Almost A World Tour!

Alright Bloggers,

Ok - abit of a funny story, well sort of. Remember on my last blog entry we were making our way down from Phnom Penh to Kampot so we could get this "magical Hogwarts Express" style train through the Bokor National Park to Sihanoukville? Well we arrived in Kampot where there is pretty much nothing to do, got settled into our guesthuse for the night all excited about the big train ride the following day. We asked the guy at the guesthouse the best way to organise a ticket for the train and to our horror were advised that the train hasn't actually run for 2 years! Apparently the tracks are all worn out and there is no money to replace them. To be fair we are using a Lonely Planet which was published in 2004 but we were still pretty disappointed.

We got a taxi to Sihanoukville the following day instead (there are no buses before you think I'm flashing the cash) but in typical Cambodian style they cram as many people as possible in every vehicle. You pay by the seat so Mark and myself splashed out an additonal $3 for a seat and a half each meaning there was Me, Mark and some old dear in the back. This meant there were four people in the front, two in the passenger seat and two in the drivers seat. It was pretty wierd sat in the back looking the these four heads in front of you trying to guess who was pushing the peddles and who was steering.

Sihanoukville is really, really nice we were both really surprised that Cambodia could have such great beaches - just goes to show that Lonely Planet doesn't get it all wrong. So we have just kind of been relaxing on the beach and having a few beers with some peole we have met in the evenings. I must admit I caved in the other day and bought first travellers accessory, one of those friendship style bracelet things (although when you buy it for yourself does it still count as a friendship band or does it mean your trying abit too hard to look cool?) Anyway the girls came in with a very strong pitch of "buy a bracelet get a fruit salad free" so how could I say no. She even let me choose my own colours and design and then chatted non stop for an hour while she perched at the end of my deck chair making it, the Cambodian kids have got a real sense of humour.

Naturally I'm all psyched for England's World Cup debut tonight, we went to watch the Germany match last night and I survived that so there is hope for me still - COME ON THE LADS...!

Our next stop - Vietnam.

Morning Bloggers,

After 3 really good days in Siem Reap it as time to move on and check out the capital Phnom Penh. We both felt abit sad to leave Siem Reap because we had made some good mates especially with our Tuk-Tuk driver Mr D. He had been telling us how difficult business is in the low season and as he had been an absolute star driving us round all the temples we decided to start a book of testimonials for him to help secure future business and gave him a tip. You should have seen his little face - dare say we going to miss the little guy!

Anyway onto Phnom Penh - pretty straight forward bus journey on an actual bus this time, no pyscho's or guys with nets full of little birds, just five hours of Kareoke - my faverite way to travel! We were staying at a guesthouse ran by a mate of the guys in Siem Reap so we arrived to quite a welcoming party. We were whisked off through the crowds on the back of two mopeds - we both felt like celebs but without the fame or the fortune.

We ditched our stuff, got some food and decided we would get straight into the sights so The Killing Fields and S-21 (a torture prison) it was. The guy driving us told we could got to a shooting range and shoot all these mad guns, it wasn't far from the Killing Fields so we agreed to check it out. We were presented with "the menu" and before we knew we had handed over $30 and were taking aim with an AK-47! Felt like Samuel L Jackson in Jackie Brown - a real experience.

In retrospect this was in slightly bad taste as the next stop was the Killing Fields were hundreds of innocent people had been brutally murdered. As you walk in, there is a display of 800 recovered skulls of the victims, it is pretty sickening, powerful stuff. We then went to S-21, a prison where others were brutally totured. It was a very eerie place with lots of images of the victims and the torture techniques. We were both amazed at how evil people can be, we left feeling pretty sick. Naturally we went for beers with some guys from the guesthouse to cheer ourselves up afterwards.

Neither of us were really that taken with Phnom Penh, we spent the next few days exploring the place and chilling but decided we had seen all we wanted to so planned to move down to the south coast where there are apparently some really nice beaches (I hope Lonely Planet isn't lying - we need to get a tan so we no longer look like the new kids on the block)

We are going to split the journey down south by stopping in Kampot. There is a train you can catch there where you can sit on the roof and it goes through the Bokor National Park so we plan to do that for some decent scenery. We sorted our visa's for Vietnam in Phnom Penh so hopefully we will have a better border crossing this time!

Next Stop then Sihanoukville via Kampot.

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.