Siem Reap

6th March - Well that was all very easy. Credit to Asia Airlines for efficiency, we were in Cambodia 45 minutes after taking off from Bangkok despite our itinerary saying it was going to take 1 hour and 40 minutes. We'd no sooner got settled than we were being told to prepare for landing. My sort of flight!

Met by Doh, our guide, and he accompanied us to the hotel. Not sure what we expected but Siem Reap is very different to Bangkok in that there are no high rise buildings. Doh explained that this is because the government have decreed that no building is allowed to be higher than Angkor Wat so therefore the height limit is 65 metres.

The approach to the hotel was a narrow dusty road strewn with rubbish and kamikaze moped riders. However, the hotel is really nice with lots of plants and wooden walkways around the place it only has 20 rooms and they all face a lovely pool surrounded by more greenery. It's very peaceful.

Doh seemed quite perturbed that we hadn't anything planned for our 3 days - we think this

was probably the sales pitch for organised tours. We agreed to think about it.

Late afternoon we decided to take a walk up to the top of the road which leads to a couple of local Temples, the Old Market and Pub Street area. We realised then that everywhere is sadly strewn with rubbish - we shouldn't moan about our fortnightly rubbish collection, I don't think there's any collection here.

Lots of Tuk Tuks about all keen for our business. Perhaps they think we're mad to walk anywhere in this heat and somehow it feels hotter than Bangkok and stickier.

Found the Skyline Bar, on the top floor of a building, which just had a couple of tables and the rest of the seating was beanbags on the floor. Leisurely drink and back to the hotel for dinner. We had read that the Cambodian people like to chat as it helps them improve their English. We had an extremely chatty waiter called Sol! He starts work at 4am helping his mother prepare fish, then goes to college, helps his mother again and then has extra tuition for Chemistry, Physics and Maths. In the evening he rotates between three hotels wherever he is needed. We asked him when he slept but he didn't seem sure! He seems sad that the success of Angkor Wat and the money it brings in is not spent on the local area. He asked us where we were

from and we said near London in England and he replied "oh yes, in France right?"

7th March - Not a great nights sleep, the A/C is very loud! We took a Tuk Tuk into the town this morning and wandered around the old market for a while before returning to the hotel to relax at the pool. Conserving our energy for a full day at Angkor Wat tomorrow!

Dinner at Jungle Burger owned by a guy from New Zealand. Derek ordered the Bob Marley burger and the waitress smiled and said "you're sure you want the happy burger?" Seeing our confusion she tried to explain that the happy feeling would kick in after a couple of hours due to the ingredients in the burger - it dawned on us that the magic ingredient was marijuana!! Derek declined and changed his order..

After dinner we walked down to the Night Market and on to the infamous Pub Street which was really busy but a great atmosphere. Sat in a bar to people watch for a while, sad to see the cutest little boy begging. Advice is not to give them anything to deter them but it's hard. Early start tomorrow.

8th March - We had a fantastic trip to Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Ta Promh and Bantaey Kdei.

Sideth was our Tuk Tuk driver for the day and met us at 8.30am at the hotel. What a happy chappy, he didn't stop smiling all day. We introduced ourselves as Derek and Jan and thereafter were called Derich and Chan!

The ticket office to buy our day passes is about a ten minute ride from the hotel and was hectic but as they had around 30 desks we got in and out quite quickly. Angkor Wat is another ten minutes on from the ticket office and it is large but not actually as large as we thought it would be. Hordes of people but allegedly this is a quieter time! It took 90 minutes or so to get around but we didn't do the climb to the top as the queue was too long and it would have meant standing in the scorching sunshine. It's incredibly hot today.

Next Sedith drove us to Angkor Thom which is equally as stunning as Angkor Wat in our opinion. It's made up of different sites and we saw the Bayon, Terrace of Elephants, Baphuon and Phimeanakas, all really interesting. We couldn't stop taking photos!

At 1pm we met up with Sedith again and he took us to a Cambodian restaurant for lunch.

It was nice to sit down for a while and the food was good. Toilets were dodgy, I won't elaborate..

After lunch we went to Ta Promh also known as the Tree Temple due to the trees growing through the ruins. It's also where Tomb Raider was filmed. Sedith agreed that I am just like Angelina Jolie and Derek like Indiana Jones (he had his hat on!), obviously getting his movies mixed up. We really liked this one and there's still conservation work being carried out hence the presence of a crane. This didn't spoil the visit though. Unfortunately, on the way to and from the ruins was quite a long driveway, and we were hassled a lot by young children trying to sell stuff most of the way.

Final stop was Banteay Kdei which is much smaller but still lovely. It was so quiet there. We were dropped at the West gate and wandered through slowly to the other side where Sideth was waiting

still smiling broadly. We asked what he did while he waited for us and he indicated that he slept in a hammock that he strung up in the tuk tuk.

It was lovely to get back to the pool and cool off, it's popular late afternoon when everyone comes back from their trips.

Having had quite a large lunch (by our standards) we weren't hungry for dinner so just walked into town for drinks and snacks. More people watching and laughing at the way some of the guys have decorated their tuk tuks - we came back to the hotel in the batmotuk! More putting the world to rights with Sol in the bar before bed.

9th March - Another 8.30 start in a Tuk Tuk (still the same driver as the Angkor Wat trip) to visit Kampong Phluk ( The Floating Village) on Lake Tonie Sap. A half hour Tuk Tuk ride on the main road, contending with cars passing buses passing lorries passing Tuk Tuks passing cyclists passing pedestrians, each way on 2 lanes, followed by a half hour through dusty village roads to be confronted by 450 tourist boats on a dried up river to see villages on stilts to avoid the water that wasn't there. Boats could only just manage the dried up river and thank heavens there was only about 15 boats out and we had one to ourselves apart from the "captains" wife and 18 month old baby (who cried most of 2 hr trip).
Once out on the huge lake it became a lot more peaceful and little sign that it was actually 5m lower than usual.
We were then dropped off at the cousins floating restaurant to purchase refreshments and view the caged crocodiles and snakes hanging off the edge. We then returned to the river and got dropped off for a walk through the town (as it was not flooded or floating) to be accosted by begging children and to view the shrimp drying out on the main road to finally rejoin the boat a further 100yds up for the return stretch.
All in all a much more relaxing trip than Angkor Wat as no walking in 38c heat.
Just the final return Tuk Tuk ride where again the driver knew a very good restaurant to stop at for lunch which we declined in favour of sitting by the pool and having beer delivered ( and Jan having to retype the whole of the Angkor Wat diary due to the Systems failure to save)!
The evening was finished off with a very good meal and bottle of plonk in a Jamie Oliver style restaurant for Cambodian hospitality trainees called Haven.

Another early start tomorrow for the 7hr drive to Phnom Penh.