Hola,

I finally got back on the road after my two wek exhile in Bangkok and true style I've done it in proper Sharp fashion Read on.

I made it to Siem Reap in quick time and as usual was dropped off by the bus at one of their "friends" guest houses. ( This means they drop us off there in the middle of the night and we have to stay there as there is nowhere else....b******s) Still the guest house was actually ok for one night but I found myself another more comfortable one the next day. I spent the first day just chilling out enjoying my favourite pastime(eating) and then spent the next 2 days exploring the temples of Ankor. The LP says that you should prepare for divine inspiration. I think this is a little over the top but that's not to say that the temples were'nt pretty cool. ON the first day of took a tuk tuk as it was so bloody hot and made do with exploring Ankor Wat. The next day I got back on the environmental bandwagon and decided to do the rest by bike. After sleeping through my alarm clock I managed to get out 2 hours after I wanted to just when it was starting to get really hot. Still I was on a mission and off I went . I cycled on quite unaware why people were beeping at me and pointing fingers until I finally realised that they drive on the right over here. I thought they were all just crazy drivers. (This doesn't bode well for my future driving in the states) So after avoiding near death I finally made it to the temples sweating buckets and a couple of pounds lighter. After two days of temple exploring I'm pretty sure I'm over temples for the rest of this trip but it was a good way to end. Siem Reap is a nice town to be in and it reminded me a lot of Luang Prabang in Laos. It does get bloody hot though and once again i'm sporting an impressive pink T-shirt and Short line. I need to get to a beach and sort this out.

Anyway I digress, off to Phnom Penh. The last time I was in the capital was not particularly memorable apart from my trip to the doctors. I decided to really see the city this time and made for a different area which is apparently popular with backpackers!. Hmmmmm well I should've turnned back when I walked down this particular street but this trip is about new adventures so I waded on down past the piles of rubble, rubbish and squidgy squashed rodents on the street. I picked a guest house from the LP called the TAT Guest house. I should've really looked at the name more closely but it had a good write up so there I went. The room on first glance was fine so I took it. After a quick shower howver I soon began to realise that TAT was a very apt name for this place. After trying to pull the curtains to, which was quite difficult as they were jammed I managed to pull the whole curtain rail off the wall with only a slight tug. Seriously it wasn't my fault. Then after pulling the drawstrings on the other curtains, I managed to plunge through my bed which i was standing on. Bloody TAT. This was followed later in the evening by the light falling off the wall onto my head as I was trying to get to sleep. I made a plan to leave quickly when my stay was up.

The main reason for coming to Phnom Penh was to get my visa for Vietnam. My original plan was to drop it off and get it back in a day and then head off to Ho Chi Minh City. What I didn't realise was that I arrived on a Saturday meaning the bloody embasssy was closed and I would have to wait until Monday. Great 2 days here when I've already seen most of the sights. I sensed this would be the general flow of my stay here. So I had a look at my rapidly less trusted Lonely Planet and planned a few more sights to see. So off I trot on my well planned 12 km walk taking in all the sights of this fair city.

It started off well with an easy walk to the Independence Monument which was impressive but not particularly interesting. It was closed which I thought was a little odd but I pressed on. I continued the walk up to the royal palace and at this point I can see why people take a tuk Tuk ride instead as it was bloody hot. At this point I was accosted by a beggar woman who wanted a few riel which I gave her. She only had one arm so I gave her my spare change. I'll call her Sue for the purposes of the story. She wouldn't leave me alone after that and she stalked me all the way to the palace, which was bloody shut as it was a Sunday. Again I need to keep track of waht the days are. SO my sightseeing list instantly got shorter as SUe pointed out "close today for youuuuu".

Annoyed I tried to lose Sue but she kept up the pace only to joined by no legs Bert who then decided to stalk me to. I decided after that to only give money when others aren't looking. After managing to lose Sue and Bert I headed up to Wat Phnom the highest point in all Phonm Penh. I mustered all of my Everest training and prepared for the climb. All I can say is the climb to the 29m summit was tough but I made it in good time. For the higehest point, you don't really see much but I felt good about my achievement

And that's my stay in Cambodia over and it's off to Ho Chi Minh City tomorrow. Can't wait. Hope everyone is well back home and thanks for all the get well messges.

Sorry about the weird alignment of the writing in this blog. Half way through writing it I managed to chang it to Hebrew and then could'nt change it back the right way. All I'll finish with is Mazeltov!

Will .