How fantastic is this place!!!! We arrived in Phnom Penh today via the Mekong Delta! We had our first land border crossing today! Crazy to think but up until today we had never crossed a border over land – anyway the boat dropped us off and we had to climb up the bank and wait in this little porch area while the official took our passports over the border to be checked…. Quite unnerving! While we waited we had all of these kids fighting over who would get to carry our bags and trying to sell us Riel (Cambodian Currency)! They were pretty full on… Once we got our passports back we literally walked through a driveway type thing and we were in Cambodia – hooray! Then back on the boat and off we continued down the river! When we hoped off we jumped in our ‘luxury’ buses and headed for Phnom Penh – this had to be the craziest trip we have ever had in a van … we were packed in like sardines and racing through dirt highways at lightening speed. Finally we arrived at the Indochine II hotel. Pretty basic but clean, air conditioned and only $10 a night.
PHNOM PENH
Our time in Cambodia was limited so we had to pack in everything! We hired a driver from the hotel to take us to the Killing Fields, S21 Museum and the Russian Market. Our driver was excellent to talk to he told us all about the Pol Pot regime and Khymer Rouge, he had lost 7 members of his family during the time. The killing fields and the S21 museum were incredible but horrific it was scary how people were treated. The Russian markets were jam packed – we bought two robes, they are like monk robes made out of silk and satin, I managed to get two of them for $20 – I thought this was an incredible bargain considering they were $25 each originally! Pretty bulky to bring home but definitely gorgeous…
We spent the rest of the afternoon noseying around the city, the number of beggars and homeless people was incredible, this is such a poverty stricken country yet the people were all so nice and eager to talk to you. We ate out at a little restaurant and Shane spent time with the waitress teaching her English – she was keen as to learn as many English words as possible.
The next day we jumped on the bus to Siem Reap, the bus trip took 6 hours but was quite funny – we had front row seats and an in-ride hostess to provide refreshments during the trip while the Cambodian karaoke played! Good times!
SIEM REAP
We finally arrived at Siem Reap and the reception at the bus station was the scariest to date… The tuk-tuk drivers were on us as soon as we stepped off the bus trying to pull us to their tuk-tuk’s, the station officials were keeping them away with tasers/ cattle prodders. We finally jumped on a Tuk-Tuk with Selby! Selby became our fab driver for the next three days! We checked in to the Golden Temple – I managed to talk them down from $18 per night to $12 per night – I was stoked with my effort! We spent the rest of the day walking around the markets, I bought some Pashminas for gifts and for me… Also purchased possibly the cheapest cigarettes ever - $3 for a carton of Pall Mall Red, I think Marlboro was the most expensive…. $6 for a carton! No wonder everyone smokes in Cambodia.
Selby picked us up first thing in the morning and we headed to the temples. I don’t even know how to describe how amazing the temples are, we spent all day wandering around the ruins of Bayon and a number of other temples – the work and carvings that have gone into the creation of these temples is amazing… When we left the temples we headed to the Red Piano for dinner – apparently this was Angelina Jolie’s hang out when she was filming Tomb Raider. We were pretty shattered after our day climbing the temples and crashed early. The next morning we were up at 5am and headed to Angkor Wat for Sunrise along with a million other tourists… unfortunately the sunrise wasn’t that great but the temples are absolutely amazing! We spent most of the day getting lost in the temples before heading back to town – I think I have taken about 50,000 photos of the temples alone!
The following day we flew out to Phuket – time to relax! Shelby dropped us at Siem Reap airport which is possibly the flashest building in Cambodia! We gave him a big tip and left all of our remaining Riel with him as well - he totally deserved every last penny of it!
PHNOM PENH
Our time in Cambodia was limited so we had to pack in everything! We hired a driver from the hotel to take us to the Killing Fields, S21 Museum and the Russian Market. Our driver was excellent to talk to he told us all about the Pol Pot regime and Khymer Rouge, he had lost 7 members of his family during the time. The killing fields and the S21 museum were incredible but horrific it was scary how people were treated. The Russian markets were jam packed – we bought two robes, they are like monk robes made out of silk and satin, I managed to get two of them for $20 – I thought this was an incredible bargain considering they were $25 each originally! Pretty bulky to bring home but definitely gorgeous…
We spent the rest of the afternoon noseying around the city, the number of beggars and homeless people was incredible, this is such a poverty stricken country yet the people were all so nice and eager to talk to you. We ate out at a little restaurant and Shane spent time with the waitress teaching her English – she was keen as to learn as many English words as possible.
The next day we jumped on the bus to Siem Reap, the bus trip took 6 hours but was quite funny – we had front row seats and an in-ride hostess to provide refreshments during the trip while the Cambodian karaoke played! Good times!
SIEM REAP
We finally arrived at Siem Reap and the reception at the bus station was the scariest to date… The tuk-tuk drivers were on us as soon as we stepped off the bus trying to pull us to their tuk-tuk’s, the station officials were keeping them away with tasers/ cattle prodders. We finally jumped on a Tuk-Tuk with Selby! Selby became our fab driver for the next three days! We checked in to the Golden Temple – I managed to talk them down from $18 per night to $12 per night – I was stoked with my effort! We spent the rest of the day walking around the markets, I bought some Pashminas for gifts and for me… Also purchased possibly the cheapest cigarettes ever - $3 for a carton of Pall Mall Red, I think Marlboro was the most expensive…. $6 for a carton! No wonder everyone smokes in Cambodia.
Selby picked us up first thing in the morning and we headed to the temples. I don’t even know how to describe how amazing the temples are, we spent all day wandering around the ruins of Bayon and a number of other temples – the work and carvings that have gone into the creation of these temples is amazing… When we left the temples we headed to the Red Piano for dinner – apparently this was Angelina Jolie’s hang out when she was filming Tomb Raider. We were pretty shattered after our day climbing the temples and crashed early. The next morning we were up at 5am and headed to Angkor Wat for Sunrise along with a million other tourists… unfortunately the sunrise wasn’t that great but the temples are absolutely amazing! We spent most of the day getting lost in the temples before heading back to town – I think I have taken about 50,000 photos of the temples alone!
The following day we flew out to Phuket – time to relax! Shelby dropped us at Siem Reap airport which is possibly the flashest building in Cambodia! We gave him a big tip and left all of our remaining Riel with him as well - he totally deserved every last penny of it!
No comments:
Post a Comment