Cambodia

26 May 2008
Siem Reap, Cambodia
                A guy followed us all the way to the Cambodia immigration office.  Along the way we were offered a taxi ride to Siem Reap.  We told everyone who asked (which was a lot) that we were going to take the bus.  Everybody (including people working in the immigration office) said that the last bus stopped at 3pm (it was almost 6pm now).  We didn’t believe any of them and decided to just find out for ourselves.
                Our E-Visa worked, which was nice, and we went to find the bus.  We were followed again by two guys insisting there was no bus and offering us a taxi ride.  We kept saying no and asked where the bus station was.  They said it was 300 meters ahead…and they would meet us there.  We came to a building with two buses in front and bus related text on the windows.  The two guys said, “See no more buses.”  Doug poked his head in the building and it was an empty room except for rows of chairs.  This whole thing seemed kind of strange.  As we started to walk away they offered us a ride again and we began to negotiate with them.  We finally settled on $30 total for a taxi ride (we later found out that the average cost per person for a taxi is $35 - $50 USD…not bad).  The best news about negotiating for a taxi ride was we probably arrived about 2 plus hours ahead of when we would have by bus, and when you are getting over food poisoning, 2 less hours on a bus is crucial.  As the taxi pulled out we went about quarter mile down road we passed the bus station…of course.
                We arrived in Siem Reap about 3 1/2 hours later.  Our taxi stopped at a tuk tuk stop.  A guy poked his head in the car and said the driver would not take us the rest of the way to the hotel, instead a tuk tuk (a scooter that has a trailer with a couple seats fitted) into town.  When we told him where we were going, he said it was too far out of town and we would have to pay extra.  This started off a 10 minute argument about how this wasn’t we negotiated for and we paid to be dropped at our hotel.  Finally we let in and agreed to take a tuk tuk for 30 baht (less than a dollar) to our hotel.  They put another guy on our tuk tuk and he spent the whole time talking to us and eventually trying to convince us to hire him as a guide/driver for touring the Angkor temples.  When we arrived at the hotel we paid him the 30 baht and didn’t hire him.  We were still a bit worked up from them jerking us around.
                The staff checked us in and brought us to our room.  The hotel was very clean and really nice.  Our room was also nice, it had a good size bed, the bathroom had a bath tub (probably only the second or third one we’ve seen so far), there was cable TV with HBO, Cinemax and even a mini-fridge.  Not bad for $20 a night.
                Not having eaten all day (to avoid any food poisoning related issues), we set out to get some “safe” food.  It turned out there was only one restaurant open in the area.  Luckily they had a pretty good Italian menu including pizza.  We ordered the Hawaiian and it was really good.  Best of all the staff literally ran to get us whatever we ordered. 
                After eating we took showers and went right to bed.

27 March 2008
Siem Reap, Cambodia
                We slept in.  Our stomachs were beginning to return to normal, but it was best to rest a bit.  Eventually we got up so Anna could call Jurgen.  We set off in search of a payphone but the search was futile.  Every phone booth we found was broken or the phone was missing.  Eventually we found an internet café with overseas phone service, but the connection was pretty bad.
                Back to the hotel, we decided to try the free breakfast.  They served us bread, fruit and a fried egg with carrot and onions mixed in.  Then it was back up to the room to make sure everything settled.
                Later in the afternoon we felt up to do some exploring of the Ankgor temples.  We wandered around trying to find a tuk tuk driver that was reasonable.  We settled on a guy that would take us around for the afternoon for $8.
                Our first stop was to get tickets.  Oddly, they took our photos and then imprinted them on the tickets (makes for a nice souvenir).  Our next stop was the famous Ankgor Wat.  According to our guide book, it is the largest religious building in the world, and it didn’t disappoint.  As we approached we were greeted by a moat that was near 200 yards wide.  The island was surrounded by a large, decorated wall.  Inside was a huge field with the main temples in the middle.  All of the structures had intricate carvings in the rock walls and the whole place was quite amazing.
                After exploring for a bit we headed off to the Bayon temple.  This temple had faces carved everywhere to “keep an eye” on people.  Next we went to the elephant terrace where parades where staged for royalty.
                Our driver brought us back to the hotel.  When we arrived there was a tuk tuk driver that worked for the hotel that was pretty disappointed that we didn’t hire him for the day…but he wasn’t around when we left.  Doug negotiated hiring him for the next two days which would include a sunrise tour the next day and on the third day travel 39km to a distant temple.
                For dinner we went back to our little Cambodian/Italian restaurant.

28 March 2008
Siem Reap, Cambodia
                The alarm went off at 4:30am.  We met our driver, Chey, at 4:45 downstairs.  We loaded up in his tuk tuk and set off.  As we reached the moat we could see that the sky was already starting to light up a brilliant red.  We entered the temple and Doug started screwing with all the fancy settings that camera had to get a good photo.  We spent the next 45 minutes taking photos and enjoying the sunrise with a growing crowd.
                Next we headed back into Angkor Thom (the area with Bayon and Elephant Terrace) to see some other ruins.  Then Chey took us out to see some outlying temples.  Sometime after 11am our camera battery ran out, but those weren’t the only batteries running on empty, we were pretty tired too (we had been touring for near 7 hours now).
                Back at the hotel we made plans to meet Chey at 8am.  We headed up to the room to rest a bit before heading out for some lunch.  We decided to try a different place not far from the hotel.  Doug ordered something on the menu called “Chicken with Spicy.”  Spicy what, he had no idea.  When it arrived it turned out to be green curry (Doug’s immortal enemy).  Despite adding copious amounts of soy sauce it still was inedible.  Thankfully they served it with some white rice on the side.
                Next we decided to try and find the bus station to get tickets to Sihanoukville.  We wandered around for a couple hours with no luck.  Despite our guide book showing an office in the neighborhood we were in, there was none.  Eventually we headed back to the hotel.
                After striking out on lunch we decided to play it safe and go back to our Cambodian/Italian joint and we both ordered some pasta dishes that weren’t too bad.  We were in bed shortly afterwards.

29 March 2008
Siem Reap, Cambodia
                The both of us were awake by 6:45ish.  The alarm went off at 7:15 telling us it was time to get up.  Since the free breakfast wasn’t too exciting, we decided to skip it, and lay in bed for another 20 minutes.  Chey met us outside at 8:00, and we were off.
                He proceeded to take us to a circuit of different temples on the map.  The second temple he took us to was 39km away.  And it was worth the drive.  This particular temple called Banteay Srei, which means “Citadel of the Women’.  It is said this temple must have been built by women because of the elaborate carvings.  The carvings are too fine for that of a man.  This temple although small, was very beautiful.  We visited temples until around 2:00pm.  The day was hot, humid, and full of photos.
                Once back at the room we unloaded the camera, and scouted tour agencies to buy our bus tickets from.  The day before all the tour agencies gave us two prices.  The higher price was for a bus with a toilet.  From experience the bus toilets are terrible in these parts.  We did not need to pay the extra $6 a ticket for a toilet we were not going to use.  An agency not too far from our guesthouse sold us tickets for $12 a ticket.  This was good, considering we would be taking two buses.  The first bus was scheduled to leave at 7:00am for Phnom Penh, and the second on to Sihanoukville at 1:30pm. 
                After the bus tickets were purchased we headed back to the room to shower and relax for a while.  A couple of hours later Doug headed out for take-out.  Anna somehow managed to get a bad cold, and was not feeling up to going out.  Doug came back with a pizza from the restaurant we had frequented the past couple evenings.

30 March 2008
Siem Reap/ Sihanoukville, Cambodia
                The alarm went off at 5:30.  There was to be a shuttle to pick us up taking us to the bus station at 6:00.  Now why the shuttle was picking us up at 6:00 for a 7:00 bus, we didn’t know.  The shuttle was pretty prompt, and drove us directly to the bus station.  We then loaded our bags onto the bus, and waited.  It would be another 35 minutes until the bus was to leave.  This was definitely a local bus.  We were the only tourists on the bus. 
                The bus left promptly at 7:00, and we were off.  After about an hour and a half the bus pulled over at an outside restaurant/small market for a 30 minute pit-stop.  Here Anna bought some pineapple off a girl selling fruit.  We also saw one of the delicacies for sale by some of the women, boiled/fried grasshoppers.  This seemed to be the thing in Cambodia.  We haven’t been able to come to terms with eating grasshoppers as yet, but apparently they seem quite popular.
                The bus stopped one more time for 15 minutes during the journey to Phnom Penh.   We arrived in Phnom Penh around 12:30.  It would now be an hour of waiting until the next bus.  Once Doug got himself settled at the bus station Anna went across the street to get some lunch.  She came back with a fried noodle dish with boney chicken.  The noodles were edible, but the chicken didn’t really have any meat on it, just bones. 
                The bus to Sihanoukville left promptly at 1:30pm.  There was a pit-stop about 2-hours into the ride.  We just hung outside stretching our legs.  The bus arrived in Sihanoukville around 5:00.  And we were welcomed to a horde of tuk tuk drivers wanting to take us to our accommodation.  We finally settled to share a tuk tuk with another couple for a $1 a couple.  Well the driver didn’t take us to where we told him to.  These drivers are commissioned by the guesthouses to bring us to their establishments, so he took us to a different guesthouse.  He simply said to take a look, and if we didn’t like the accommodation to leave.  Anna was irritated by now, so she and Doug walked away.  Another tuk tuk stopped, and said he would definitely take us to the right location.  After a little debating and hesitation we finally went with him.  And he did take us to the right location.  We checked into the Rega guest house where we had a reservation, unloaded our bags, and went out to explore for dinner.
                The guesthouse is only a 2 minute walk from the beach.  So we decided to find a restaurant on the beach.  The Sailing Club’s menu looked good so we sat down.  Doug ordered a chicken sandwich, and Anna ordered the “special” prawn noodle dish.  The chicken was good, but the noodle dish wasn’t so special.  After dinner back to the room to shower, and relax from the day of travel.

31 March 2008
Sihanoukville, Cambodia
                The day began a little later than the previous 3.  Anna slept in a little bit, because there was no alarm set.  Today we needed to reserve a place to move to the next day.  The Rega house closes for the month of June for some reason and we wanted to plan a couple of activities for our stay in this beach city. 
                After looking at about 4 or 5 placed we settle on a place called The Sea View Villas.  This seemed one of the nicest places, and offered free Wi-Fi after 7:00pm.  Next we went to talk to a dive shop.  Doug wanted to get a dive or two in.  They had a day package with breakfast and lunch included that was very appealing.  Anna could also join snorkeling for a fee of course.  We booked the trip for Monday.  At the place we were staying there was an advertisement for either a snorkeling trip, or a boat trip into a national park.  We decided to go with the boat/national park trip.  This way we would have a day of trekking in the forest, and a day out on the ocean.
                Now our days here were planned.  We decided to explore the town, being this would be the only day we would have time to do it.  The walk into town was short.  The place we were staying at was right next to the beach, and town was about a mile away.         
                Once in town we tried to locate the Starfish café.  This was a café/boutique where kids worked.  The boutique contained handmade items children made.  The organization works at getting the kids off the streets selling bracelets and into teaching the children different crafts to earn decent money.  The parents tell the kids to go on the streets selling various items to earn money while the parents stay at home drinking.  Apparently the children can earn more than the parents can on the streets, then the parents at a normal job.  We walked around attempting to ask people where this place was but either no one knew where it was, or they didn’t speak any English. 
                It was time to eat so we settled on a place called the Holy Cow for lunch.  Doug ordered a chicken-bacon-cheese sandwich, and Anna ordered a cheese-tomato sandwich.  The meal wasn’t too bad.  At the café we found a map of the town, and located the Starfish café.  Once lunch was eaten we headed over there.  The little boutique upstairs had a lot of nice things to purchase, and at very reasonable prices.  We picked up a few things and then proceeded to walk back to our room.
                Close to where we were staying there was another place where kids were painting photos for money.  Doug suggested we have one of the kids paint a photo of the two of us.  We asked if this was possible and it was.  A boy began to paint us.  While we were waiting all of the children began asking us to by their painting.  The organization provides painting materials for the children as well as a place to go every day.  The paintings cost $4.  $2 goes to the child, and $2 goes towards education for the child.  The painting took about 30 minutes to complete.  The painting was really good.  We gave the guy running the place a $20.  The $4 for the painting the child did for us, and $16 donation.  We headed back to the room to get our things to go to the beach. 
                By now it was 5:00pm.  The beach was nice, and the water felt even nicer.  The only unpleasant thing at the beach was the children/people asking to buy their bracelets, fruit, or get a massage done.  Anna gave in and had a woman do her toe-nails.  We stayed about an hour, and then went back to the room.
                Around 7:00pm we set out to find dinner.  There was a place listed in a city advertisement book that sounded good.  It was a Japanese restaurant.  We found it after about 10 minutes of searching up the street.  The food was very good.  We both ordered a chicken cooked in a different sauce, white rice, and stir fried vegetables.  All of this along with a jug of beer cost only $8.50.  After dinner we headed back to the room for the night.

1 June 2008
Sihanoukville, Cambodia
                Today we checked out of our first hotel and then checked into our other one (thankfully it was less than 100 yards away) and then met the van that was going to take us to our jungle trek.  It brought us down the road to little building where they served us breakfast.  We had some bread with butter and jam and a choice of tea or coffee.  About 15 minutes later we loaded up in another van.
                The van dropped us at the river where we all loaded up into a boat and headed off down the river.  As we floated (very slowly and very loudly) down the river, we saw some local fishermen at work.  After an hour or so we arrived at the mouth of the river and our boat docked in at a pier.  We walked through a little fishing village and into the jungle.  About 20 minutes later we arrived at a secluded beach.  The guide said we had 30 minutes to rest and swim in the water.  The water felt amazing and we just relaxed before heading back.
                Back at the village we were served lunch.  They had fish fillets with salad, bread and fruit (banana and pineapple).  The lunch was pretty good.  Soon after we loaded back on the boat and steamed back up river.  They then brought us on back to our hotel.  We booked this tour hoping to see a bunch of wildlife; instead it was a really long boat ride to a secluded beach.  In retrospect, we should have gone on the snorkel trip instead.
                At the hotel we cleaned up before going back to our Japanese restaurant.  After dinner it was back to the room for the night.

2 June 2008
Sihanoukville, Cambodia
                Thunder woke us up.  This wasn’t looking good for our dive/snorkel trip today.  Sure enough it was raining pretty hard.  When we arrived at the dive shop they said that the weather was too bad to go out today, but we could go tomorrow.  Thankfully our schedule is relaxed enough that we decided to stay an extra day to do the trip.
                With the day wide open now, we could do a big errand…get our visa for Vietnam.  There was a consulate in town so we had a tuk tuk take us there.  We arrived just before they opened at 8am.  We filled out as much of the paperwork as possible, but we did have a couple questions.  The guy showed up at 8am and he helped us fill in the remaining blanks.  We were expecting our visas to take a couple days to process, but the guy said, “Wait 5 minutes.”  Sure enough 5 minutes later we had our Vietnam visas.  This was unbelievably easy.  We had heard nightmare stories of people trying to get Vietnam visas from Singapore and the UK and all of them costing around $150.  Ours cost $37.
                We took a tuk tuk back to towards our hotel since it was still dumping rain.  We stopped at an internet café so Anna could make some phone calls.  Then we had some breakfast next door.  After hanging out in the room a bit the weather broke and we decided to wander into town and get a massage at one of the non-profit groups there. 
                They had a room where we could get massaged together.  The massages were less than stellar however.  The lady that did Doug’s nearly dislocated his shoulder. 
                We went back to the beach and had a lunch/dinner that wasn’t too bad.  We went on back to the room for a bit and then out for dessert in our hotels restaurant.  Thankfully our hotel has free Wi-Fi starting at 7pm, so we brought out the computer and did some internet work with our desert before going to bed.

3 June, 2008
Sihanoukville, Cambodia
                This morning was nice, and it wasn’t raining so we headed over to the dive shop they said our trip was on.  We met the others and loaded up and were brought down to the pier.  We boarded the boat, had a brief and then were served breakfast.  This dive outfit was full service.  It took nearly two hours to get to the dive site.  They even put together our equipment.  Anna jumped in for snorkeling and Doug did the same for his dive.  There was a strong current underneath and most of the dive was us drifting around with the flow.  The visibility was decent but there wasn’t nearly as many fish here as in Thailand, Fiji or Honduras.  On the surface there were a number of small jelly fish or other creature that was stinging us.  It caused Anna to come out of the water early, thankfully they were only a nuisance on the surface.
                On the way to the second dive site we had lunch, fried rice with veggies and pork.  The fried rice was quite good.  Our boat anchored at the second site and we were lucky enough to see some monkeys in the trees just on the shore of the island.
                The next dive site had good visibility but there were very few fish in the area.  Thankfully the annoying stinging we experienced on the surface of the other site weren’t over at this dive site.
                Back on the boat the crew put away all our gear and had cookies and drinks ready for us.  They also had beers available for a dollar piece.  We made our way to the sun deck and took a little nap and then enjoyed a beer with the others while we were on the way back.
                Back at the hotel we cleaned up and had dinner at our hotels restaurant.  They had a special that had a starter and a main for $6.50.  Doug had a chicken Caesar salad and a steak fillet.  Anna had garlic prawns and pesto chicken pasta.  Doug’s meal was decent, but Anna’s was less than expected.  We hoped that desert (a big bowl of ice cream with pieces of brownie, snickers bar and M&M’s thrown on top) would help, but somehow even that didn’t turn out as good as it sounded.

4 June 2008
Sihanoukville, Cambodia
                Getting packed up and checking out didn’t take too long.  Anna talked the tuk tuk driver into taking us to the bus station for just $2 despite his every effort to negotiate for more.  At the bus station we checked our bags and received actual “luggage claim tickets” for a change.  We haven’t had these since Australia.  Our seats on the bus were up against the bathroom so we couldn’t recline the chairs.  Furthermore the back of the bus seemed to collect all the exhaust so we had the pleasure of our lungs burning for long bus ride to Phnom Penh.
                Our bus had two stops in Phnom Penh.  The first was near the center of town and the second we near the river.  The place we wanted to stay at was near the river so we decided to wait for the second stop.  At the first stop there were probably around 30 tuk tuk drivers clamoring for business.  Most had a sign written in English, that they spoke English.  They would stare inside the bus hoping to make eye contact with you and then wave their sign.  Thankfully we wouldn’t have to deal with these guys at this stop.  Unfortunately there was a whole new batch waiting for us at the second stop. 
                We stepped off the bus and got our bags.  We were pushing our way through the drivers who were all trying to “help us.”  We saw the bus station was across the street so we went there to get our tickets into Vietnam for the next morning.  The lady selling us our tickets said the 7:30am bus (the one we wanted) only had seats next to the bathroom.  After our little adventure today we decided to take the next bus which was at 8:30am.  The other thing we discovered was that the bus stop for the next morning was not where we were now.  Instead it was back at the first bus stop.  So we pulled out “Manuel” and looked up a place to stay near that bus stop.
                With a plan set up we turned towards the glass doors only to discover that the tuk tuk drivers had multiplied.  They were holding signs against the glass professing they spoke excellent English and would take us to $5, 5 star hotel rooms (so to speak).  We waded out into the drivers and were completely overwhelmed.  After a minute or two of utter confusion we decided to just walk towards our hotel and see what happens.  Slowly tuk tuk drivers started to lose interest until there was just one.  Anna negotiated $1 dollar for a ride despite pleas about gas prices and possible follow on work for the driver.
                The hotel seemed nice.  The staff helped us to the room (which we don’t normally like, because you feel obligated to tip them).  Back downstairs we did some email checking and then asked where the post office was.  A few blocks away we found the post office and sent off a bunch of post and birthday cards.  We started to walk around the town a bit but the smog was a bit much, especially after choking on it all the way up here in the back of the bus.
                Back at the room we rested a bit until dinner.  We picked a place out of our guide book (a rare occurrence when it comes to dining).  The meal was alright, nothing special.  Then it was back to the room for the evening.

5 June 2008
Phnom Pehn, Cambodia

                After checking out we walked to the bus station.  The bus ride to the border was pretty uneventful.  Mostly we were just glad to not be choking on exhaust.  The border check point was actually quite modern.  A lady on the bus had collected our passports earlier and delivered them all to immigration to speed things up.  When we arrived at the Cambodia side we just waited for the official to call off our names, and then get back on the bus.  Then the bus crossed the border and we were in Vietnam.

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