So I discovered a shopping market in Phnom Penh so had a wonder around and had dinner in the food quarter which was a token system very much like what I had in Thailand once before, Chaing Mai I think. I had a rice and chicken dish for $2 which was quite disappointing with not much flavour. Of all the meals I could have chosen and I pick a bland dish! I normally walk around where the locals are eating and decide which dish I want by pointing to it, but I was just too hungry by the time I went to eat I just picked some food quickly to stop my belly talking :)

To my delight I managed to find a shop that actually sold some non-whitening moisturiser. Yipeee. So I may have got a little excited and bought 2...yea don't ask why but hey I won't have this problem again now..its sure to last me a few months now! A big tub of Nivea was $3. I also bought some new flip flaps in the store for $13 as mine broke in Sen Monorum so needed to replace them. I could have got some in the market but thought they would break within a couple of weeks so decided to splash out a little and treat myself. Although they have cut my foot so hurt when I walk in them 2 days in but hopefully my feet will toughen up soon and they will be fine. The shopping centre was great..felt a bit like home It had air con and proper shops. Also may have treated myself to a cheeky white chocolate ice cream for just $1 it was Soooo good. I think that was my first ice cream of the trip..i can't remember having one previous to this. Oh and spend thrift Kelly got some sunglasses for $15...my Next sunglasses from home lasted 3 months but were slowly but surely disintegrating from the 100% deet I have been using..which has also melted my plastic watch strap together..who knows what its doing to my skin. It was time to leave the shopping centre before I spent any more money so confidently grabbed a motortaxi to my hostel for $1 (I know it should only cost that much so Im pretty strong with the drivers and tellthem i know how much it should be and that im not prepared topay any more. I have done well with tuktuks lately. I am settling in with the local way of life -taking a laid back approach to everything, eating in the markets, speaking as much Khmer as possible and not letting the tuktuks scam me! Eventually made it to the hostel - the driver had no idea where he was going..we had to stop and ask a few tuktuk drivers (they didn't know either!) My evening was spent researching where I was going next and booking a hostel..just a night of planning really. So once I know where I was going the next day. (it was either Siem Reap first then Battambang or the other way around but my research told me that there were regular buses to Bangkok from Battambang and it was closer too so my decision was made). As I was about to jump into my top bunk bed a German girl (who seemed to be fast asleep at first) jumped up on her bed and started lifting my mattress up and hitting it from beneath shouting "please please don't" ...It was midnight at this point and i was so tired i didn't quite understand what was happening! I found myself just staring at her wondering if she was angry that i may have woken her up. And then she sat on her bed grabbing her leg. It was at this point I think she woke up from a bad nightmare and had bad cramp in her leg. I asked her if she was ok - She just apologised and looked upset about the whole situation so I headed to bed. The next morning I started early and went to the National museum ($5 entry fee) It was full of sculptures that were rescued from Angkor. Some of them were really impressive and big. It was great because I got there for the opening time at 8am so it was just me and a Chinese couple wondering around. There were some cool images in the museum representing what the temples of Angkor used to look like. So cool full of detailed carved temples and massive sculptures. I left about 9am, just as 2 coaches pulled up outside full of Chinese. Good timing I say! Then I headed to the bus station to catch a bus to Siem Reap. I met a German girl who was going this way so we took a tuk tuk together to the station. She was on a bus half an hour before me so didn't see her then. The bus arrived at 9pm...luckily I met a 25 year old Polish guy, Lushuk (that's probably not how you spell it!) who hadn't booked a hostel either so we walked together to find one and then grabbed some street food from down the road. It was a great noodle and beef dish for just 6000 reil, $2.50. We decided we would go together to the temples the following morning so we booked a tuktuk for the day for $15 in total. He took us around 8 of the different temples from 9.30am until we were flagging at about half 4 so headed back for a shower. We went to a music concert just outside of the town which was interesting. It was this surgeon playing the cello (fairly well I must admit) but every 5 minutes he would stop playing and sit and chat to us about the Childrens Hospitals that are purely funded by donations and was explaining facts and figures to us all night. It was really interesting and he was inspirational setting up the hospitals and saving many children, but the whole concept of a concert was advertised incorrectly! We heard about 20 minutes of music and the rest was talking! Back to the centre it was...

The evenings in Siem Reap are buzzing. Full of BBQs on the streets, street food restaurants, posh restaurants, outside massage parlours, music, live bands, billions of Westerners, a huge Night Market and lots of bars! It is a great place to sit in a bar and people watch. The first night, Lushuk and I went for some street food just outside the Mad Monkey hostel and then went to a balcony bar down the famous Pub Street. There was a band playing really good live music it was a great night. My friends from Sen Monorum also appeared so I spent most of the evening with them chatting away. They were 2 couples from Devon in their late 40's - 50's but such a good laugh. I think mum and dad would get on with the really well. My polish friend ended up chatting to a Thai guy who was marketing Sigha beer, so he ended up with a load of free drinks too. Although I don't envy him as the Thai guy was really hard to understand, even though he did speak English.

The next morning I got up and went to a stroll around the city, met Lushuk at midday for some lunch and then we ended up wondering around the markets and down the river for the rest of the afternoon. It was a very chilled day J We had a BBQ dinner that night in the middle of the town - a great place to people watch! Then went for a couples of cheap beers ($0.50 per glass) down pub street. I saw an aussie girl who I had been bumping into that day so we joined her for a chat before braving Angkor What? Which was a bar/club. It wasn't too bad...some people were really drunk but most were ok to chat to!

Another late night to bed, about 3.30am...but I managed to get up at 8am to say goodbye to Lushuck who was on route to Phnom Penh. At 10am I had a cooking class to attend, and decided to make banana flower salad for a starter (first time I have tried banana flower, but it was quite nice) and my favourite Khmer dish, LocLac which is beef onions and fresh tomato in a really delicious sauce which I discovered consisted of oyster sauce, tomato ketchup, chicken stock...oh and a few more ingredients! It was so good and this is the first time I was so full I couldn't eat all the food, I would have exploded. I spent the afternoon wondering around and planning my next few days and then joined some people from my dorm on the rooftop bar for a few beverages (after having a great skype session with KatJ) and then we hit the town about 11pm. I had an early night though because I was feeling drunk on just 2 beers and I often get this drunk and delirious feeling when I am really tired and dehydrated so I thought it was best to catch up on sleep and stop drinking alcohol!!

I had planned to pack that night, but realised I would make lots of enemies rustling around at midnight when others were trying to sleep (only problem with dorms!), so I decided to get up early instead and pack before my bus was to leave at 9.30am (12 February). This didn't quite work out...7.30am I was woken up by a member of staff saying that my lift was here to take me to the bus stop. I tried explaining that I had booked the half 9 bus and how was this possible, but she just told me to be quick and left. So I literally had to throw all my clothes that were hanging on the bed into my rucksack, kept my PJ's on and hurried downstairs. The receptionist who booked my ticket asked to see my ticket again so I showed her and she was confused so told me to sit down, my bus wasn't until 9.30am and the staff member had made a mistake. Slightly annoyed at this point I sat down and grabbed my breath back. 5 minutes later the receptionist approached me and told me that there no longer was a bus that left at 9.30am, but I can go on the 8.30am bus now. So off I went, flustered and confused to this bus stop. Luckily the bus driver was very nice and seemed to understand what had happened. I was relieved as I didn't have to wait another 2 hours having got out of bed in a hot fluster, so that was good. Also I managed to get a seat at the front next to a 20 year old girl from the Netherlands. We got on really well and ended up spending the next two days together in Battambang...