"The Great Mistake" (Back in Back in Phnom Penh)

Well nine hours after leaving Phnom Penh, and a wonderful boat ride down the Mekong, we finally arrived in Phnom Penh.

Thats right, we got turned back at the Vietnam border. Not because of some serious beauracratic bungle, but because of our own halfwittedness. Yes this is rather embarassing. You see, we misread our Visas, and we found out at the border that we couldnt actually enter Vietnam for another 3 days. We were officially early.

DOH !! @@$%@$%# %$$######!!!

Much to the amusement of Cambodian Border Police. They were pretty good actually and helped us work out a way back to Phnom Penh. THis is contrary to what we have heard and read about these guys, who are apparently quite corrupt and you usually have to bribe (with cigarettes).

The reward for our stupidity was a splendid 2 hour journey on the slowlest, rustiest, dodgiest piece of so called water transport we have set foot on ever. Complete with smelly squat toilet, right next to the exposed engine, and a total lack of aircon compounded by the lack of breeze due to the slowness of the boat. All this during one of the hotter days we've experience on our trip. We're talking averages of 35 here, so hotter than that. WE were surrounded by slimey sweaty British backpackers, who were of course enjoying themselves.

Anyway, we were glad to get of that thing 2 hours later. And extra glad to get on a bus for the rest of the trip that had aircon.

Was a shame the road was nonexistant. Now we can say we've experienced Cambodias infamous roading. THe road from Siem Reap was fine. THis wasn't. There weren't too many pot holes, the problem was that the potholes were within the craters, which were what constituted the road.

So we bounced around a cramped minibus for 2 hours. Oh, and the minibus had some sort of smoke coming from the general direction of the engine into the cab. The floor was hot. Our feet were toasty.

Arrived back in Phnom Penh 6pm, after leaving Phnom Penh at about 9am. All we could do by this stage was laugh. Once again, it was no trouble finding accomodation. Within 30minutes we had a acceptable room in a nice guesthouse called "Nice Guesthouse".

This time we're headed to Vietnam on luxury bus (relatively speaking), early Monday.
We have quadruple checked our Visas this time.

Back in Phnom Penh

Arrived back in Phnom Penh yesterday (wed 24th May), checked into a nice enough hotel before realising it was a front for something a bit more dodgey. It wasn't anything dangerous, there were just transactions taking place we weren't interested in seeing. Sex tourism is what they call it I believe. The transactions were generally between middle aged white men, and concerningly young Khmer (Cambodian) women. Tonight we're staying somewhere else needless to say.

Today hooned around town on the back of a tuk tuk again, stopped off at the National Museum - which holds the worlds largest collection of Khmer artefacts. Very nice building too.

Its coming to the rainy season in this part of the world, and it seems HUGE thunder and lightning is what comes with that. Just about peeed our pants with one particular crash of simultaneous thunder and lightning. Everyone in the street ducked instinctively and then were laughing.

Tommorow morning we're jumping on a fast boat which will take us down the Mekong river and into Vietnam. We are headed for a town there called Chau Doc. Probably will stay a night or two there before heading for Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon).

Bye bye to Cambodia. Its has been an eyeopening experience in many ways.

stay tuned.....

Cricket Eating Extravaganza

I did it. I ate an insect. A cricket. It was crispy to the bite. Slightly greasy tasting, with a burnt aftertaste remimniscent of overfried chicken from Manners Mall KFC. I recommend it to anyone with nothing better to do. Photos to come.

Angkor - Day 4

23rd May
Angkor Wat and "Grand Tour"

IMPOSTER !

Angkor - Day 3 - PREAH KHAN

Siem Reap - Break

We've spent the last 3 days exploring various temples of Angkor. Its all mind bogglingly amazing. Today we're having a break from temples to let our senses recover. My already overloaded brain went into overdrive when I saw a carving in one of the temples of a dinosaur resembling a Stegosaurus. When were dinosaurs officially discovered? When was this temple built? My brain blew a gasket.

Will return tommorow and will check out Angkor Wat properly. We only spent about 45minutes there on Saturday. Didnt go inside the central building. Angkor Wat is only one of many temple ruins within a fairly small area - it is definately the centrepiece, so we will check it out properly tommorow.

Angkor - Day 3 - BANTEAY SREI

Located further from Siem Reap then the main group of temples, Banteay Srei is reputed to have the best and most well preserved carvings of the area. It is quite a small temple, surrounded by a moat. We enjoyed our visit here, as there were very few other tourists.

Angkor - Day 2