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7.30 in the morning and we were in a narrow boat charging back towards mainland Laos and our bus taking us directly to Siem Reap, Cambodia. After negotiating the single plank of wood with all our luggage (still no backpack straps required Clairefield!) we walked up the dusty street where the bus was waiting. Should have been waiting. Was due any minute. An hour later (why oh why do they continue to make me get up early for no reason) in the boiling heat, and the bus finally arrived. The luggage door was duly opened and our luggage was thrown inside with the usual due care and attention, only this time there were cabbages. Lots of cabbages. Probably around two hundred cabbages that all our luggage was thrown on top of, around, underneath. Well, we'd heard stories of dead cows and luggage dripping in blood so cabbages didn't seem that bad, and as I told BG, we had lots of wet wipes that would surely eradicate the cabbage smell...eventually...
Now just a mere nine hours away from Siem Reap, we just had to sit back, relax, get a book out and try and manoeuvre our legs into a position that vaguely resembled comfort. Oh and get through the Laos / Cambodia border. We'd read about this border crossing and it sounded one of the trickier ones. Hidden in dense forest, the guide book warned of mass poverty and corruption. We were likely to be asked to pay for our passport to be stamped out of Laos which was illegal. We should ask for a receipt, or their name and worse case, take a photo as which point our trusty Lonely Planet assured us, they would back down. Arriving at the crossing, once again, every other tourist on the bus blithely handed over their passport and $30 (we knew it should cost $25) while we refused, created a scene and made the guide and our fellow travellers hate us once again as we insisted on doing the crossing ourselves. Arriving at the official Laos border (a bamboo shack in the middle of nowhere), we were immediately told by the official that we needed to hand over $1 each to get our passport stamped. Ah ha. We'd done our research, triumphantly asked for a receipt and waited for him to back down. Thanks Lonely Planet, the conversation progressed as follows:
Official: 'No receipt'
Us: 'No receipt no dollars'
Official: 'No dollars, no stamp'
Us: 'What's your name'
Official: 'No name, $2'
Us: 'No dollars, stamp our passport'
Evil Official: 'No dollars, no stamp. You try to get to Cambodia without it' *throws passports back at us and slams shut perspex window*
Us (through window): 'We'll take your photo'
Evil Official (bothered, through window): 'No photo. $2'
Us: Spend 5 minutes debating whether we can actually get into Cambodia without being stamped out of Laos, watch the bus revving its engine, weigh up principles versus £1.30.
Us (weedy and defeated): 'Here's two dollars'
Evil Official: *stamp, stamp*
Us: A mixture of obscenities and lecture on honesty.
Evil Official (still not bothered): *puts dollars into pocket*
Getting stamped into Cambodia was a breeze compared to that and after one hair-raising moment where we had our 'health check' (another $2) baring in mind I still have a chest infection and a temperature of sky high and have to tick a form before being allowed entry; cough - no, temperature - no, cold - no... we were back on the bus being glared at by everyone who'd just handed over their passports and money and been ready for twenty minutes. The rest of the journey was uneventful (if a little painful on the knees) and after a quick stop to unload two hundred cabbages onto the side of the road and fill the space with five motorbikes (!), we finally pulled into Siem Reap a mere two hours late to meet our tuk tuk driver who'd been waiting in torrential rain for us.
Next morning and I was still feeling horrendous so BG had to fly solo for the next three days while I was coughing and spluttering as only I know how. Driven around by Mr T (seriously) - ironically a midget, he visited many temples, a floating village and climbed a waterfall to see thousands of year old carvings etched into the stone river bed. My favourite story though was the day he saw a bright green poisonous snake and thought his end had come. Trying to stay calm, he'd asked his guide if the snake was ok but the guide mimed death without a hint of sarcasm. Poor BG managed to take a photo that's really blurred because he was shaking so much and couldn't tell me about it without sweating and having a little sit down when he got home!
We were now staying in probably the most palatial place we'd been able to afford since leaving home and thanks to creature comforts such as super clean bedlinen and bathroom, hair dryer and satellite TV (all for £15 a night) I was feeling much better. BG persuaded me that I was well enough to be shepherded into a tuk tuk and driven round Ankor Wat (which he'd left til last hoping I'd be well enough to come) so off we went. After about two minutes of BG telling me how nice it was to have me with him and how more fun it was with me there, his chat quickly turned to how much more spacious the tuk tuk had felt on the previous two days and how it had been much more comfortable when he'd had room to put his feet up etc etc. Thanks.
First stop was Ankor Wat which was pretty cool but essentially still a temple and you know my thoughts on these. It was interesting and BG loved it but I can't say I was blown away. I'll let the photos do the talking here. On the way back to the tuk tuk, we went via the street market to get some drinks when I looked down to see a HUGE spider on my shoulder. And BG will back me up that it was ginormous. I'm generally not freaked out by bugs or spiders but this one was so big (and potentially poisonous) that I couldn't help but shriek and scream and try to get it off me at the same time, much to the amusement of all the market stall holders. Next stop was another temple which again was quite interesting, mainly because of the stone carvings which were pretty incredible, but essentially I had to entertain myself my doing impressions of elephants and Buddhas while BG walked around in awe.
Last stop was the final temple of the day and the place where Tomb Raider was filmed. OMG. Amazing. Finally a temple that I thought was worth the hype. Crumbling stone passages, towers and carvings left to succumb to the force of nature. Huge trees literally grew right out of the stone with branches and vines suffocating what was left of the temple. It was completely magical and felt like we were in a different world. We spent a happy couple of hours exploring far away from the crowds in a health and safety nightmare, scrabbling over loose boulders and huge tree roots, past monks with huge SLR cameras (aren't they meant to renounce all worldy possessions?!) and pretending to be Challenge Anneka (ok, that was just me). It really is a place that is impossible to put into words.
Later that night, and my first proper meal in ages, we decided to treat ourselves to a Cambodian BBQ. We'd read lots about them in our guide books and they appeared to be a rite of passage, so later that evening we sat down as a tray of raw beef, chicken, ostrich, crocodile and snake were brought to our table along with a mini BBQ for us to cook it on. The cooking instructions seemed somewhat limited (and frankly, food poisoning waiting to happen), beef first, then everything else (no mention of cooking times) but I think we did Delia proud. While I tried everything (it was all really tasty), BG hit a stumbling block when it came to the snake. Another one of his irrational fears (along with spiders, sharks...) he tried a couple of times to eat it (make sure you watch the film in the video section, it's hilarious) but then declared that it was 'bad karma and if he ate the snake, tomorrow he might get bitten'. I did point that I've seen him eat many chickens in my time, but to my knowledge, he's never been attacked by one, but this did nothing to encourage him and sadly he couldn't be persuaded.
The next day we hired bicycles for the day and spent many happy hours cycling in the sunshine, eating icecream and treating ourselves to some TLC. BG, in desperate need of a haircut, blew the budget on a $5 deal that included a haircut, mani, pedi and wet shave. Bargain (although it turned out the mani / pedi was some girl spending thirty seconds cutting his nails and the wet shave was in fact done in freezing cold water and a bit painful by all accounts). I on the other hand, went to a proper spa and spent $15 on a foot scrub and pedicure which I have to say was one of the best $15 I've ever spent. It took two hours in total and afterwards my feet were baby smooth and polished to perfection. That night we headed back to 'pub street' and the night market where we enjoyed more amazingly cheap food and some bargain shopping and completely by chance bumped into Juan and Gonzo (our two poolside friends from Laos). Such a great coinsidence and we enjoyed a happy supper together catching up on where we'd been since we last saw each other.
Next day we decided to treat ourselves to a quad bike tour of Siem Reap. Although completely out of the budget we'd read such fantastic things we decided it was worth it. Upon arrival we had to do a quick quad bike test to ensure we were road safe. BG (like a kid in a candy shop) whooped and yelled and passed with flying colours. I am proud to announce that I am the first person who's ever failed this test (why do they make you do the test run next to a stream, it's just asking for trouble) and wasn't even allowed to drive the bike back up the road to the centre where the guide announced 'You really bad. You sit on back of boys bike'. Gah.
As we were the only two people who'd turned up, we had a guide to ourselves, a twenty something Cambodian guy who handed us some rain covers (just our luck, the heavens opened as we were about to leave) and led the way. What followed was by far our favourite experience of the whole trip end will definitely go down as one of the best days in my whole life. Ever. Three hours dashing though the Cambodian countryside (in the teeming down rain), past villages, bamboo constructions, rivers, lakes and rice paddies. The best part of it was the children. It is so hard to put into words to do it justice, but everytime we went through a village, scores of children would run out of their bamboo houses and up to the roadside and wave and cheer and smile at us as we went past. It was completely magical. You'll have to excuse the very blurred photos as I was hanging onto the back of the bike doing forty miles an hour, trying to take photos and not fall off into the dense mud at the same time while BG was on a mission or get me as muddy and wet as possible! Check out the video section for the films of us driving through the waterlogged roads (well, BG driving, me mostly screaming at how muddy I was getting). AMAZING. Complete waste of time getting a pedicure the day before though as my feet got completely ruined and mud clogged (which took days to get clean again!). We arrived back at our hotel three hours later completely exhilarated, coved in mud and soaking wet, a great last day in Siem Reap.
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