We've finally got to Cambodia, after a lot of messing around and trains leaving on time and arriving at the destination 2 and a half hours later than they should (never rely on trains to be on time in Thailand!) and having to spend an extra night in Bangkok, because our bus to Cambodia had left without us due to the train not even pulling in! >:-(
We kinda feel like we're being stung left right and centre at the moment, due to the fact that EVERYTHING seems to be a money making scheme...we've got less time in Cambodia now,because our agent dealing with our travel bookings put us up in Bangkok last night instead,because we had to leave this morning to go to Cambodia. We've only got 4 days in Cambodia now as a result, before going to the islands, because thats what was "recommended" to us, and we're a bit tired of listening to other people, and other people trying to plan this trip. Once we get to the island, thats it...we're doing it our own way from then on.
Apparently our transport to Cambodia was all paid for in the package we'd done the other week,but when we got to the border we were told,along with everyone else on our bus, that the same bus would not take us to Cambodia, as it cannot drive across the border, another bus would take us,but wouldn't drop us to our hotel...we'd have to get a tuktuk or a taxi to our hotel, costing us more in the long run. The alternative was to let these guys arrange for a minibus for us to drop us directly to our hotel, and it would take 2 hours instead of 5 hours like the bus that would NOT drop us to our hotel. Now tell me,does that make any sense??
What a lose-lose situation!
So we paid extra to get the fast bus and go with everyone else, and "save money" on a taxi, etc... and then the guy had the CHEEK to ask for a tip! A BLOODY TIP! lol. God. I felt like saying what did you actually do apart from skank us out of more money??!
Along with that, Lukes annoyed because his work have screwed him over with his final pay... they basically haven't paid him for the final week he worked, despite saying they would, and after he contacted somebody he worked with over facebook to sort it out, they are now saying he took a holiday he wasn't entitled to (even though he WAS, and his manager told him he'd get his holidays on his final pay!) At the end of the day though, it was their fault for giving him holidays in the first place, and if he wasn't entitled to it they shoulda told him, the fact is he TOOK one week which he was entitled to...Swines.

Anyway, Cambodia seems really nice and we're gutted we don't have more time here. Hence why now, it our way or the high way! Stupid people telling us "you don't need more than 5 days in Cambodia"...are they for real? It's cheaper than Thailand, AND it seems like there's more to do than in Chiang Mai!

We're staying at a backpacker hostel, with our own room thank god, although when we walked into the room there was two double beds and we thought we might be sharing with another couple? Surely not! The bathrooms a bit smelly and damp, but that tends to happen a lot... and there's mosquitos in our room, we've killed most of them ...I think. Time to get the spray out and the wipes, plug the mosquito killing plug in the wall and maybe the mosquito net...we'll see.

Because we were in Bangkok last night, and to be fair in a really nice hotel, we thought we'd go out and see what we've been saying we'd see since we came to Thailand... the sky bars at the top of the buildings! And i'm so glad we did... the views were absolutely breathtaking... and it was where the hangover II was filmed...the state tower.
The bar was up on the 64th floor, had big relaxing sofas and we were given cashew nuts, olives and then told to look at the menu...to which point we both almost passed out. 20 pound for two drinks!!
We had cocktails called the "Hangovertini" which was created specially for the cast and crew of the film. It was gorgeous! Can't really remember what was in it, but I know whiskey was definitely an ingredient! I'll have to hunt this recipe down to bring home ;-)

We took some amazing photos of the views, which made it all worth while having paid that money for the drinks. The loud noises of the city and crazy traffic really do seem so far away when you're up there. Amazing.
I told Luke, if ever there was a time to propose...then would have been it. His reply was Ï haven't asked your Dad, and I haven't got a ring!"... and then he added "would they give us free champagne if I did? Because everyone loves a proposal don't they!" LOL ;-) Although judging by the prices for the bottles of champagne, I think Luke would have to parachute into the bar, tap dance, sprinkle gold dust on the floor and THEN propose.
While wearing a tutu. (just for comic value, more for me than anyone else).

After that we headed to a street of bars where we had amazing mojitos (less pricey than the sky tower thankfully!) - although not as good as the ones Checkie and Nita do, still the best we've found in Thailand yet!
Plus the owner remembered us from last time, and was talking to us about our trip.
The Thai people are so friendly, and never ever seem to get annoyed even when there is an issue. Like on the train back to Bangkok from Chiang Mai, this woman came along and gave us an orange juice, which she pretty much just handed to us and said "orange juice"... and then two hours later came back and told us to pay 25 baht each for them! Which is only a pound, but the problem was that we didn't have any Thai baht left on us, because we were supposed to be going straight to Cambodia, all i had was my card and some english money, and on the way to Chiang Mai, we'd been given complimentary drinks and snacks... but suddenly, two hours later she wanted us to pay for them. I would never have had a problem with this, if I had Baht! We apologised and said we didn't realise (although to be honest...we didn't ask for them either) and she then got some other woman involved to translate into english what she was trying to say to us. She was understanding enough about it, the guard on the train came over at one point too,and just laughed and walked away. We ended up giving her the equivalent of it in english money (a pound) to stop her whining!
Oops.
There's a lot of things like this that go on, and you just gotta be aware of them. On the way to Siem Reap earlier, we stopped for 5 mins at a local place in the Cambodian countryside for a quick break, and straight away a group of kids came up to the minibus and were pretty much begging. This little girl was asking where I was from, telling me I was beautiful, and was trying to give me a "free" bracelet. It's heartbreaking to see this happen, but I knew the bracelet wasn't going to be free, i've read about and heard about this, and the worst thing you can do is give money to kids who beg, as they very rarely get to keep it. They are sent out to give away these free bracelets, in return of a donation and don't get to keep the money for themselves. If I had any food on me like a little snack or something I would have gave her something, but it was horrible all the same. I told her to keep the bracelet for somebody else, which made me feel terrible but I knew it was the best thing to do.It really shows you what people have to do out here to get by. It makes you realise all the things you take for granted, and it makes you realise what a spoilt brat of a country Britain really is.

Anyway, back to last night in Bangkok, after the sky bar I took Luke for food, only fair since he paid for the drinks in the sky bar! We had red thai curry and frozen mojitos,good thinking because the coldness of the mojito took away the sheer BURN from the curry.

We also went to a vietnamese restaurant in Chiang Mai, which was...an interesting experience.We went in and were given the option to either choose from the menu or go for the buffett. Guess what we chose?
We had absolutely no idea what we were eating as nothing was labelled. For all I know it could have been those deep fried spiders they seem to like over there. Oh well, thats what it's all about isn't it? Trying new things, doing what the locals do.:-/ it cost us about 5 pound for the pair of us to eat there, as much as we wanted. Once I started thinking about what could have been in the food, I suddenly lost my appetite. You'd think from getting food poisoning a week before we came away from a stupid prawn at a buffett,I would learn something really wouldn't you? We were fine though, the spiders obviously stayed in the jungle. (I'll stick with Mexican and Italian over Vietnamese though...)

We've got loads of pictures to upload, once we can get them all on...trying to on this computer but I don't think the USB connection works properly on here.We''ll see if we have any luck on a different computer tomorrow, or with any luck a member of staff might help us once i've posted this :-P

I might let Luke update soon, he just piped up with "I should write one of these sometime!"... 0_0 ... you can write them anytime you want Luke ;-) Now get back to your room! (i'm joking,obviously lol)

We've been trying to phone home, but we're having about as much luck as E.T did. All these codes to dial to get an outside line, and do you think any of them work? We've tried a few different types, that we've been told by the hotel, and I got my Dad to text me the code, but it still won't work. :-( If anyones got any ideas please write them here? We're going to try the Cambodian phone boxes, because the ones in Chiang Mai seemed to be posessed. With any luck it'll transform into the tardis and we'll jet to the islands after being here free of charge ;-)

There's a street here in Siem Reap called "pub street"and what i'm guessing is the Cambodian version of chippy alley in Cardiff, which is just called "The Alley" which is full of cheap places to eat and do all sorts of food. This is on the cards for tomorrow night, before we go to Phnom Penh the next day!

Missing everyone loads, still looking for potential xmas cards to send. Can't believe it's xmas next week! It really doesn't feel like it over here,apart from xmas trees popping up now and again, like the one outside right now, and outside our hotel in Bangkok last night. Also the decorations that were up in the breakfast room this morning in Bangkok, next to some status of Thai ladies doing a "Wai" . Apart from those, its crazy to think it's Christmas because it's so hot, it feels more like we're on some sort of summer holiday!

Anyway, we'll update very soon , take care everyone!

Liz & Luke (but mainly Liz... although Luke did tell me a lot of what to write.Over to you next time, Davina Savina...!) xx