as I'm basically a pro at using a squat toilet while wearing my back pack & holding my tissues in one hand & my hand sanitizer in the other. It was, umm, interesting (but not the worst I've encountered since then! Yuck! Haha).. We spent about an hour of standing in the heat to line up & cross the boarder into Cambodia, before sharing a very dodgy 'shuttle bus' with some other tourists for about 20mins till we were back on a private bus. We didn't get to Siem Reap till about 5.30, so a big day of traveling.
After checking in to our Guest House, we then wandered the streets of Siem Reap before heading to an amazing restaurant - I exercised so so much will power at this point, 2-4-1 $5 cocktails that went down like Lolly-water. I still don't know how I stopped at 2! Must be a sign of old age...!
Oh no wait, perhaps it was due to the 4.30am alarm if set for the next day so that we could go see the sunrise over Angkor Wat. Yeah, that was it.
It was an early morning, however I'm really loving my new habit of no make-up, no brushing of the hair & just chucking on whatever is on top of my backpack & not giving a s*** if it coordinates or not! Means I slept in & was ready for the ride out to Angkor Wat. My new habit semi backfired on me though, as we had to get our photos taken when we purchased our tickets & have them with us all day to make sure people weren't sneaking in for free. Therefore my photo looks quite rubbish, but thankfully I wasn't there for the photo if myself, I was there for Angkor Wat. Thankfully, Angkor Wat delivered in spades - what an incredible day & an amazing experience (despite the thousands of other people who were also up to see the sunrise). We went to 5 different temples, I was sweating like a pig though & had to purchase a $1 fold our fan - turns out this was the best freaking $1 I've ever spent in my life! Haha. (I also picked up a pack of postcards from some of the local kids selling them on the street. As I'm sure you can assume, I've been to lazy to write in them yet!). There was a LOT of walking, but the temples were truly spectacular. We also paid a visit to the Landmine Museum - that was pretty heartbreaking. We finally went to the Pre Rup Temple for sunset. Once again all my squats & lunges paid off as I sent myself up Apx 3 flights if very steep stairs to the top of the temple for sunset. I even managed to get myself in a bit of trouble for playing a hacky-sack type game up the top of the temple as we waited. In hindsight, we were very high up on a 1000 year old landmark with very uneven ground & no barriers.. Yep my Health & Safety training paid off well.. Haha. The sunset was truly amazing though & totally worth the wait.
After a massive day a few of us ventured into Pub Street for dinner at a Cambodian BBQ. We cooked the god ourselves on the grills on our table, despite a few misunderstandings due to the language barrier. I even ate some crocodile. YUMMO. I basically inhaled the local cocktail 'Chi Chi' & was feeling rather happy despite the long tiresome day. It turns out it was one of the guys birthdays, so i managed to twist my roomie's arm & the 3 of us headed out for 'one drinks & half an hour of dancing'... I'm not going to lay blame or point fingers, but a quiet dance & a few games of pool lead to us having far too many drinks, new friends were made (an Aussie backpacker & an Irish man who lives in Siem Reap), podiums were danced on etc. Next thing you know, we are at a rooftop bar that had a skateboard ramp before the funniest TukTuk ride home at about 1am (we think, none of us are quite sure!!). Quite impressive effort after such a big day! :)
So Wednesday (20/3), Julia & I were up early despite the adventures if the night before. By 9am we were back wandering the streets & being hassles by TukTuk drivers. Instead we wandered for a bit till we came across a very local cafe were all the off duty TukTuk drivers were eating. There were a lot of stares as we walked in & only one person who spoke very very broken English, but we persevered & had the most AMAZING noodle soup & a delicious tea of unknown origin. We then continued to wander the streets, splashing out on a $3 pedicure (my feet were that gross that I had a lady working on each foot- it was a bit odd) & did a bit of shopping. Not too much shopping though some how. By some miracle, I'm actually exercising so much self control, I think something is wrong with me! Haha.
That afternoon as a group, we all headed to a silk weaving school & a wood carving school. It was pretty amazing, but I felt like I was watching animals in a sweat-shop/Zoo before we were swept into the aircon'd shop were there were many an overpriced item. I was my usual stingy self & didn't purchase anything! :)
We then headed off to the Floating Village. Floating down this stinky muddy river, crashing in to other boats as we snuck through. Brought some of the river home with me as was splashed by a passing boat (my cream bag now has brown sloshes on it! Yum!) Dodging mozzies all round... Then the houses - they were pretty amazing up 2-3 stories, would love to see them in the wet season, but also felt like I was watching animals in a zoo. The young kids running out and dancing 'gangham style' was HILARIOUS!!! Lol. Then on the way home I ventured out with Mel & Benn (couple from Sydney), where we wandered round the markets, with Benn cracking up the locals with his attempts to speak Khmer & teaching them to say 'see you later alligator' haha. Then I proceeded to eat my daily calorie intake in the form of a chocolate & banana pancake purchased from a street stall before we all headed home.. :)
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