Well, we are now in Siem Riep but I will recap on Cambodia so far so I don't get behind again!

As I mentioned previously, the crossing into Cambodia from Vietnam was a walk in the park compared to the 9 hours we had to endure from Russia to China! I was almost certain that we would need to get off the coach and queue for a couple of hours! We literally had to clear customs leaving Vietnam which was the longest part, and then got the coach to the Cambodian Border. We had paid $25 for the visa and had been given our passports back with a visa application and entry/departure card. There was a space for a photo and also signatures but none of us did it on the coach thinking we could do it whilst waiting. Well, we got off the coach, handed our passports back to our coach guide who was collecting them with a Cambodian official, and when Sam asked to borrow a pen to sign the forms he said it wasn't necessary! We then walked about 200m, got back on the coach and drove half a kilometre down the road where we stopped for some lunch for about 30 minutes. After this I was fully prepared for a long wait but we were given back our passports with visa!!!!!

After a couple of hours drive we arrived in Phnom Penh to chaos! There were about 10 tuc-tuc drivers offering us rides/places to stay and I was half asleep still so I left it to the boys to negotiate! In the end we took a ride with one of them to 'Smile' guesthouse down on the lake which is the location recommended by Lonely Planet. The area is full of guesthouses and bars and restaurants and seemed like backpacker central in Phnom Penh! The lakeside wasn't overly interesting but for $2 a night it was a bargain and the location was perfect! After checking in we sat on the terrace overlooking the lake and chilled before walking towards the river a few kilometres away. That area was also bustling with bars and restaurants and was said to have the best food, so after chilling with a drink for a couple of hours (and finding out my cousin Kate had had her 2nd baby - a girl Poppy.....Congrats!!) we decided to go looking for somewhere to eat! We found a lovely thai/kymer (cambodian) food restaurant and I had the most delicious pork dish! It was more pricey than we had been used to but still relatively cheap compared to western prices at $6 a meal! The restaurant had amazing crockery and the toilets were certainly an attraction! There was a massive urn filled with water in the corner and there were lillies and rose petals floating on top....the toilet itself was in the middle of a massive shingled area and there were stepping stones across to the toilet and urinal! We got a tuc-tuc/moto (these are motorbikes with a tuc-tuc carriage attached to the back) home as we had read that pick-pocketing is a massive problem there after dark and westerners are advised not to carry bags as it makes you a target (and we all had bags as we arrived in light).

The next day Sam and Karl went to the killing fields and war museum whilst I was updating my china and vietnam blogs! Then we met for lunch back at the hotel and went to the Royal Palace (pic above). The architecture was awesome and there was the 'silver pagoda' which has a floor covered with solid silver floor tiles weighing 1kg each!!! They were covered up with carpet to protect them except for a tiny area at the front and to be honest they weren't as impressive as I thought they were going to be!!!!! All in all though it was worth visiting as I got some good pictures! We then went on the search for a second hand bookshop as we have (or should I say Karl has) been carrying 4 books around we have already read! We wanted to exchange them but didn't have them on us so we were enquirying into exchange but they only give you about $1 for each book and the books they sell (even photocopied version which are very common over here) sell for at least $6 so we would have to pay loads anyway! I bought a book by an author I liked anyway and then we headed back to the hotel via tuc-tuc again in time to see the sunset on the lake (which had been recommended). However, it was soo cloudy that the sunset was non-existant and we just sat outside reading instead!!!!

The next morning (yesterday) we were picked up at 7am for our coach to Siem Riep. The coach actually departed Phnom Penh at 7.45 and we were left waiting on a corner for ages with our luggage while people were frantically rushing to catch different coaches! Organisation was not this companies strong point! The guy sorting our coach was swapping tickets around trying to assign seat numbers, making the whole thing very complicated!!! In the end we got on and no sooner had we sat down the tv turns on and blares out Cambodian music - on a karaoke video! It was hilarious!!! The journey tookn about 7 hours and stopped a few times for toilets etc. One stop there were loads of people selling pineapples and bananas. I got a bag of pineapple and then realised that the girl who sold it to me had a MASSIVE spider on her shoulder. It was a REAL tarranchula measuring about 5 inches including legs....and she tried to sell it to me for $1! Then I noticed a massive pot full of dead spiders that they were selling to eat! As soon as Karl noticed he kept running away from the girls trying to sell him fruit (as they all had live spiders) and was paranoid they would get on the bus!!!! the bus by the way was the most random bus! It kep picking up locals like a local bus would and as all the seats were taken, mostly by travellers, plastic seats were put down the aisles!!! The bus then dropped these people off in random locations!!! When we arrived in Siem Riep we were again greeted by loads of tuc-tuc drivers and we chose the location from the Lonely Planet which our driver happened to recommend too!

I'll update Siem Riep happens on a seperate blog.......xx