Cambodia

Sorry it's been such a long delay since the last post... internet has been so slow that blogger.com hasn't wanted to work. LOL.

My last couple of days in Laos were ok.. we took a bus from Vang Vieng to Vientiane (the capital city), took about 5 hours. We just had one night in Vientiane, did a brief walking tour, which basically consisted of a couple of temples and a drink by the rivereside. Just a big busy city really.. although not as busy as Bangkok or Beijing.

We has to wake up at 3:30 in the morning to get transferred to the airport for our flight to Siem Reap (Cambodia, for the geographically challenged). We said goodbye to our Laotian tour leader and got checked in for our flight.

Upon arrival in Siem Reap (which has a lovely airport), we got our visas and through immigration relatively quickly. Our new tour leader met us and got us to our quite posh hotel, the nicest we had been in so far. All I did for the rest of the afternoon was eat lunch and watch movies, it was so hot and I was so tired from the early wake up call; that's all I had energy for. That night we all went to a buffet dinner/cultural dance show, was okay, I was so exhausted that I didn't pay much attention.

Next day was a temple marathon.. starting with Angkor Wat, which was quite impressive but not quite as good as I was expecting, perhaps because it gets so much hype. Ta Phrom (sp?) was the next temple, where the tree roots are growing through/slowly destroying the temple, this is where Tomb Raider was filmed. Some locals call it Angelina Jolie Temple, lol. Several more temples followed, they were all very beautiful and impressive. The last item on the days agenda was a climb up a hill to watch the sunset, which was nice but then we got to witness (and get the brunt of) the rainy season .. the skies literally opened up and we were soaked. Coming down the footpath to the bottom of the hill, completely saturated, trying to keep my camera bag protected, with thousands of people around me and the daylight quickly disappearing, proved quite challenging. Finding the bus in the mess of people, tuktuk's, buses, cars, giant puddles, new rivers formed by the lack of drainage, and still trying my best to keep my camera from getting destroyed, was also quite challenging. Eventually I located the bus and got aboard, I was the second last to do so, everyone else was as wet as me. Camera - survived. Back to the hotel where we all ate in the attached restaurant, I was happy about this as my shoes were busy drying off and thus I just had bare feet to walk around in.

Our last full day in Siem Reap was relaxing.. slept in until 930, wandered the streets and the old market, sat and had drinks with my tourmates, spilled my drink all over my freshly dried shoes, had a TWO HOUR full body massage which was WONDERFUL, and cost $14. Lunch followed, then I was tuckered out from all of the exerting myself that I took a tuktuk back to the hotel and relaxed. Dinner in the hotel again this evening.

Next day we were off on a bus for Phnom Penh, about a 5 hour journey along relatively well-maintained road. The journey included a stop in a small village where the local specialty is fried tarantulas, which I tried (you eat the legs only).. tasted a bit like chicken. They had a nice marinade on them. They also had live tarantulas, which everyone was taking a turn holding, I was quite apprehensive about doing so but gave it a go anyways. Not so bad. Their fangs had been removed anyway.

Continued on to the big city, quite busy and dirty again (common theme around these parts!). Got checked into our hotel and had a short siesta before heading out again. We got tuktuk's to the Russian Market, which is probably one of the best indoor markets I've seen this trip so far. So amazing, anything you could possibly want, good bargains to be had. I had already done a bit of shopping in Siem Reap, so I followed my tourmates around and watched them bargain for lower prices. Quite entertaining. To the riverfront for dinner, then back to the hotel.

That brings us to today.. busy, busy day. Out the door at 800, where we had a cyclo tour of Phnom Penh city including the Royal Palace, Silver Pagoda, and finishing at the central market. The central market was ok but not as good as the Russian Market. Had a lovely lunch and back to the hotel for a short siesta, and headed out again by bus.. visited the genocide museum and killing fields during the afternoon. Very, very sad and tragic what happened here, recent history really (the Khmer Rouge regime started in 1975). Was quite sobering hearing about the brutality that went on. I won't go on about it, google it and read for yourself.

After our days visit, we returned to the hotel and headed out to a lovely little restaurant/chef school for dinner. This school is staffed by former street kids who are learning to cook and serve.. was absolutely fantastic.

OK.. that was a long one. I'm off to bed shortly, we are on the bus to Kampot tomorrow (for one night) then Sihanoukville, which is right on the coast (Gulf of Thailand) for a couple of nights beachside time, then back to Phnom Penh for one more night. That's basically the end of the tour, I've got a bus ride to Saigon after that to start the last leg of this journey. I'll likely report again from Vietnam once I arrive.. Ciao!