Cambodia

Siem Reep - Battambang - Kampot - Sihanoukville

Having beached ourselves at Ko Chang long enough - well our visa was expiring, we hopped on a bus to Cambodia, which wasn't as easy as it sounds. Firstly we had a mini bus instead of the VIP luxury coach as promised! On the ferry there was a very obvious lady boy selling drinks who was constantly powdering his/her nose in the mirror, which was quite funny. As we neared the Cambodian border we were forced into a cafe and told they would fetch our visa's for us for just 100 (Baht - £2) each making it 1200B each, we refused the kind offer which pissed them off of course, so they dumped us at the border where you need to pass by the fake visa offices into the Cambodian side and get the visa there. Which was only 850B not the 1100B they tell you. Having got through that trap, we then had to find our bus the other side with a piece of yellow sticky tape as a ticket stuck to our shirts, in the pouring rain - not very effective! We found a group of other yellow sticky people boarding a public bus that took us to the main bus station where we spent half an hour waiting for our bus then another hour on it before it collected enough people to leave. When it did we were then treated to some wonderful Cambodian music specials - that sounded like cats being murdered! On top of that we stopped every hour at various restaurants because of "road saftey", in the same country where you can have seven people on one small motorbike and ten in a taxi - Scambodia!

When we finally arrived at Siem reap, we were tired hungry and still in shock from how bad the journey was. We met a guy called Jay from Hawaii through mutual refusing to buy anything from the places we stopped. He was quite into trying the local cuisine as well, so not your typical American! We tried the Cambodian speciality of Amok - fish cooked in coconut sauce, which was really good, complemented by a $0.50 beer! Suddenly we started to like Cambodia a lot!

Our first day a relaxing day exploring the town and various $0.50 beers, we prepared ourselves for more temple action. The ticket to see Siem reap is pretty steep (no rhyming intended!), $20 for a day or $40 for three days. We opted for 3 days as there is lots to see, but after two days of climbing over ruins, up mountains and peddling in the sun, we were "all templed out"! Bear in mind that having been in Asia for a while now, and everywhere you there are temples, palaces etc, although the Anchor temples are impressive and individual, there's only so much we could take! On the first day we took a dreaded tuk tuk to the further out temples, the scenery alone was worth it. We liked the ones we could just hop off and explore, but there were those like Banteay Samre that were a bit more challenging (we didn't know banteay is Cambodian for mountain!). Having climbed the longest ever stair case we saw a once impressive temple, but the Khmer rouge certainly left its mark.

On our next temple adventure we rented bikes and cycled the 10km out to the closer temples and saw all the famous sights like Anchor Watt, but my most favoured was Bayon (the one with the faces!), which is still mostly in tact.

Siem reap's town is mainly built for the tourists, but its fairly cheap and quite entertaining. 'Pub street' is at the centre of everything where there's some good eating joints and plenty of cheap beer. A recommended experience is getting your feet cleaned by the fish, where you get free beer, and once you get over the strange sensation its quite nice. Also recommended is the mexican place that boasts the most frozen margaritas sold in Siem reap, not that there's much competition! Not everyones cup of tea but the 'Happy pizza' or if your brave 'Ecstatic pizza', is shall I say an experience! There's always the siam buckets to keep you happy though!

Moving on from Siem reap we stopped by at the more realistic town of Battembang, not very touristy, a welcome change.We had to, just had to go on the bamboo train, just to say "I've been on a bamboo train"! Its a bit of a pointless exercise to be honest, but theres some fairly good scenery, and its not something that will probably be around for much longer since there are plans to put in a decent train system in the near future.

On our second day there we went to visit the caves that were used for executing masses of people during the Khmer rouge. The place still has eeriness to it particularly as all the skulls are still down there, and some pretty graphic bits of artwork, to give you a good impression of what happened there. The locals are quite keen to give you a free history lesson, our tuk tuk driver 'Tin Tin' who spoke very good english, accent and all, gave us a full briefing before our climb up the mountain. Having a local to explain everything and show you around certainly enriches the experience here, I instantly liked Tin Tin as I was angrily pushing my way through hords of tuk tuk drivers he said "calm down love, don't get your knickers in a twist" in a slightly odd english accent, not what I was expecting to hear at all!

For food in Battembang I'd definitely recommend the Gecko cafe, that has a really good atmosphere, complete with plenty of gecko's scampering around. Its a tad more expensive then average but the portions are huge!

From Battembang we had the worst ever journey to Kampot. First we got a bus that left an hour late, but we're used to that. The main problem was that ever so terrible Cambodian karoke on full blast, followed by some kind of clown show, that was equally as torturous as a woman with very high pitched voice squarked all the way through it. When we reached Phom pen where our connecting bus was due to be leaving in the next five minutes. We then got told there was no bus and after speaking to an array of people we ended up being stuffed into a taxi with a family of five and then an elderly couple stuffed in the front seat. Of course we probably take up the space of about 4 Cambodians! It was more cosy then I like to put it lightly and for 3hr journey we weren't seeing the funny side until at least 3 beers later! I did like how the taxi driver made the guy who was perched on the edge of the drivers side get out while he bribed the police!

Our destination Kampot was a really lovely little place, famous for the pepper but they make salt to, fact! We stayed at 'The magic sponge' guesthouse, which stands out because of its old shaped building (formally a bank), and miniature golf course outside! The guy running it was hilarious an aged hippy called Martin with a thick raspy Yorkshire accent, he was really welcoming bloke with a nothing's too much trouble attitude. Its the kind of place to chill out, sit in bars and watch the world go by, not really an action/adventure hub. We took a bike ride for 15km uphill and were eventually greeted by a man holding an AK47 and decided to turn around. We stuck to more mundane activities after that, like a taking a nice, easy river cruise to watch the sunset, although we didn't actually see the sunset! Still there was some nice scenery.

As for restaurants and bars in Kampot, the Rikitikitavi although pricey definitely takes first prize for its Saraman curry - awesome. The world famous (apparently) Rusty Keyhole 1kg of ribs is also a local favourite (as most of the locals are retired expats!).

Next we headed down to Sinokville, which is great if you've just finished your A levels, but its over priced and lacking any kind of culture - a bit like a Cambodian Benidorm! Otres beach is much nicer than Seindepity, but there are way better beaches to be found else where in Thailand and Vietnam - so I wouldn't bother with this place. Although if you're missing any home comfort food like heinz beans on toast or chips, cheese and gravy, you can guarentee to find it here!! The local market does some alright food much cheaper though.

Having had enough of sCambodia, we headed to Ko Tao in search of some diving action!