Hello again everyone. . . . Welcome to Cambodia. . . So after our little crazy Tuk-Tuk ride to the border, I told you last time (sarcastically) that this was when the fun started. . . . Well. . . . .

First there are people trying to get you to buy visa's from them, saying you cannot get them inside, plus millions of very very poor looking kids tugging at you asking for money. I was red hot, I to be honest, I think yesterdays hang-over was starting to re appear! We were befriended by a guy who seemed to know what he was talking about and pointed us in all the right directions. . . I was waiting for the catch (Don't worry, that's later). So, we left Thailand and walk through to the area where you get your Cambodian visa. . . We filled out the forms and went to pay our $20, as it clearly stated. . . Even one of the officials said do not pay anymore. . . ! But the visa people wanted $25. . . Now, I know it isn't much, but it is the principle. . . We had a chat with the tourist police there and they had a word. . They did reduce it to $20 plus 100 Baht fee. . . . What a load of crap, I thought. . . . Still, it was hot and we wanted to get moving so reluctantly paid the corrupts b******s and moved on to the next bit of fun. . . .

We queued up at immigration and watched a lot of people go through in front of us (because they paid the police), but eventually got through, all the time my friendly man pointing the direction. . . He then suggested we jumped on the free transfer bus away from all the expensive corrupt taxi's at the border and went to the local bus station and got a taxi there or a bus! The bus looked official and the guy friendly, so we continued with him and low and behold, here's the catch, he didn't take us to the bus station, he took us to his travel agency. . . . Gutted, I had been done! I should have seen it coming a mile off, but when you are hot and tired. . . ?!?! Anyway, There buses looked crap, so we opted for the taxi option at $15 each, probably more than they should have been, but comparing the prices in the books, didn't seem too bad. . . . They then said we would need a fourth person in the car. . . . That plus our luggage was ridiculous and they wouldn't back down and just take us. . . At this point they started getting a bit arsey, so we decided to leave them to it and started walking away down the road, that might I add was more of a dirt track! They guy followed me trying to be all friendly again, but by this point I had had enough. . . .A few cars drove past offering lifts, but as soon as they dropped their windows, the guy seemed to say something to them to put them off. . . . He then added that we wouldn't get a lift and he would now charge us $100. . . .

So, you can imagine, both me and Nick are ready to drop this idiot, but we stayed cool and I managed to get to a guy with a big car and agree a price of $50 and get our bags in before the idiot got close! He then proceeded to clap his hands sarcastically at our achievement, so I returned the compliment by shaking his hand and sarcastically thanking him for all his help! Yes. . The moral victory was ours! Just as we were about to drive off, He opens my door and say's "Anything for me, for the help?". Well, I think you can imagine what I said! Sorry mum!

The taxi driver, didn't say much, but seemed like a pretty nice guy, so after stopping 2 minutes down the road to have one of his tyres checked, we were off, on our way into the country. . . . Wow, what a welcome to Cambodia. . . Not nice to say the least!

This all changed over the next 3 hours in the taxi though. . . . We got to see a whole new side of things, that you just would not see unless you went by road. . . Well, I say road lightly, as it was far from a road. . . It was more of a dirt track and we needed to cover around 150km. . . We saw some beautiful countryside, people and place. . .Very very poor, but everyone seemed to be content with their lives and happy. . . Everyone we saw were happy to see us and manage a "Hello".

We travelled through some terrible weather and seeing the guys and girls out on their bikes, you really felt for them! We did eventually get to Siam Reap, our destination by dark and had already decided on a place to stay, well check out anyway!

The European it was called, now I know that sounds a bit sad, but It was by no means European, it was very traditional and we were greeted with a very nice welcome. . . . The rooms were cheap as chips and very comfortable. . . The lovely lady who ran the place even offered to cook us food, which we gladly accepted. . . . !

Later that evening after the food, we decided to head out and have a bit of an explore, but I think someone had different plans, as the heavens opened and it started to pour! We did go out a little bit, about 2 minutes round the corner and the decided that it was no good, as we were getting really wet and dirty. . . We did however pop in to a very nice massage place and all had a massage. . Claire went for one hours reflexology and me and Nick opted for an hours oil body massage. . . Me and Nick chatted virtually all the way through the massage and had a great laugh with the two girls, with their broken English and out terrible attempts at Cambodian!

Another early night again as we were tired plus we wanted to leave early in the morning and see the temples. . . We opted to hire bikes from the place a cycle it. .. . We didn't really know what to expect, but thought, we'll give it a go. . . What a great decision!

The bikes weren't the best of health, but they worked and I suppose that's all you need!?? After heading about 6km down a long, flat, straight road, we started heading into the Angkor forest area. . . A few more km's and we were at our first destination, the Angkor Wat temple. . . Although it wasn't exactly what I was expecting, it was still pretty spectacular! We parked the bikes up and headed down the 300 metre causeway and through the outer wall and into the inner compound. . . We then spent about an hour wandering around and into the main shrine area. . .

I don't really have too much to say on this, as I am not exactly and big temple fan, don't get me wrong, it was great to see, but I don't know much about it or it's history, etc! The day, however was great, as we rode from temple to temple and covered well over 40km. . . We stopped for a spot of lunch and some dodgy stall and chatted to lots of locals on the way. . . Everyone seeming happy to see us and say hello. . . . In general everywhere was quite busy, not just with tourists, but more so with locals, as it was supposedly the last day of a 15 day festival. . . The lady at the place said they had been celebrating dead people. . .I think that was her best translation anyway!? So yeah, there were lots and lots of families out celebrating also, it was great to see them all doing their equivalent of a picnic. . . . . .

We managed to do the big circuit we wanted to and ended up back near the start for the last temple high up on a hill. This was supposed to be the best place to catch the sunset, so after dumping the bikes and fighting our way to the top and then to the top of the temple up virtually vertical steps we watched the sunset. . . And to say I was disappointed, would be and understatement. . . . ! Ok, the view was great, but the sunset was a bit poor. . . . ! We headed back down and got our bikes and started heading back in the dark. . . It was crazy fun, as the traffic was really bad, so great that we had bikes, as we could weave through everywhere, I loved it and even held onto a truck for a bit to rest my legs. . . . !

We got back to the guesthouse, to a great welcome of everyone saying hello, hello, hello and even all the dogs were howling hello too . . . . We were obviously filthy and tired so jumped into our showers and chilled for an hour before heading out for some food. . . . We were going to have a further wander that night but decided against it, as we had cycled and walked enough. . . We ate at a really nice restaurant and the food came through really slowly, which was great for us, as we just ate slowly and chilled out. . . . By the way, I forgot to mention we had started a detox after the big session in Bangkok, I suggested detox and Claire and Nick agreed, so no more booze for a while. . . . So, we had fruit juices and water with our meal. . . ! I went for a Cambodian dish, which was very similar to Thai, a watery soup dish with lots of lemongrass, limes, fresh mushrooms and chicken. . . !

The heavens opened again, so we decided to have another reasonably early night and decided that we had pretty much seen enough of the area here and would head off in the morning to Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital.

Speak again soon x x x