We had bought our tickets to Cambodia as part of a package travel deal before going to Don Det. We had travel to Don Det and Cambodia all included and all we had to do was call them a day before from our guesthouse to let them know where to pick us up from. Our guesthouse refused to call them, apparently they had no telephone, so we paid someone else to use their phone. They assured us we would be picked up at our guesthouse at 9.30am. You can probably guess what's coming right? No one turned up. We had no Laos money left to pay anyone for a phone call so pleaded with our guesthouse to make one short call to find out what was going on. We could see their phone on charge so this time their excuse was no credit! We eventually found someone to make the call and waited on the beach for a rep from the travel agency to turn up. He tried to blame us for not being at the boat on time and told us we should leave tomorrow instead. After getting a little stroppy with him and telling him that was not an option as we had no money left (there are no ATMs on the island) he made a few calls and got the bus to wait for us after the border crossing and bundled us on a Tuk Tuk to get us there.

I had read that the border crossing was notorious for scamming tourists out of more money than necessary. The official government price is $20 USD for a visa. Instead we had to pay $2 stamp fee each to exit Laos, then we got ushered across to "the doctor" who wanted to take our temperature. From my research I knew that this was a scam and tried to fight against this and go straight to the visa office. However, Bryan had the passports and went to the doctor so I was a bit stuck. He tried to tell him we weren't going to pay and the guy ignored him. He took our passports and our temperatures and gave us some spiel about who to call if we get ill that neither of us could understand. Then he refused to give us our passports back until we paid him for taking our temperatures. Needless to say things got a bit aggressive given how stressful my morning had been. It was all futile as all the guards were in it together and they wouldn't let us through until we paid up. We then had to go to the visa office where they wanted $25 each. Bryan had already told me to stop arguing with them in case they didn't let us through. The guy was taking forever and the bus was beeping at us to hurry up and at one point it threatened to leave without us (there is no transport at the border unless it's been prearranged). Anyway we eventually got through and the rest of the bus journey was pretty uneventful apart from being really cold and a few hours later than we were told. Nothing new there.

Towards the end of the journey one of the staff on the bus tried to get all the tourists to go to his "recommended" accommodation. Apparently, since we would be arriving in Siem Reap after midnight no where would be open but he could ring this accommodation and get them to stay open for us. Bryan and I have been travelling long enough to know this is a scam (it even warns you of it in Lonely Planet) but somehow everyone else got suckered in by it apart from one couple who were unsure. We told them it was probably a scam and told them the hotel we were going to so they decided to go with us. We got a Tuk Tuk each and all told our drivers where we wanted to go. However, the couple went off in the wrong direction and never turned up at our hotel. We found out the next day their driver had fed them a line about the hotel not liking foreigners and so he refused to take them there. Guess where he took them instead? The very same tourist trap guesthouse the bus staff was trying to get us to. Obviously he had got to the Tuk Tuk driver as soon as the bus stopped. We were lucky he hadn't got to ours as well.

So far I haven't painted a great picture of Cambodia have I? I didn't have a great first impression of it either but after spending some time in Siem Reap it turned out to be quite alright. I expected people trying to scam and hassle us everywhere but walking around the city we were left alone most of the time apart from the odd beggar and Tuk Tuk driver, same as everywhere. Siem Reap has a really great nightlife which I didn't expect from Cambodia. There's a big night market, lots of restaurants and a road named "pub street", hard to miss with the bright neon lights pointing it out. Generally food and drink its pretty cheap. You can have a decent meal in a restaurant for less than $3.

The money here is quite confusing as they use US dollars as well as Cambodian Riel. They don't use cents so they'll give you any change in riel but it's ok once you get used to it. It does make it easy for them to overcharge though since it's easy for them to say something like a bottle of water costs $1 when it shouldn't even cost half that.

What with Bryan being a budding Bhuddist, we couldn't come to Siem Reap without going around the 8th wonder of the world which is Angkor Wat. This is a huge temple built in 12AD and surrounded by loads of other smaller temples over an area which is miles long. The guide book says that trying to do the temples in a day is a mistake but at $20 a day each for the entrance fee plus hiring a Tuk Tuk for the day we couldn't afford to do any more than one day. Turns out a day is more than enough if you've been to Thailand! I was bored by the second one to be honest; they're all very similar. There was one which stood out for me; an old temple that hasn't been maintained over the centuries so has become overgrown by trees that themselves are hundreds of years old. The roots and the stones are all intertwined and fused together so it looks like the trees are growing out of the temple rather than from the ground. Of course we didn't get to see even half the temples that are in that area but for us it was enough to do one days worth. What makes me sad is the number of children hanging around the temples trying to sell you stuff or just begging for money. They should be at school getting an education for their future but instead it is more lucrative for their parents to take them out of school to get money from tourists. We had kids as young as around 4 years old trying to sell us bracelets.

We had 3 nights in Siem Reap which gave us enough time to do the sights and stock up on supplies as we haven't been to anywhere big enough for proper shops in a little while. I also managed to use the rooftop gym at our hotel to start my training for the Inca trek. Since we have gone over schedule a little bit for SE Asia I think we will get some time back whilst in Cambodia because it is quite small and not a huge amount here that we want to see. Next stop is Battambang via a $5 bus ticket (with AC) that actually got us there ahead of schedule!

PS sorry for all the boring temple photos, wasn't me!