Riverside Guesthouse Siem Reap

After a better than expected bus journey (the road was pretty bad, but not as bad as the trip TO Ban Lung), we arrived at a guesthouse on the Mekong riverside, which seemed to be the only place to stay in this town. We did find a good ATM and got some more dollars out for the trip across into Laos - we'd heard there was no ATM or bank for another 300 or however many miles, well into southern Laos.

Met Ari from Finland, who had also been unceremoniously dumped at the guesthouse. He'd be...

Abstract: After encountering bribery, corruption and extortion at the Lao / Cambodian border we arrived at Stung Treng via a screaming speedboat (50mph?), after shaking off the touts and hustlers we booked the slow boat to Kompong Cham, then a minibus via Skuon where we ate deep fried Tarantula (I kid you not), to Phenom Penh, and after another overnight, the ten hour bumpy bus ride to Siem Reap. We bought a seven day pass and are now half way through enjoying the 'Jewel in SE Asia's crown' t...

Man, we had no idea what the journey to Siem Reap was going to be like! We had met a Norweigan guy, who'd told us that the road between Poipet (the border crossing) and Siem Reap was called "the hell road"...and not for no reason either. After a good few hours from Ko Chang to Aranya Nathat (again, that could be wrong), we got on a bus to take us across the border....good christ but Poipet is the biggest shithole I've ever seen. Even the lonely planet calls it the cesspit of Cambodia. Don't k...

Chaotic Arrival! We had taken the precaution of booking into another guesthouse in Siem Reap before leaving Pnomh Penh, and they'd been kind enough to say they'd send someone along to pick us up from the bus station. Well, when the bus stopped and people started to hurry off the bus, we really thought it was just a stop and not actually Siem Reap - as there was no covered area and I couldn't see any other buses. However, we soon realised that everyone had got off and that's when we notice tha...

We took a bus from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap through beautiful countryside. Just outside of Phnom Penh were a series of brick factories which had beehive shaped kilns surrounded by iron buildings and piles of firewood and clay outside. The finished bricks were lined up in huge rows beside the factories. We past scores of people who were working in emerald green rice paddies. In other areas the paddies were dry and brown and cattle were roaming the fields eating the rice husks. We arrived at the...