Wellll once again I started writing a bloody blog entry and lost it, it drives me a little bit insane! Haha.

Am in Siem Reap now, got here yesterday arvo about 5pm after leaving bangkok at 6am. Had to get a train to the border town, a tuk tuk from there to the Cambodian embassy to get a visa and then on to the border, walked across the border with a very helpful man who showed us where to go (otherwise I would have been very confused!), then a bus to the taxi/bus terminal, then a taxi to the outskirts of Siem Reap and then a moto into the centre of town and our hostel! Haha, a bit of a journey!

Didn't think we were going to make it here at all lol - had our tickets checked on the train and the conductor dude spent ageees looking at our tickets, then stamped them and carried on, then came back to us to have another look at our tickets with his mate, and then they took them off us! I was convinced we were on the wrong train or were going to get chucked off or something! Eventually they found someone who could speak English who tried to explain - and basically we had been charged too much by the travel agency and given dodgey tickets so they wanted to take them so that they could investigate when they got the train back to Bangkok! We got charged 148 baht (about 3 quid), when we think we should have only been charged 48 baht - about a quid! So luckily was only a matter of 2 quid, and the train man let us carry on without paying again yay!

Arrived into Cambodia and got ripped off again changing money from Thailand into Cambodia - but again not too big amounts - Katie lost out on 40 quid, and I only lost a tenner really. Apart fropm that though haha the jounrey was a success and I am loving Cambodia so far, even though I have only been here like a night! Everyone is so freindly and ready to help you out or to have a chat! They speak very good English too, even compared to the Thais who are very good speaking English too (although that sentence didn;'t make a lot of sense so obviously I can't even speak my own language oops!)

Think today we are just having a look around Siem Reap... tomorrow we have to be up early - very excited! Off to the temples of Angkor Wat - get there for sunrise and leave after sunset so it's going to be a big day. They were only discovered a few years ago, a massive huge temple complex - Lara Croft film was filmed there too!

Theres a lot of depressing touristy stuff to come around Phnom Penh - the killing fields and stuff - basically Cambodia between 1975 and 79 was ruled by this genocidal government, where 2 million + Khmer people were killed in wars/concentration camps - this government was only overthrown about 10 years ago, so its very recent - very interesting. Think thats what makes the Khmer people so nice - they've only recently come out of a massive conflict - it's still a very very poor country. Think it's the second poorest in Asia - the literacy rate is only 73%, 60 babies out of every 1000 childbirths die, and 40% of the population is under 15 - there are a lot of child beggars around and people trying to get money for their orphanages. We were followed for a good twenty minutes yesterday by a woman with a baby who was asking us for money.

So far though I love the placé - I don't know why! It's got a charm, and the people are nice! Especially compared to Thailand - Thailand was sooo westernised, it's very dirty and has a lot of dodgey sewarage smells! the beaches I'd imagine to be gorgeous a few ytears ago - but they're all ruined! There was a lot of rubbish all over the beaches and in the sea - not sure whether some of it was left over from the tsunami in 2004, or just from the massive tourism/beach party culture there is now!

Either way, thailand didn't grow on me as much as Cambodia has straight away - i imagine that Thailand was a bit like this is now, 10 or 15 years ago!

Anyway, I'm rambling, waiting for photos and the others to get up! Ooo Also I have the full Moon party pictures developed hehe, and Mel has the CD which we'll put on facebook soon! I'm suprised I've managed to find a half decent internet connection to put the ones I'm putting up now to be honest! Haha saying that, now they won't work... haha. BYE!

Only 5 weeks left :-(!

Oooo PS - forgot to say that we did do a boat trip around Koh Phi Phi - went to the beach (Maya bay) where they filmed "The Beach", a beach where loads of monkeys live, a bit of snorkelling... very good! BUT, I thought I was going to die! The sea was soooo choppy, we were rocking all over the place! Mel nearly broke her fingers lol, we all donned a life jacket - we were soo scared! haha, it wasn't for us - I had all my stuff with me - passport, purse and I didn't want that to get lost in the sea haha! Was ok though - it was an experience! The boat couldn't dock at Maya bay because it was so choppy - so we had to dock in like a little cove thing the other side of the island bit and walk over. but we had to jump out of the boat in to the massive waves - swim over to these rocks with waves thrashing against us - there was a lot of grazes from the rocks from all of us! Then climb up this rickity bamboo ladder to this platform at the top, then go down the other side of this little cliff with another bamboo ladder thing, with waves trying to push us off onto more rocks below! then across this strange platformy thing, then trek through the jungle (which was poretty cool!) then to the beach! Which, cos it was soooo windy, there was a lot of sandburny stuff from it being whipped around our legs! Had a wander and a swim in the choppy sea and then had to do the whole thing all ofer again to get back! I was the only one with a waterproof camera, so did manage to capture a bit of the action! Haha, I was so scared though! But at the end of the day it was all woryth it cos it was good - felt like we'd been on a right adventure! Haha. zeah then saw some wild monkezs, snorkelled a bit and got to use the underwater bit on mz camera for some fishies for the first time ß not sure if it reallz worked though!

now bye!xx