Date: 27th May 2011 Place: 4000 Islands to Siem Reap on a bus Weather: cloudy It was an early start to get the long boat at 8am, Lucy came in to wake me up, I was out for count! The long boat was pretty much on time which was good but when we got to the other side of the river I jokingly said right settle in we will probably be here for another hour. It turned out I was wrong, we were there for about 2. We did have to sort out our visas for Cambodia though so it's kind of understandable but there was still a lot of waiting around to do. When the bus finally showed up it was another sleeper bus. It wasn't anywhere near as nice as the one before but still had beds which was quite nice because we had loads of room. We got to the border and had to get off again but it was actually quite a quick turn around, I was impressed. The bus journey was pretty tiresome though. It gets painful sitting down for that long and my ipod had ran out of battery,arrgh, that's when I started reading…Mr Nice is a good read, so far anyway, I'll let you know when/if I finish it! We were dropped off somewhere we could eat,there was no way I was eating there after already being sick, it was filthy.So instead I entertained myself by playing with the big hairy spiders that were probably going to be someones lunch at some point, the Cambodians delicassie is insects! When the minibus finally came to get us to take us the rest of the way we were put into the back seats which were so squashed I literally couldn't move. That had to be the worst bus journey I have ever been on I nearly screamed. I couldn't move so couldn't get comfy and felt so claustrophobic that I had to open the window to stick my head out. We arrived at about midnight and were once again bombarded by tuk tuk drivers. I knew their little scam of trying to put you off guesthouses you ask them to take you to so that you go to ones they get commission for. Well they did it when we said where we wanted to go they said oh I don't think that's right for you. I said we will see for ourselves so just take us; I was pretty ratty to be honest! It took us ages to find a place to stay because they were all full so we ended up just staying in a hotel which was really nice. Everyone else went to bed whilst I went out with Sarah to find some food. It was about 1am at this point and a bit creepy walking down the street but it turned out we ended up at the main nightlife area of Siem Reap which was buzzin! I loved it because we hadn't been in that sort of atmosphere for ages. Date: 28th May 2011 Place: Siem Reap, Cambodia Weather: Sunny J We got up early today because breakfast was included in our room price. If I had known how bad the service was going to be though I wouldn't have bothered. When we got down stairs the girls were already there and said that the waiter had said we could have anything from the menu for free….but shortly after changed his mind and gave us a set menu to chose from. It finally got ordered and then we just had to wait…and wait. The omelette came out and then we waited again for some fruit. We actually gave up and were heading back to the room when we walked past him with a tray with our fruit on so we went back to eat that. Once breakfast was finished we decided to move into a hostel across he road, which was cheaper, called Sieam Reap, central hostel, then we all went into the main town and went to a beauty place. Sarah and Aoeife (pronounced Eefa) had manicures and pedicures and Lucy and I had a foot massage. It was lush! Whilst we were having the massage we decided we fancied a glass of wine, so we went off to a little restaurant called Khmer Family, on Pub Street that looked nice and had an offer on for wine so we had a glass each whilst the girls had lunch. The place was really nice until we went to the toilet and found out it was basically joined to the kitchen, which looked really dirty in itself. It made me feel sick! We stayed in the room for a few hours before going out to get some vodka later on in the evening, the irish girls decided they wanted a quiet one but me and lucy just wanted to get on it. When we got back with our litre bottle of paint stripper we sat on a balcony in the hotel listening to some music. Then a group of Dutch guys that we had met on the bus the night before showed up and came to join us. They were such a good laugh and taught us some new card games (which I cant remember) We then all went down to watch the football game that was on that night (Barcelona v Man U) Lucy got bored so went for a wonder off to the toilet and ended up going back to the hotel on the back of a motor bike, which she fell off…again! Thankfully nothing too major just a graze on the top of her leg. Date: 29th May 2011 Place: Siem Reap Weather: Sunny Sunny Sunny We were meant to be going to Angkor Wat today but instead just had a lazy day as Lucy was feeling a bit sorry for herself and I was a tad hungover too, to say the least. We went for a wonder around the markets and ended up finding the best place in the world!! We had been in this place called the Blue Pumpkin before to get an ice cream so knew they had nice looking sandwiches and bits so went there for lunch and ordered a salad. Whilst we were waiting they said did we want to go upstairs into the aircon lounge so of course we did because it was sooo hot! Well we were shocked when we got up there. It was all white and had a long sofa along the wall that you can sit completely on and have a table over the top of you like in a hospital. Then they serve you there, its such yummy food, but a pricey for the average backpacker, well by now you'd probably agree im more of a flashpacker :-/ We were in there for hours and treated ourselves to some ice cream sundaes which were amazing!! After that we went up to the room and chilled for a while again, I tried to sleep but it wasn't happening. We watched some TV, we're really into House and CSI now, simply because that's the only stuff on in English that isn't about insects or sea creatures (although I do also enjoy a bit of Discovery once in a while). We got so carried away that we were late meeting the girls for dinner. We went back to the Blue Pumpkin! Obviously we had a great dinner and we then went back to the hotel and sat on the balcony again where we found the Dutch guys again (Abel, Thomas, Maks and Daniel). We all then went out together to pub street and spent most the night in a bar called Angkor What? As I hadn't quite finished my wine, I decided to take it with me, and after much pleading with the guard to let me take it inside he said I could, which meant I didn't spend a penny but still managed to get a bucket! I met some new friends from Gloucester, I can only remember the one guys name Jack, I must have been drunk. After much dancing on tables and being followed by lady boys on our walk home, it was time for bed! Date: 30th May 2011 Place: Siem Reap Weather: Super Super hot and sunny at first but then really rainy later. I woke up this morning and Lucy was nowhere to be seen, even her bed was still made, so I got a bit worried, especially after the night before when she fell off the bike. I checked with the Dutch guys and they mentioned something about her going to have her done, then I remembered she was going to the hairdressers to have her hair chemically straightened, I couldn't think of anything worse with the headached I had from all the wine and in this heat. Lucy got back around 12 and We went down to….. you wouldn't believe it… the Blue Pumpkin for lunch and then got picked up by the Tuk Tuks we had organised to take us around the temples (Angkor Wat). It didn't take long to get to their and our first stop was Angkor Wat. It is one of the wonders of the world because it is meant to be the biggest religious place in the world. We walked along the long bridge to get to the entrance and had a picture. Then we saw a stray monkey so started taking pictures. Aoife went around a pillar to get a little closer and it suddenly attacked her! It scratched all of her leg and bit her so I was there panicking about rabies but it hadn't pierced the skin so she was ok. We had a wonder around the temple and it was actually huge and I was very impressed. Sarah was then telling me about the history of Cambodia which I had no idea about. About 30 years ago some people called the Khmer Rouge started taking over or something and they didn't want anything western at all so they killed anybody who wasn't completely Cambodian or who even had things like TVs. They would take them to camps where they would die and there are killing fields where they were all killed. They didn't want Buddhist religion in the country either so they destroyed all of the temples around Angkor which is why they are all so famous to look around because they are all completely ruined. After Angkor Wat we went to a few smaller temples, the first I think was called Angkor Thom and it had loads of faces in the rocks everywhere, this one was my favorate. We also went to one that had loads of elephants in the stone and their trunks were like pillars. One was like a Tomb Raider style place. Tomb Raider was actually filmed in one of them but Im not sure if it was that one or not. It had trees growing all amongst the stone and looked really cool. Whilst we were at the temple with elephants we had a few little Khmer boys come up to us and they were telling us about the temple. There was one who was so tiny and skinny and when we said we had food they could have back at the tuk tuk he got so excited. At the tree one we also gave the poor children some food that the girls had bought especially for them from the supermarket in town. They all came running over and literally surrounded us. I was suffering the whole day at the temples,and couldn't wait to get back for a nap and a bit of CSI, before getting back on it! We all met at 8pm and went to a Mexican which was really nice. We then went back to Pub Street and went to the Temple Bar. I had a bit of dance with Sarah and then we went to sit outside with everyone. A group of people were sat on a table next to us and invited us to play a card game with them (pass the card). You have to keep a card on your mouth by sucking on it and then pass it to the next person,I wasn't very good at this game so ended up with a stubble rash! After playing for a while I decided to head back, thinking I was following Abel and Thomas, but as I got closer I discovered it wasn't them at all and it was a boy and girl,oops. By this point I was half way back anyway so decided to keep heading back, when a Canadian girl came upto me and asked where I was from etc, she seemed pretty cool, she invited me back to her hotel which was a lot nicer than mine and had a pool, so she said we could smoke pot and go for a dip, of course I declined the pot but was well up for a swim. After swimming for an hour or so I remembered that I had the room key and that know one actually knew where I was, so I decided to leave the nice pool and get back to the room. I got back and there was Abel and Lucy sat on the balcony worried sick, but happy to see that I was in one piece, just a tad wet! Date: 31st May 2011 Place: Siem Reap Weather: Sunny Woke up at around 11am today and had to get ready to check out at 12. We took our bags to the guys room and went to sit with them whilst they had breakfast. They kept changing to talk in Dutch so I think they were saying things about us! We left them to take a walk into town and met the girls before going to the Blue Pumpkin, again. On the way back to the guesthouse I decided to go to Swensons so that I could get an ice cream and we had heard it was really nice. When we looked at the menu, even though Lucy had already had a sundae at blue pumkin, she couldn't resist…they looked soooo good!! So she had her second ice cream sundae in less than half an hour. When we finished we headed back to the dutch guys room, where we crashed out for a few hours. I woke up at 5pm to go and get some dinner before we went on the bus. Since we had just eaten I wasn't hungry at all so after trying the Mexican and decided against it we head to The Pizza Company and found they did take away salad bars. We filled up a huge tub and saved it for later on the bus. It was so nice! When we got back we went to the guys room to wait for about half an hour before the bus got there. We had to say goodbye then which was sad but we made it quick and head down at 6.30. Well apparently the minibus had already been and gone according to the tuk tuk driver, even though the girls had been there since 6.15. So they had to send us another tuk tuk and a mini bus. I think they were just trying to make some extra money out of us. When we got on the bus it turned out to not be a sleeper bus like we thought but instead we had to change to a sleeper bus later. They said they were going to play a film as well but they didn't. We had our salads then which cheered us up but then all the lights went off to we had to eat them with a torch which isn't easy! I slept for most of the time after that. We got to Phnom Penh to change buses at around 1am. It was then a proper sleeper bus but there weren't enough seats but eventually everyone had a bed in the end, and I actually slept really well.