Day 84

I cleared out of the GST Guest house at around 6.30am and went to catch my bus. I wanted to get all the way to Siem Reap in the North of Cambodia today but could only get a ticket as far as the capital Phnom Penh. Once in Phnom Penh I spent fifteen minutes or so getting another ticket to Siem Reap and was on the new bus within the hour. That was another four hour journey so today was never going to be fun what with two long back to back bus rides.

1 Siem Reap Town

The guy sitting next to me was a Cambodian businessman who seemed very proud of his Nokia mobile phone. He '"wowed" me by showing me a video he took on the phone of him at the top of a mountain above the clouds - all the video showed was the clouds! He then shocked me by videoing two sleeping Cambodian girls across the aisle - he wasn't trying to be sly about it either. When they awoke he started chatting to them and showed them the video - not sure what they must have thought about it!

I was driven the last few kilometres into town for free by a motorbike driver who was fighting past the other drivers in order to give me this "free" ride! He wanted to spend the next few days taking me (not for free) around the temples at Angkor and this short trip was his introduction. I had a guest house in mind and naturally so did he. His was a commission-paying one but I told him I wanted to go to mine first and would only consider his if the first one was full or no good. As it turned out mine was fine and I decided to stay. Still waiting outside was my driver and we got down to talking business about the Angkor trip.

Angkor Wat is the number one attraction in Cambodia and possibly in all South East Asia. It's a mass of Khmer-built temples that span for many miles around the city of Siem Reap. I was certainly heading there over the next few days so I listened to the drivers recommended itinerary. When it came down to money he said he wanted $50 for three days of driving me around on the back of his moto. That seemed expensive when I thought back to David in Phnom Penh who charged $7 for a day of driving around town. I wanted to check out some other options and told the guy to give me his card. He wanted to get the deal sealed there and then so tried not to let go - "Sir when I give my card to tourists 100% do not call me". This simply meant they all found better alternatives so I knew I was right to let him go. He was annoyed about giving his free ride for nothing in return but hey-ho.

I checked in to the guest house and looked up and down the other names that I might have seen before. Hotels at home would never divulge the names of other guests to you so it is funny to see all their details written down when you check in. You get their names, nationality, age, room numbers etc. Some of the moto drivers I'd seen earlier even had made those A4 posters with people's names on them - the ones drivers have in airports in the arrivals lounges. They actually pay the guest houses in Phnom Penh for the names of people who have bought morning bus tickets to Siem Reap! Anyway, all this slack data protection meant that I was able to see that Bjorn and Susan (from Laos) had checked in the previous day!

I found their room and knocked..... "Hi Rob, you got my email then!". "No" I replied "I saw your names in the check-in book!". By chance Bjorn had sent an email that afternoon (while I was on the bus) telling me that they had arrived in Siem Reap and that they were staying in the Popular guest house.

We had dinner and I asked about their plans to see Angkor. They had already arranged a tuk-tuk to pick them up the following night to see the sunset there, then the driver would come back the following morning for a full day's tour. That meant they were planning to do the whole thing in one day which I wasn't sure about but they had got a cheap deal regarding transport and providing I could fit in the tuk-tuk to we could share the cost three ways.