Nigel: Our entry into Cambodia didn't start all that great. We were entering the country from Thailand via the overland border crossing and we had read that the crossing that we were using was infamous for scams with visa's . We nearly got scammed on 2 occasions but luckily we had prior knowledge so we were able to get out of them. The first occasion was by local Thai people acting as official immigration workers. After about 5 minutes of them persisting that we paid more than the official cost and the frequent repetition of "lovely jubilee" like Del Boy, we knew what was happening, so we made a sharp exit. We did have some trouble trying to get rid of one of the lads who insisted on following us. But eventually we did and we then went to the proper immigration office. When we got through to the Cambodian side, the next scam you have to be careful of is that the officials and even the police try to charge more than it should be. We did end up paying a little more but it was a lot cheaper than the amount the first lot we charging. The next thing you have to watch out for is the buses that run from the border to Siem Reap. As there is only one company operating from this area, they tend to have a bit of a monopoly with the transport. We had heard they offer a free shuttle bus to their offices about a mile out of town, only to charge high prices when you get there. We had also read that there was a government bus which ran also and was about a mile up the road, so we decided to walk up there. When we started the walk we had never seen anything like it. About 15 people started running up to us offering a taxi to Siem Reap. When we said we were OK and that we were just wanting to have a look around but they just started to follow us. So there was us, people walking behind us and cars just curb crawling along with us. After about 10 mins most had stopped following us but there was one persistent one. Eventually we had to say that what ever we were not going with him and he finally left us. Not long after we found the "Government" bus station which unbelievably turned out to be the same one which offered the free shuttle up there. Amazing

Siem Reap and Cambodia is a very poor country. This can be seen by the conditions of the roads, buildings, vehicles and the amount of beggars we came across. Many of them are children which try and sell things to you, mainly when your trying to eat. Also, as there English is very good, they come across sometimes very cocky and pushy. Our ethos is not to give them money as it promotes begging. Instead we went to the local orphan hospital that was near by and made donations and bought gifts. The hospital is fairly newish but is very over crowded. We watched a video which was very moving. They talked about how families would travel for miles to get to the hospital and would even go past other hospitals along the way only to be refused entry. The whole time we were there was very sad but also very good to see that something is being done. The name of the place was called Friends without borders and the website is http://www.friendswithoutborders.org/

Alison will be doing Angkor Wat which will be a separate entry.