Hey everyone! How you all doin??? As promised....we are writing you the cambodian installment of our journal! We left Vietnam from Ho Chi Minh city very early in the morning to catch a bus to Cambodia! The bus we had for the first leg of the journey has got to be the best to date....we were on a 45 seater bus and there was only 5 of us on it!!! So we all spread out....Gina had the whole of the back to lay down on while Sally and Ella reclined the most reclinable seats you've ever seen! So we all fell asleep almost straight away...only to be woken up by the bloke in charge of the bus..poking us saying "good morning sunshine"!!! We had about 15 mins before we got to the border...in this time we got a pep talk from the bloke advising us on everything we should do at the border. He emphasised that we had to run from the bus to passport control so that the bus load of people behind us wouldnt get in front and hold us up! After him tellin us this over and over and over again......and him insisting we stood up on the bus and put all our rucksacks on so we could run the minute we stopped...we were all in fits of laughter! So we jumped off the bus and did our best to run in the blazing heat to the border.....(it was more of a waddle actually-turns out its pretty hard to run wiv a huge rucksack on your back!) Anyway...what we thought was gonna be a quick stamp in your passport and into cambodia turned out to be the most stressful....sweaty.....and long experience! Had to get a stamp in cambodia.....then walk for ages to the next bit where you had to fill out a form and get your visa..........then walk to the next bit to get a cambodian stamp and fill out more forms.......and then have some women in charge of quarantine make us fill out forms and charge us for some yellow book.......we didnt understand so said no and waddled away! We walked into Cambodia.....feeling the heat big time (it woz so so so so hot) and had a quick bite to eat before we got on another bus to Phnom Penh. One thing we learnt......turns out Cambodia havent got the best roads....which some might say is an understatement! Most are just dirt tracks apart from in the cities.....doesn't make a comfortable bus ride! So we had a relatively ok bus ride until we stopped in a place called Naek Loung where we got a ferry across the Mekong (yes.....still the mekong!). Was a bit of a shocking welcome to cambodia....began to realise the extent of the poverty....seeing all the begging and little kids was quite upsetting! More people got onto the bus and sally ended up having a women and her two kids squashing onto one seat next to her....which wasn't much fun! We arrived in Phnom Penh and decided we wanted to stay in a backpackers area around this huge lake. When we first walked into our guesthouse we were amazed at how beautiful it was.....it was all built in stilts over the lake! Even our room (which was basic but clean) was over the lake...if you looked through the gaps in the floorboards you could see the water!!! Our first evening was nice....we had a lovely dinner and watched dvds coz we were tired and didnt fancy going out.....so we were all as happy as larry....apart from the heat!!!!!!! But then things took a BIG turn for the worse. As we all lay in bed trying to sleep.....all we could hear was scrabbling and squeeking....pretty loud...and sounded like it was coming from under our beds! We all tried to be calm and collected but it seemed to just get louder and louder and became continuous......and through a process of elimination....we realised that we had...........DUN DUN DUN..........................R A T S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was truly horrific!!! And it was just so so so so hot to make it even worse. It honestly sounded like a rat was about to chew through the wall and bite us. The next day we tried to forget about the rats and have a sightseeing day out. The noght before we had watched the killing fields as an insight to what we were goin to see the next day. We hired a drunk man from our guesthouse and his tuk tuk and he took us to the killing fields passing rural cambodia on the way, it was nice to see a different side to the country but was also qutie upsetting as we were soon to learn why a lot of cambodians are missing limbs and appear disabled. The killing fields was very moving and upsetting to see we found it amazing that the war was so recent and such devastating things can still happen. it was basically just a massive field with holes that had been dug up and thousands of skeletons dug out. there was a big tower where they displayed some of the skulls of the people, it was very disturbing as there were still bones lying around the place and bits of burnt clothing. A man in our guesthouse had lost his brother sister mum dad grandad and auntie and uncle it was very sad when he was telling us about it. We then went to a museum which was where a lot of cambodians were kept. tortured and killed by the khmer rouge it showed pictures and made it all so real. so it was an educational day which we finished by visiting the street market in the centre of town. Here we bought some lovely chanel and christian dior sunglasses for 2 pounds each!! was very fun! then we returned to the guesthouse to watch the sunset whilst enjoying pineapple shakes....no not alcoholic! we were sitting there enjoying the sites when ella heard a russle in the bushes by the river and as she and gina screamed our fears became reality as a rat the size of a cat ran past us and towards our room!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we ran in to tell sally and began to hear more extreme noises. we devised a plan whilst standing on our beds screaming to go out have a relaxing evening drinking alot of red bull and not sleeping at all as we had a bus to catch at 6 the next morning we were sure this wouldnt be too hard...although the time at this point was.. only about 5 o clock...13 hours to go and counting! so we headed out and decided to check our emails make some fone calls all one at a time to waste time! so by the time this was done it was about..............................7.30....we had dinner which seemed to be the fastest service we had ever received and then made some more fone calls by 11 everything had closed so we had to go back to the dreaDED rat room! we sat on our beds playing music trying to drown out the scary noises..but before long sally and gina had both dropped off to sleep leaving ella playing sodoku all night! gina and sally would wake up now and then as they had little room since ginas bed broke as she jumping on it screaming about the raTS so they were sharing a single..small rat infested bed! however they still managed to sleep to ellas dismay! the night was long! we left early the next morning and got a bus to siem reap!the bus ride was pretty uneventful which we were glad about! we arrived in siem reap and had a man holding our names on a card an the bus station as we had booked ahead through our previous guesthouse owners! ho took us to a very nice CLEAN room with a nice shower and bathroom and we were content. we had some lunch and then went to see an orphanage we ahd been told to visit..it had been set up by a man trying to help young children who had been affected by landmines during or after the war. it was very sad seeing children missing limbs and reading about there stories although quite nice in a way as they all looked very happy. we stayed here for a while then made our way to the angkor temples to buy our ticket for the next day and watch the sunset on top of one of the temples of angkor! it was beautiful even after the very steep steps that we had to climb to get up to the top of the hill! we watched the sunset before making our way down stopping to look at the elephants! then we went back to our guesthouse stopping on the way at the market to have a little shop!! we had a nice dinner and then all felling quite tired went to bed as we had a big day the next day looking around the temples of angkor! we woke early and our tuk tuk was waiting for us. He took us on a tour of the temples which were very beautiful although they all became a bit similar after a while and it was very hot! Highlight of the day was the elephant ride we had which took us around the temple bayoun! Was lotsa fun! We came home all pretty shattered after our long day at the temples of angkor! We all just wanted to lay down but were greeted by a 7 legged, stripy, hairy, ugly tarantula!!!!!!!!!!not fun! After a long deliberation (standing on our beds...the furthest point from the spider) over what we should do. we tried trapping it in a glass but we all chickened out as we got close to it. but then luckily for us....the spider crawled into the hinge of the door (foolish thing!!) Sally slammed the door.....the spider died....we celebrated!!!! whoo. We had a nice evening eating out and having a look round the market. Packed our stuff and got very excited bout going to bangkok the next day! We got a taxi to the border (cheap cheap!) along the worst roads we've ever seen.....thing we all ended up losing a million brain cells coz of the amount of times we wacked our heads on the roof coz we were being thrown about everywhere! Had another long and sweaty trek through the border....slight panic when they wouldnt stamp our passports coz i didnt know my brothers address....(we resolved the issue by making it up!). We found a tour company the other side of the border that had a bus goin back to bangkok but it couldnt leave until it was full up. SO we all stood on the streets with horns and flutes that we had bought in cambodia...trying to urge every passer-by to get on the bus! Most just ignored us..but one women was so disturbed she grabbed her suitcase and actually ran down the street to get away from us! Finally....the bus was full and we could leave! Had a good journey back to Bangkok and got dropped on the Khao San road so had a quick look around before getting a taxi back to Perfect Place and sighing a big sigh of relief as we crossed the gates! Last few days in Bangkok have been fun and lazy.......just sunbathing and watching films! Had a night out with sarah and her friends....back on the thai whiskey and red bull! was a fun night! So tonight we are getting a train to Surat Thani where we make our way to Ko Samui for a few nights! We'll do another update soon! Hope your all ok....let us know how you all are and whats happening at home and at uni!!! Miss you loads, Lotsa Love Ella, Gina, Sally x x x