Phnom Penh - Siem Reap
Trip Start
Jan 23, 2008
1
7
9
Trip End
Aug 21, 2008
Siem Reap,
Cambodia
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Early start for our 6 hour bus journey up north. The bus was packed people just kept getting on the driver managed to find some plastic seats for people to sit on in the middle of the aisle. The air con was broken and there was no way to open the windows!! It was too bumpy to sleep or read so the only thing to do was listen to mp3 player. We had a toilet stop about 2 hours in. As we walked back towards the bus we noticed a tray full of deep fried spiders. a woman walked towards us and produced a live black hairy spider! i ran straight back on the bus, just to find the women in front was eating them! AAAHHHH.
arrived in siem reap about 12, had some trouble finding accommodation took forever. Ended up staying at a guest house our driver had recommended. Had a very short shower and headed out to have a look around. we were staying very central to where all the action is, there are loads of local markets selling food to tourist stuff. had some lovely ice cream from the blue pumpkin cafe, made me feel much better. we then headed slightly out of the centerer to a butterfly cafe. it was described in the book as a garden filled with butterflies, sounded very chilled out. when we found it there was very loud construction work happening. we only saw about 5 butterfly's and left shortly after finishing our drinks. walked back through bar and pub street was very lively. decided to eat at the dead fish tower. as we walked in there was traditional aspara dancing. the restaurant and bar is built on many different platform levels with cushions and low tables. It was a traditional evening but we were very tired so headed back early.
Wednesday
today decided to do a Cambodian cooking lesson at the paper tiger in bar street. it was very good value $20 including all the food, recipes, tour of the local market where we got to try anything we wanted. our teacher also bought us some traditional Cambodian desserts they were very strange. i decided to make spring rolls and a Cambodian curry soup type thing. there were 3 other people in the lesson, it was great as we got to learn about what they had chosen to cook, we also got to try it! the cooking lesson finished at 5 we had a Cambodian massage, it was very strange sort of relaxing but a bit weird. that night we didn't need to eat anything as we were so full from our cooking.
Thursday
Did some shopping for presents for our family, had lunch at the paper tiger i choose a traditional Cambodian curry. Then we did a bit more looking around and decided to go back to our guest house for a siesta it was far too hot. at about 4 our tuk tuk driver picked us up he took us to the temples. at first it seemed like a big theme park there were just too many people. everyone goes to the same temple as it has the best view of the sunset. as our first impression it was just too busy. if you buy your ticket $20us the night before you are allowed in that nigh to see the sunset. as it was valentines night we went out for Mexican in bar street it was great value for money and had a great view for people spotting. after we went to Angkor Wat? a bar where people have written messages all over the walls. after this we had a look around the night market, it was slightly set back from the main road, but really worth it. all the stalls were selling different things not like the normal markets where there all selling exactly the same stuff. a lot of it was more arty and designer, there were even a few photographers selling postcards. this was much more aimed to tourists but was a lovely evening.
Friday
our tuk tuk guy picked us up at 4:30 to take us to the temples to see the sunrise over Angkor. when we got there there weren't as many people as the night before. we sat for about 40mins waiting for anything to happen. we got some half decent pics and gave up, we thought wed have a look around Angkor before the crowds got there. this plan worked really well as the sun was up just not completely, enough to take some great pics of us climbing all over it. then when we came out the sun had started to rise and we got some really amazing photos looked great. then our driver took us to bayon, the one with all the faces. the scale was amazing in all the pics i look like a tiny ant. it was great there were only 2 other people going round so we got some great shots from far away. then we headed along and did a few more. to be honest the heat started to get too much by about 10 and we just headed for the nearest shade. the best was saved till last. the temples used to film tomb raider. they were truly amazing, i just couldn't stop photographing everything. there were still too many people but we managed to find our way round. we were finished and back home for 12:30 it was amazing! had another siesta after our early morning. that evening we finished off our shopping and had a look around some of the more local bars.
