15th
The day from hell!. Probably worst travel day ever! I suppose every now and then on what we call a travel day, you have a day from hell. Its started out like this.
Our host Alan, at our apartment in Bangkok has offered us a ride to Siem Reap in his car. He is a 65 year old gay guy living in Cambodia, so we accept his offer as it all should be ok. We depart at 10am in his rather old 1995 Toyota Camry. As we get onto the highway he puts the throttle to the floor, and we are now going 90mph. Passing everything on the road. We cover about 250ks before things start to go wrong.
We are about 60 kilometres from the Cambodian border, and the car has overheated. Lucky for us we roll into a service station. Here we cool the engine and fill the radiator with water. I tell him the radiator cap is stuffed and must be replaced, otherwise it will do it again. He chooses to ignore my advice and we set off. Again we are going 90mph with the aircon on full. Some people are just plain dumb. I choose not to say a word, as he seems not to want to listen to any advice.

Well it doesnt take long before the temp gauge is in the red zone. He chooses to keep going his time, as a miracle has just happened, the temp gauge has dropped back to normal. Could also mean there is no water in the engine! This time the car stops rather quickly and we are about 1 kilometre from a Caltex station. Shauna and i get out and start to push the car along the side of the highway. He offers to push but as he is a smoker and has had a heart attack, and is overweight, we tell him to sit in the car. We only manage to get it to a shady area where there is a small tyre repair hut. Here we borrow some tools to try and fix the car.

The engine was so hot it has melted the distributor cap off the engine. There is smoke rising from the engine and is so hot water boils instantly it hits the engine. So we attempt the patch up the dizzy cap and by this time the engine has cooled enough to fill it with water. I know something is up as the water level keeps dropping and no water is running out anywhere.

So he tries to start the engine and it locks up, so water has filled the cylinders and its not going anywhere. Probably a cracked head. Finally after about 45 minutes of him still trying to get it to run so he can get it across the border, he gives up. By this time Shauna has had enough, and so have i, and we get our bags out of the boot. He decides to lock up the car and come back later and tow it home.

We stand on the side of the highway and It take less than a minute for a taxi van to stop and give us a lift, first to the Caltex so we can access cash from the ATM, as we have no cash left. Alan was meant to bring US dollars for us, but forgot. We need US $ at the border for the Visa fee. Just another drama he caused us. Finally we arrive at the border and its nearly 5pm. We should have been at our apartment in Siem Reap by 3pm. Will still have another 150 kilometres to travel. Both of us have so much anger built up by now. If we took the bus from Bangkok to Siem Reap it would have only taken 7 hours.

The border crossing is complicated and time consuming and we dont get into a taxi till just after 5.30pm. Now the taxi would normally be $10 each and the car would wait till he had 4 paying passengers before leaving. As it is late in the day there is nobody else leaving. This means i am slapped with a $40 taxi fare for the 2 of us. Just another headache our host has caused us. Getting even angrier.

So the drive is mostly in the dark where we are constantly dodging very slow going trucks that have no tail lights, scooters on the shoulder with no tail lights. It is worse than any drive we did in India. My thought was that it is only a matter of time and we WILL be in an accident.

Its nearly 9.30pm before we arrive in Siem Reap. I ask the taxi driver to find me and ATM so i can get out some US $ to pay him. US $ is the main currency in Cambodia. I try 4 ATM machines before one accepts my card, and that costs me an extra $5 for ATM fees. Now by this time i have had enough. Alan has totally ruined our travel day and both of us are at melting point. Lucky our cab driver is a nice guy, even if he did have the worst body odour.

So we now try to find the apartment where we are staying. I guide him to the directions on the map, but its not there. I manage to get him to call our new host, and he gets the right directions. Finally we are standing outside our accommodation, paid the driver his $40 and i am so relieved that we have arrived, 7 hours late, and out of pocket by a lot.

Now do you think it could get any worse? No it doesnt. The host here is ever so gracious and welcoming. Our bags are taken from us and put in the apartment. We are taken into his apartment for a welcoming cold drink of water. He can tell we have has one for those days, so he quickly takes us upstairs to show us where we will be staying.

Our horrendous day is all but forgotten when the lights are switched on and reveals a huge palatial apartment. Not only is it huge, its spotlessly clean, modern with everything you could wish for in a holiday apartment. The bedroom is bigger than some apartments. The bathroom is bigger than most lounge rooms. The beds are super comfortable. How good is this place.

As we havent eaten all day Thony points us in the direction for some food. After eating we unpack and hit the sack, trying to put the day well and truly out of our memories for the time being.
There is a lot more to this story, but i will be typing for hours to tell the complete story, so this is the short version.

16th
After a great nights sleep we head into town to get some supplies and take a wander around. Seim Reap is a really nice town, not too dirty and everybody on scooter or cars drives so slowly. Makes crossing the road easy.e
So nice sitting out on our huge balcony looking over a pristine garden with palms, ponds, ferns and lots of green grass, flowers, fragipani trees and even his little pet dogs. Yesterday is now a distant memory.

17th
Today Thony has arranged a tuktuk driver to take us to visit Angkor Wat. It is a huge archaeological park spread over 25 square kilometres. We only want to see the main ruins which takes about 3.5 hours. The entrance fee is a whopping $20US each. Anyway the ruins are something else. dating back to 800AD they are some of the best preserved ruins i have ever seen. Pretty amazing, and even Shauna is very impressed. The park is very crowded with tourists.
The rest of the day is lounging on the balcony watching the setting sun and enjoying the peace.

Later in the cool of the evening we head into town so Shauna can do some shopping in the night markets. To me its junk, to her its cheap clothes etc.

18th
What a beautiful morning it is, so we take breakfast on the balcony again. The days have been rather warm, around 33 C, plus the humidity has been pushing 90%, so it has been rather uncomfortable walking around in the middle of the day. I can see why night time is so busy. Its a lazy day where we walk along the river into town and grab some Japanese food. Next its into the very empty markets so Shauna can do some more browsing
Back to our little oasis for a few hours before heading out for tea.

19th
Today is our last day in Siem Reap. Tomorrow we are taking a bus back to Bangkok where we will spend the night before flying to Hanoi, Vietnam the following day. Had to do it this way as Shauna did not want to take the easier way of flying from Siem Reap to Hanoi direct with Vietnam air. According to her they dont rate very well, so i err on the side of caution and we are now flying with Qatar from Bangkok to Hanoi.

It is a cloudy and cool morning. We might get a thunderstorm today if the weather report is right. I am sitting on the balcony having breakfast and am joined by one of the hosts little dogs. Very friendly. The day is spent in town wandering around place we havent seen yet. We Came across a cafe that served a variety of cooked bugs, as in insects etc. Not for us.
On the way back home, Shauna slips and stubs her big toe. Nothing serious.

20th
We arrive at the bus depot at 7.45am for the 8am bus. It doesnt arrive till 8.20am We dont depart till after 8.30 and we arrive at the border at 11.30. Now the fun begins. It takes us just over 2 hours to cross form Cambodia to Thailand. There are only 3 immigration officers processing about 150 people in front of us. So by the time all of the people on our bus are through, its nearly 1.30pm. The bus company has told us that we will be in Bangkok at 3.30pm. It seems highly unlikely, as we still have about 200ks to go.

We arrive at the Bangkok bus terminal just after 5.30pm. By the time we get a taxi to the Skytrain its 6.30pm. We dont get to our accommodation till just before 8pm. A day i would rather forget, especially as we could have flown direct from Siem Reap to Hanoi. The joys of travelling. At least our accommodation is nice.