SIEM REIP

We left Bangkok at 5am to catch a taxi to the bus station and arrived 30 mins later ready to catch the 6am bus to the dreaed Poipet border with Cambodia. The 5 hour journey actually went very quickly thanks in main to the tarmac roads! From the border town in Thailand we took a Tuk Tuk to the border crossing where we were met by 'helpful' people who wanted to arrange our visa .... they were so dissappointed / bemused when we explained that we already had a visa! Brief formalities and we crossed in Cambodia ....... wow, the difference was immediate .... the road just stopped, burning rubbish was everywhere and people were transporting their goods on huge carts propelled by a hand crank with the 'driver'sitting on top ....

Made our way to a taxi stop and were told that a taxi to Siem Reip was $60 dollars .... waited for other people to share the taxi with to turn up for an hour then decided to just get there and arranged a taxi for $45. Driver then spent ages trying to phone his friends to see if they wanteed a lift. One flat tyre, several deep fried starlings, a print shop stop, one hitchhiker and a tyre repar shop (repaired tyre with some glue and a leather patch) later (plus another 5 hours) and we reached Siem Reip. The 'road' was appalling'and is said to be non navigable in the wet season ... we can understand why!

Arrived at a guesthouse that we had booked but had to check out the next day as the aircon was set permantly to freezing and could not be turned off (apparently they knew about it but can't get anyone to fix it). Glad we had to move as found a really nice guesthouse just around the corner for half the price.

Siem Reip is a great little town ... fast becoming very touristy but with great local areas (where we stayed) so it was nice to have the western comforts whilst also seeing what local life was like .... mostly food stalls and beer! One thing we noticed was the prevelance of Molotov Cocktail stands everywhere .... petrol in coke bottle are sold everywhere as there are very few petrol stations ..... handy if there happens to be a riot.

As to Angkor ......... words cannot do it justice ..... we spent 3 days cycling around all the temples and we were stunned by the craftsmanship of these people. It was fascinating to look at the different styles of carvings which can be dated according to the dress of the figures depicted in the carvings. Our personal favourite was the Bayon period ...... Angkor Wat? Again truly amazing but for us there were better, more interesting temples and we are not sure why it is that this one gets all the attention ... Angkor Thom has, in our opinion, much more to offer as do many of the other, smaller, seldom visited temples.

We spent a week here enjoying the sights and the relaxed atmospere before booking a river boat to take us down to Battambang .....

BATTAMBANG

Arrived after having taken the 6 hour river boat from Siem Reip. No room on the boat deck so had to sit/sprawl on the roof ..... given that the sun here is probably the feircest taht we have encountered it made for a very hot trip! Amazing journey though and we would recommend it to anyone. It was fascinating to pass the river communities living on floating islands or on raised stilts and it was wonderful to experience the friendliness of everyone we passed by ( we wonder how long this will last ) .......

Battembang itself is just another rather grubby city. Sure, there are a few architectural gems but we cold not actually say that we liked the atmosphere of the city. We were planning on taking a cooking class here but having eaten at the restaurant we decided that we did'nt want to learn to cook badly (worst food we have had in Asia which has mostly been excellent). So, instead of lingering we stayed only 2 nights before moving on by bus to Phnom Penh.....

PHNOM PENH

Left Battembang at 7:30 and arrived in the city 7 hours later. Both Emma and I took turns looking for accomodation which seemed to pretty thin on the ground. However, having left Emma with an iced coffee in a bar I managed to find a nice room on the top floor of Hotel Mingood which overlooked the river. Dumped the bags and went for an explore .........

Pnom Penh is just an amazing city ..... vibrant, buzzing, gritty, dirty, pretty, noisy, interesting and a host of other things! At this point in our travels we had started to miss th ecreature comforts of home and so threw ourselves at the Foreign Correspondents Club with wanton abandonment. Food and drinks 3 times those of a restaurant outside but damn those cocktails are good! Actually, we would have to say that they are second only to those at the Pnom Penh Hilton which are really really really good (and strong). Spent many an evening enjoying the food, wine, cocktails and view from the balcony which overlooked the Mekong.

Phnom Penh iteslf has a host of attractions such as the Royal Palace, an excellent Museum, a good traditional Khmer shadow puppet show (very very few of which exist due the Khmer Rouge reign of terror) and just great spots to people watch. We spent close to a whole day at Tuong Sleng (S21) Museum where the evidence of man's cruelty is painfully abundant. We cannot begin to describe th esuffering of the Cambodian people but recommend people to at least read one book on the subject. Surviving The Killing Fields by Ngor S Haing is a very readable but also deeply disturbing book which describes life in Cambodia pre and post Khmer Rouge rule.

SIHANOUVILLE

Travelled down from Phnom Penh to ihanouvile on a very comfortable bus .... strange to think that less than 10 years ago tourists were taken off a bus on the same route and shot by Khmer Rouge.

Sihanouville is beautiful and we quickly settled into the beach bungalow that we had rented for the week to celebrate Christmas. Once settled in we took a trip into 'town' to buy all the goodies that we thought neccessary for a good Christmas ... ie Port, Champagne, bee, wine and a few nuts!

KAMPOT

Kampot is a great, mouldering French colonial town that just exudes charm and a lack of sophistication ..... we love it! Headed here afetr Sihanouville and so glad we did as this is a real town which sees comparitively few tourists (although we cannot think why). The main reason we came here was to take a jeep into the hills to visit the deserted tea plantations and Casino.

PHNOM PENH

Doh! We just cannot stay away from Phnom Penh .... damn those cocktails are good! Our excuse was that we wanted to travel down the Mekong by boat to the first town in Vietnam called Chau Doc. Anyway, who needs an excuse to visit one of our favourite capital cities in the world?