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  Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Thursday, February 28, 2008

Tuesday morning we got up very early and rode off  to Ankor Wat for sunrise.....obviously every tour bus in the area had the same idea and even then it was pretty busy but we stayed away from the temple entrance and had a fairly peaceful view.  We then had to rush back and return the bikes as we wanted to get back to Phnom Penh but for some reason in our hotel the owners were a bit snotty when we were trying to book tickets through them and being awkward when we were trying to pay - OK place to stay but shame about the staff. 

On the bus to the city we were happily cruising along when WHAM.....a huge noise and a bump and from the back window I could see a cow laying on the road.  Now, in England the police would probably have to be called and the owner notified, but here the driver decided that it was probably worth a bit of cash so him and a couple of others shoved it into the hot stuffy luggage compartment under the bus so if it wasn't already dead (and I'm sure it was kicking) then it would be soon enough and if they couldn't sell it then it would feed their family for a month anyway - quids in! 

Just before we arrived Ollie called Tat guesthouse from the LP to make sure we had somewhere to stay and asked if they would come and pick us up from the bus station - lo and behold, waiting there for us was a guy with a tuk tuk and it was genuinely free this time. 

We headed out for dinner to an LP mentioned restaurant that aparently does the 'hill of fire' style BBQ food that we so enjoyed on Valentines but it was pretty poor in comparison and we were so hungry after that we ended up getting pancakes and banana shakes at the Narim guesthouse next to our place. 

Yesterdsay I spent the day trying to sort my visa for Laos as I needed to get some passport pics done and was having a nightmare finding anywhere that could do this.  Eventually I found somewhere and as I went in a moto driver asked if I wanted a taxi and I said I'd need to go to the Laos embassy in half an hour when I came back to collect my pictures.  I milled around the shops and bought some food and lo and behold he was still waiting when I returned so we agreed a fare and he took me to the embassy.  Of course it was the usual chat you get when you're a girl and kept asking me lots of questions so I told him I was here on holiday with my husband who was back at our hotel - he seemed to shut up after then. 

Handed in my forms to the consulate and they said I'd have to wait a day to get the visa so I headed off to a market area nearby and got myself a bargain vest top for $2 and bought some waffles to take back to the hotel for us to eat later. 

Back at the guesthouse we ordered dinner and planned to watch a DVD as they had heaps I hadn't seen.  Not only did none of the DVDs seem to play sound (they played the sound effects but not the script) but they gave us the wrong meal which was pretty crappy.  We ended up trying to watch a very quiet Schindler's List which was made all the more difficult by the constant whining from the karaoke restaurant across the road - actually I think it was the official singer but they were just terrible. 

Today we went on a wild goosechase to find the bus depot to book our tickets to a place called Sen Monoram where we want to head to tomorrow as we've spoken to a couchsurfer there (Jack) who runs an elephant trekking place.  After a lot of walking back and forth for a long time we found it and got our tickets sorted.  I went back to the market from yesterday with Ollie and got into a ruckass with a moto driver at the market as he didn't think we were giving him enough money and caused a scene (we were surrounded by a few other drivers at one point).  Truth is we'd given him the correct fare and the price he wanted, most drivers would chauffer you around for an hour for that amount.  We simply paid what we knew was correct and walked off in the end.

I got myself another bargain (t-shirt for $2) and we had noodles in the market which were quite tasty and headed to S21 Tuol Lung, the detention centre which obviously reminded me of Auschwitz in Poland.  Very interesting. 

Picked up our Laos visas and headed back to the guesthouse to watch a DVD of Ankor Wat so we could learn something about the place - it looked so much more majestic on screen as it wasn't surrounded by tourists and tuktuk drivers.  We risked dinner at our place but went next door for their reliably good pancakes with lime and finished the night with the usual scrabble. 

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