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Arrived in Siem Reap at 4pm after a long sweaty bus journey across Cambodia. Our previous guest house had phoned through and arranged a guest house for us and when we stepped of bus a swarm of tuk-tuk drivers surrounded everybody jostling for business........ Totally crazy and by far the most hasttle from any tuk-tuks I have experienced (and people comment on India being bad, this was by far worse then anything experienced there!!). We located a sign with Mr Paul and Mr Steve written on it and jumped in tuk-tuk to be taken to the guest house. Quiet a swanky little number we were taken to but then bit more expensive at $4 each. Was not going to exactly brake the bank though so checked in and then checked out the town. Ended up on a street which looked like something out of a European holiday resort. You could mistake oyurself for being in Spain along here with all the big signs and lights. Stopped off in one of them and had some dinner and beers. Saw Josh (from Saigon) wandering past so yelled at him to join us for a beer or two.
Next morning we talked to a tuk-tuk driver at guest house and once again negotiated a price to be taken to the temples of Angkor Wat. They were all really impressive looking and can see why so many people make journey to Siem Reap to view them. One of them had been overrun with trees growing through it and looked all the more impressive as a result of this with roots growing thorugh and over the crumbling temples. Had an almighty downpour at the end of the day but this was most welcomed given the intense heat experinced in the day prior to this and enjoyed a nice wander around in this.
That evening we met Steves mate from Back home in the Angkor What bar and had a few beers with him and some people we had met from a tour group the night before. One of these was a Canadian/Vietnamese so tried out my small knowledge of the language on her which was met with the usual puzzled look I received from most people in Vietnam!!! Oh well.
The following day Steve and myself had a walk around the market and just had a generally lazy day. Met his mate again that evening in the same bar. We had planned to go from here up to the northern tip of Cambodia via some small villages along the way before crossing the border here into Laos. However due to lack of planning on this and not realising that visas were not availble on the border for Laos and had to be applied for in advance in Phnom Penh (yes thats correct where we had just come from!!!!). We did not want to head back on ourselves so changed our plans and decided to head over the border into Thailand for a few days before then entering Laos from here. Totally gutted about the mishap here and the premature departure from Cambodia as a result, however I had not been overly impressed with Cambodia in the short time I had spent here and it did not have the same initial draw to it that Vietnam did on me, so was happy to head into Laos now via Thailand espcially since from people I have spoken to together with what I have read I would rather spend longer in Laos anyway. So booked onto a bus for the following day.
Next morning were picked up at guest house by a tuk-tuk who was late and as a result were dispatched at side of road to wait for bus here. Driver shortly returned and re-dispatched us to another drop of a little further up the road. We were told that the bus was a luxury a/c bus with toliet on board, so were a little surprised when a clapped out black smoking exhausted bus turned up which was a/c via the open windows and holes in the shell of it!!! Still done some other buses like this before aso nothing knew and I was therefore not bothered by this. After all I can sleep anywhere anyway. haha.Bags were all loaded into bus with us and piled in the walkway and off we went. Lots of people could'nt get on bus as no rom and total chaos. Nothing like the organised Vietnamese and Cambodia clearly still has a bit to learn on the old toursim front. Oh well roll on Thailand!!!
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