We arrived in Siem Reap last night following 3 hours sleep to get up at 4:30am to board the 5:55am hot and uncomfortable 6 hour train to the border. There we had to battle with people claiming they were the official Cambodian immigration (on the Thai side?!) where our tuk tuk tried to drop us off and then people saying you could only get a visa on the Thai side, plus lots of kids who will apparently try to snatch your things or pick pocket you given half the chance (so the border crossing advice states). One kid was well after my crisps-no chance! We then sucked up paying £2 each on top of our visa for the Cambodian officials 'tea money'. I just haven't got it in me to fight over a small amount like that with notoriously corrupt officials!
Next we had to take a 3 hour bus to Siem Reap, even hotter than the train plus we were really squashed in. A lowlight was the driver slamming on his brakes for an impromptu emergency stop for a cow crossing the road. The lads sat facing us went flying into us-I'm waiting for a hefty bruise on the back of my leg where it was thrown into some metal under my seat. It might even be worse than our bruised legs yesterday (coming up!).
So for the last 4 days we have been relaxing in Bangkok. Ben bought an impressive white iPad 2 and after only a couple of days we have downloaded about 1,000 photos onto a storage website. Good times! It was pretty much raining on and off all the time in Bangkok apart from our last day, so we mainly just relaxed at our favourite street cafes, did a bit of shopping, (unsuccessfully-the city was rammed with holidaymakers making everything more expensive!) indulged in too many cocktails and went for a leg massage (see pic). The leg massage was a mixture of relaxation and torture. I particularly disliked her cracking my toes one by one and rubbing really hard on the bony bits of my foot-very painful! I was a little bruised the next day but Ben had a massive bruise! I'm not sure we'll be doing a massage again any time soon!!
Cambodia is obviously a very poor country with a troubled past, which you can't help but feel for the people because of that. When our bus stopped for a break en route to Siem Reap, it was surrounded by children trying to sell lots of things, begging and offering free bracelets-nothing is free over here without a catch. When the bus stopped in Siem Reap we were hassled by hotel touts, even tuk tuk drivers following us into hotels trying to claim they had brought us in to be given some commission. We even had drivers trying to tell us about a restaurant whilst we were looking at the menu-I can see what they do and how much it is! I automatically don't want to go to those kind of places when I feel pushed into them! Lots of children go around the centre too, selling and begging. It's hard work not giving them anything when they tell you they can't afford food, plus one kid who reeled off the population of England, the capitals of the UK and our last 6 prime ministers. But if you give to one person, where do you stop? I'd definitely be home pretty soon! I hope that it's just a bit pushy because Siem Reap is so touristy and it calms down once we move on. The place is worse than Vietnam. You literally have people blocking your way to try and get you to do something. Tonight it's been massages. And there have been 3 people from the same massage parlour one after the other stopping you. After I've said no to the first person the same answer applies to all their colleagues!!! I know they're just trying to make money but it really is exhausting.
Today we had a big lie in and felt much better. For lunch I finally tried a papaya salad, more of a Thai dish but it was the only thing on the menu without carbs and I feel like I needed a rest from rice and noodles! It was pretty spicy but nice, until I discovered a load of crab legs in it. Now, I like crab but these legs were about as thin as a spider's-I had no chance of getting any meat off them! I guess they must use them for the flavour, though Ben was sure they must eat them. Imagine trying to swallow some shell! There were smaller bits of shell and what can only have been 'joints' of the crab about as well, I had to try very hard not to choke! I had chicken Amok for tea-the Cambodian curry. That was nice. I'll be seeing him again!
Tomorrow we are heading for the temple of temples, the famous Angkor Wat. After haggling a decent price with a tuk tuk we had a celebratory 50cent fresh beer and I'm really excited. I'll be donning shorts, a vest top, aviator sunglasses and plaited hair, like Lara Croft as some of 'Tomb Raider' was filmed there. I hope our driver is cool, it'll be a long enough day without having to be on guard with him. He's picking us up at 5am to reach the most impressive site by sunrise.