Cambodia

Bloggers,

We arrived in Siem Reap, Cambodia two days ago after the longest journey of my life.

Mr Tong from the Monkey Bar dropped us off at the mainland from Don Det at 8am and we all piled into the back of a pickup to get to the border. We got stamped out of Laos fine but when we arrived at the Cambodian immigration we didn't have a visa as we were told you can get it on arrival. There was no way they would let us in (there was about 10 of from the bus in the same situation) so we all got back on the bus and had to drive a further hour to a different border crossing where we could get a visa. Got fleeced again for money to get stamped but only by a few dollars this time!

We travelled to Stang Treng where we stopped for lunch and had to trasfer to another bus. I am not kidding you now but the bus that arrived to take us the rest of the journey was the worst I had ever seen! It was a Mini Bus with no interior apart from seats, holes in the floor, the sliding door fell off everytime it was opened. It was an awful thought to think we had to spend the next 6 odd hours on it.

Some of the roads in Cambodia are just like dirt tracks so it really uncomfortable and noisy journey, luckily we were with a really nice group of people so we had pretty good banter which made the journey slightly better. We eventually got to Kampong Cham at midnight rather than 8pm so we had been travelling for 16 hours! We just got a room, had a shower and went sright to bed.

The bus the following morning to Siem Reap was a proper bus so it was much better, we travelled with two Danish guys we had met the day before so we had a laugh. We are now all staying in the same guesthouse so we have been going for beers and hanging out together at night.

Cambodia was a real culture shock at first, there are people begging and trying to sell you things everywhere so it takes getting used to but now I am starting to enjoy it. We went out last night with some of the guys who run the guesthouse to eat and then they took us to a club. I didnt think I would ever go clubbing in Cambodia but obviously there have been loads of tourists visiting over the past few years so more and more guesthouses, bars & restuarants have opened to accomodate this.

Yesterday we went to the temples of Ankor Wat. The guys at the guesthouse put on a DVD all about the history of Cambodia and the temples before we went which really helped to appreciate the history. They were absolutley stunning, I was so impressed by them. We watched the sun set there - very cool.

Tomorrow we are heading to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.