20/01/2011
After a long bus ride from Bangkok, through the border- which took forever, not very well organised- we eventually got to Siem Reap however our tou man who spke very good English to all our annoyance as he understood everything we said decided to take us to his hostel rather than the bus station where we were meant to end up so I missed the ride to the hostel I had booked and put a deposit down for. I had met some lovely people on th bus so we decided to stay here as it was 20:00 and we didn't know where we were. I felt safe as we were all together. I and another French couple got put in the rubbish part of the hostel whilst my Dutch friends- Teun and Evi (said Avi) and Heiko (German)- got the luxurious part. We went for dinner down the road at a very local resaurant eating for $2. Good to be with the locals.
21/01/2011
We moved rooms in the morning. Free breakfast consisting of some sort of egg and baguette (no salt) which is good. The guide then insisted on bein our TukTuk driver. We visited Tonle Sap Lake to see the floating markets and floating village of Chong Kneas. Cambodia however is NOT cheap and they charge a tourist tax on everything, so it was $12 to go on a boat to the village. It was beautful though. Very interesting to see how people lived. The guide told us that the village moves dependant on whether it i the wet or dry season to follow the fish and the crops. They live without most basics. It's a very hard life. It was quite difficult to see The lake is beautiful thought. Along the way we saw a floating Catholic Chapel anda floating Sports School as well as houses on stilts along the water's edge. They are que savvy to the tourist now though an boats passed trying to sell things, one a little girl jumped on the boat from hers to sell us drinks. They work from such a young age here. Back at the hostel we wandered into town attempting to find an alternative hostel, but failed. SO HOT here. I think Cambodia must be hotter than Bangkok. We ate for $1.50 at a local restaurant, lots of noodles and rice! In the evening we took the TukTuk to the Temples of Angkor to buy or $20 ticket. Then we watched the sunset from the Phnom Bakheng as it is the tallest with the best view over the Temples and the area. It was like a festival though,thousands of people- especally huge tour groups of Chinese and Korean that just get in the way! It was a beautiful sunset and the walk up the mountain was good.
22/01/2011
Temples Day... our TukTuk (who we are a bit fed up wth by now as he constantly tries to charge us more) driver took us to the Temples. We saw Angkor Wat, Banteay Kdei, Ta Prohm (the set of Tomb Raider) and Angkor Thom. Ta Prohm was interesting the trees weregrowing within the walls and taking over it. Angkor Thom was the most beautiful with a Buddha face on each side of every tower. It was in a pyramid like shape with vertical worn away stone stairs. There was also the Elephant Wall which surrounds it with elephants carved all the way along. This place was huge. We also took the hottest day to go so we were all shattered and empty.We ate locally again, this time for $1. So cheap for the food in the local areas.
I forgot to mention: Angkor Wat- I was attacked by a monkey which tried to climb up my back and nibble at my t-shirt! It was fun though, I got to see a lot of monkeys, they were ridiculously tame though, although some tourists tried to hand feed them etc and got a few aggressive faces! Idiots. I have also tried a lot of new fruit that I've never seen before- Black Eyed Fruit, Star Fruit, Dragon Fruit, Black Tnote and Turan. Black Tnote and Black eyed fruit are very tasty! They also have strange tiny bananas that are more yellow and sweeter!
After a long bus ride from Bangkok, through the border- which took forever, not very well organised- we eventually got to Siem Reap however our tou man who spke very good English to all our annoyance as he understood everything we said decided to take us to his hostel rather than the bus station where we were meant to end up so I missed the ride to the hostel I had booked and put a deposit down for. I had met some lovely people on th bus so we decided to stay here as it was 20:00 and we didn't know where we were. I felt safe as we were all together. I and another French couple got put in the rubbish part of the hostel whilst my Dutch friends- Teun and Evi (said Avi) and Heiko (German)- got the luxurious part. We went for dinner down the road at a very local resaurant eating for $2. Good to be with the locals.
21/01/2011
We moved rooms in the morning. Free breakfast consisting of some sort of egg and baguette (no salt) which is good. The guide then insisted on bein our TukTuk driver. We visited Tonle Sap Lake to see the floating markets and floating village of Chong Kneas. Cambodia however is NOT cheap and they charge a tourist tax on everything, so it was $12 to go on a boat to the village. It was beautful though. Very interesting to see how people lived. The guide told us that the village moves dependant on whether it i the wet or dry season to follow the fish and the crops. They live without most basics. It's a very hard life. It was quite difficult to see The lake is beautiful thought. Along the way we saw a floating Catholic Chapel anda floating Sports School as well as houses on stilts along the water's edge. They are que savvy to the tourist now though an boats passed trying to sell things, one a little girl jumped on the boat from hers to sell us drinks. They work from such a young age here. Back at the hostel we wandered into town attempting to find an alternative hostel, but failed. SO HOT here. I think Cambodia must be hotter than Bangkok. We ate for $1.50 at a local restaurant, lots of noodles and rice! In the evening we took the TukTuk to the Temples of Angkor to buy or $20 ticket. Then we watched the sunset from the Phnom Bakheng as it is the tallest with the best view over the Temples and the area. It was like a festival though,thousands of people- especally huge tour groups of Chinese and Korean that just get in the way! It was a beautiful sunset and the walk up the mountain was good.
22/01/2011
Temples Day... our TukTuk (who we are a bit fed up wth by now as he constantly tries to charge us more) driver took us to the Temples. We saw Angkor Wat, Banteay Kdei, Ta Prohm (the set of Tomb Raider) and Angkor Thom. Ta Prohm was interesting the trees weregrowing within the walls and taking over it. Angkor Thom was the most beautiful with a Buddha face on each side of every tower. It was in a pyramid like shape with vertical worn away stone stairs. There was also the Elephant Wall which surrounds it with elephants carved all the way along. This place was huge. We also took the hottest day to go so we were all shattered and empty.We ate locally again, this time for $1. So cheap for the food in the local areas.
I forgot to mention: Angkor Wat- I was attacked by a monkey which tried to climb up my back and nibble at my t-shirt! It was fun though, I got to see a lot of monkeys, they were ridiculously tame though, although some tourists tried to hand feed them etc and got a few aggressive faces! Idiots. I have also tried a lot of new fruit that I've never seen before- Black Eyed Fruit, Star Fruit, Dragon Fruit, Black Tnote and Turan. Black Tnote and Black eyed fruit are very tasty! They also have strange tiny bananas that are more yellow and sweeter!
Loving your blog gorge, sounds AMAZING over there. Love you xxxx
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