No thank you...

We approached Cambodia with a certain amount of trepidation; most the information from fellow travellers was not the most complimentary and apart from Angkor, we weren't sure what we actually wanted to see and do. From the very start Cambodia was to prove that she is a very different country from Thailand and Laos, our first experience of how things are often done here was at the border trying to get our visa. We had been warned that the officials and completely corrupt and will try to make as much money as they can from each visa; you still don't quite expect them to blatantly ignore the sign with the real price and then close the window in your face when you try to argue with them (they did) However, it was relatively painless, they only fleeced $5 which we were prepared to pay anyway. After the officials it was then time to face the real, everyday Cambodia and it shocks you from the very start; naked babies lying in the filthy gutter, people without limbs dragging themselves around in the filth. Such sights only a few minutes in and the really sad thing was that I knew that given a little time I would become hardened to it, I would probably even become irritated by the begging.

We managed to get a taxi from Poipet to Siem Reap at a fairly reasonable price (took A LOT of arguing!) which we shared with a South Korean policeman. The road had once been lauded the title "worst road in the world" and some parts still felt like that but overall it was not too bad (I even managed to sleep for a while despite the constant bumps) On arriving in SR we were duly handed over to the tuk tuk mafia and offered a free ride into town (they want to try to get you to take them as your guide to Angkor) but they took us to a nice guesthouse with a crocodile farm out the back (had to be done really!)

We tooka little bit of time to explore Siem Reap - not that much to the town itself, constant hassle from tuk tuks who want to be your guide to Angkor. We eventually found a little man with a big pink umbrella that had good english, wasn't smarmy and gave us a good price for a sunrise start at Angkor Wat- that meant getting picked up at 4:30 am!!!!

We arrived at the temples as light was beginning to show in the sky and made our way across one of the largest moats I have ever seen to get to the familiar skyline of Angkor Wat. There were already many people there but I should imagine it was much quieter than it usually is. We were lucky and had a clear and fairly colourful sunrise, having said that it wasn't quite the spectacle I was expecting it to be, perhaps i am hard to please! Once the sun was truly up we went exploring and moved onto Angkor Thom and the Bayon temple- you all know the one I mean- the one with all the faces, very cool indeed. After that we had a spot of brekkie, we had been at it for at least 4 hours by now and had a play with the cutest puppy so far, don't worry, we've both had our rabies jabs! A bit of a wander through some of the less impressive (yet still quite impressive) temples under the umbrella (to keep the sun off though, not the rain) we beat a vendor down to a decent price for some juicy pineapple. We then headed to the temple we were most looking forward to- Ta Phrom (the one from tombraider) and whilst being really cool it was again a little disappointing. Despite all the literature saying that this temple had been left alone for people to experience the awe and wonder of seeing the trees encroaching upon man's creations(oooo get me) it has been tided up and "civilised" I suppose that is fair enough due to the large volume of people, they have to keep it safe and accessible but it did detract from it somewhat. In fact our favourite temple was one that you often don't get to see on the one day tour (our guide was nice to us or we were just very demanding!) Preah Khan is a very quiet temple which has been more or less left alone and is a great one to explore and wander about without seeing a single other person. It also has some great tree/temple mutations. We got stranded here during a fierce spot of rain but it was quite enjoyable because we were camped up with the Korean guy we got our taxi with! Once the rain eased up we visited one last temple which is the highest one and the best for sunset (we didn't last that long) I was very impressed by all the elderly Japanese men battling up the very steep steps! We made it back to town about 6:30pm and gave our exhausted guide (he'd been up working all the night before) $15 which about works out as a dollar an hour. A quiet and fairly early night followed by a lazy day to recover!

Next to Phnom Pehn, first impressions were not the most encouraging; when we got off the bus and looked at the book to see where to go for a GH we were literally swarmed by tuk tuk drivers- at one point there were 6 around us, all talking at once and trying to get our custom. We went with the first guy who hounded us (he showed he had perseverance) and found a nice room for just over $10. We spent most of this day by the river which unfortunately is undergoing loads of building work so is not the peaceful and picturesque spot I'm sure it usually is. The next day we hit the markets and tried our first sugarcane juice- absolutely incredible, am never going back now! And uber cheap at 1000 riel (25 cents to you and me). Chris managed to find a pair of Lee shorts which for once were not cheap knockoffs but proper factory made extras that have ound themselves onto these market stalls. These would usually retail in the states for $40 but he managed to wangle it down to $8 (he's much better at haggling than I am, I'm rubbish- sorry Mum!) After that we had a real treat and went for a Happy Hour cocktail at the Raffles hotel- SO GOOD! We just about managed to stop at one each, even at happy hour prices it was threatening to blow the budget! We then set off to the lakeside (the backpacker ghetto) to see sunset over the lake- unfortunately the large amount of cloud spoiled any chance of a good one. We then plumped for a really cheap Indian Thali meal, the cheapness was offset by the drunken Indian chef making a complete nuisance of himself. We were studiously ignoring him when Chris looked out the door and nearly collapsed with surprise. Who should he see but Keizo- our Japanese compadre from Laos (it is a VERY small part of the world) so that made for a very jolly dinner (even easier to block out chef's shouting and wingeing)

The next morning was our heavy day with a visit to S21, the torture and re-education centre of the Khmer Rouge, we paid a few dollars to have a guide take us fround and give us the stories behind the pictures and exhibits. It truely is a grim and depressing place, you can still see the blood stains on the floor of the cells and can tell that even working day in and out there hasn't made our guide immune; he still seemed affected by what he was telling us. We attempted to watch a video about the centre and 2 of the only 7 to survive but a couple of powercuts made that impossible; we left feeling very sombre. It brought back the realisation that this happened so recently, so many people that we pass everyday were personally affected by the regieme. They may not display the physical scars of missing limbs and the like (although so many do) but they must still bear the mental ones and I should bear that in mind eveytime I say " no"