Cambodia

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Phnom Penh
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The quickest flight I have ever been on and think I will ever be on. We'd barely taken off when the announcement came on that we were beginning our descent into Phnom Penh, the seat belt sign didn't even go off! A mere 30 minute journey and we were in Cambodia. To our dismay (deans more than mine) we had to pay for our visa into the country, 30 dollars each which I had missed in my research.. Not a good start! We then had to pay an extra 2 dollars each as we didn't have a photo. As we waited for deans bag to turn up we eventually realised it had fallen off the conveyer belt. I enjoyed watching as dean struggled his way around the back of the belt to retrieve the bag. Things were looking up as we left when we saw our driver waiting for us. It was only when we realised he was driving a tuk tuk that the excitement died down somewhat.. Roughly a half hour drive through mental Phnom Penh and we made it to our hotel. Settled in we got ready and went up to the rooftop bar to watch the sunset then headed out for our first meal in Cambodia. Our hotel was situated a little out of the city so there wasn't a whole lot within walking distance. I did my research and found one place about 10 minutes away. Now this is where it gets good. Dean wasn't having the best start to his Cambodian experience and was hoping the food might change his mind. I ordered a local dish of beef lok lak and Dean ordered some prawns recommended to him by the waiter. Well unexpected is just a complete understatement. I was served my wonderful beef lok lak and Dean was served..a plate of raw prawns on ice. I just could not contain myself! Well he actually managed to eat most of them and me being the wonderful person I am shared half my meal with him. We headed back as we had a day of exploring ahead.
The next day we were up and out to visit the Royal palace and walk along the riverfront. The good thing with the hotels in Cambodia is that they have assigned tuk tuk drivers so there's no messing about and they're always around to take you places! The palace wasn't open until 2pm so we had a wander along the riverfront and got some lunch. We then sussed out the bars finding the cheapest happy hours, 1.50 cocktails and 50cents for a beer. We then headed back over to the palace and at this point I'm pretty confident it was the hottest day we had experienced so far. So this time it was my turn to be a joke. Silly me for wearing shorts I had to BUY a pair of trousers. That's alright I thought, I don't mind getting another pair of flowy trousers. Wrong. I was given what I can only describe as waders. They were also the exact same colour as my t shirt so needless to say I looked ridiculous. Note to self and everyone, when visiting anywhere vaguely religious or important, always wear trousers/a long skirt and a sleeved t shirt. Luckily it wasn't very busy so we wandered around relatively quickly and pondered over the amount of gold they had in this place! We stopped off at the monuments outside the prime ministers home before going back and getting ready to go out. We went back to the river front for dinner to make full use of the local happy hours. Dean played it safe with beef lok lak and I got another local dish of fish amok. Very good! We planned with our driver the next day's itinerary before heading to bed.
Day 3 we decided to use this day to visit the genocidal museums. Having been to Cambodia before, I was really intent on bringing Dean to see the history of the country. We began with S-21, the prison, as this was only a short walk from our hotel. We did the audio guided tour which I highly recommend. It was very informative and was spoken by a survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime. Cambodia has, in my opinion, one of the saddest most interesting histories I have heard of. Probably because of how different, brutal and recent these events are. Well worth reading up about! We made our way through the barbed wired prison, thousands of nameless faces staring at you as you walk through. Many of these people were never identified or claimed so remain nameless. We met up with our tuk tuk driver who took us on the very bumpy 40 minute journey to cheong ek aka the killing fields. It had definitely changed somewhat since I was last there and had become more tourist friendly with new walk ways and another audio guided tour. We made our way round listening to another survivor story and refreshing on what took place here. The killing fields were founded when there was no room left at the prison for burials. There's dozens of killing fields all over Cambodia but this one is the largest. Massive pits in the ground show where the mass graves of innocent people lay, one sheltered grave held 450 people at one time. The audio guide explained that every now and then, clothes and bone remnants are still found amongst the ground which just goes to show how recent this really was! I always found the killing fields the saddest as it is so beautiful and peaceful there, yet full of such atrocity. After a harrowing but educational day we headed back for dinner and an early night to catch our bus to siem reap the following day.
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Siem reap
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Another nights sleep ruined by the selfish Asian people screaming at each other down the hotel corridors at 5am, I was on top form at breakfast giving death stares to each and every Chinese person who caught my eye line, especially the one who took every piece of fruit from the buffet. We had opted for a more upmarket bus to take us to siem reap as organisation goes a long way in these countries. 6 hours later we had arrived. Siem reap is not how I remember it. It's a small peaceful little town, with a massive strip running right through the middle. Luckily we were off the beaten track but within walking distance of the chaos. Our first dinner was awful as I ordered beef lok lak again which resembled more dog food. I was extremely sick that night! Still not feeling great we kept it low key the next day and just had a walk around town. Even something as simple as walking is a task in this country as after 5 minutes you'll be sweating a river and wishing you were in a cold shower. We had booked dinner at a very popular place in town and me being literally sick of Asian food at this point opted for a western quesadilla. Deans beef lok lak was pretty good! Feeling ill again straight after dinner I ruined deans chances of finding somewhere to watch the football, what a shame! We needed an early night anyway to be up for sunrise at Angkor wat..
Alarm ringing at 4.45 I was already regretting this decision. Nevertheless we were on our way in the dark to make it in time for sunrise. After about an hour of watching the beautiful sunrise over Angkor wat we began our trek around the temples. Now when I came here before on world challenge, we got there for sunrise, stayed all day and watched the sunset. Now I have no idea why or how we did that! Provided we'd had a nap at some point but still, that's a long day! The ruins are beautiful and all have their own individual twist. We looked through the main areas, Angkor wat, Bayon, preah Khan and ta prohm (the tomb raider temple). There was also a bunch of cheeky monkeys running around the place so it definitely had a very jungle book vibe. By 9am we were pretty much done so headed back to the hotel for a nap. Like I said, I have no idea how we stayed there all day before when we did it all in 4 hours today! Bad news back at the hotel as mid way through our nap the power cut and we were to spend the rest of the day with no electricity meaning no air con! A good 6 hours later we finally had power so we could cool down before having our last night in siem reap before heading back to Thailand and relaxing in Ko Samui for the next week..
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Cambodia tips
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Not much differs from Vietnam here. The people are very nice and humble and no one is too pushy. There seems to be more people begging in Cambodia so it can be hard to say no but if I gave everyone I felt sorry for money I would have lost it all by now! Also a lot of scams going on, especially mums with young babies.
The currency mainly used is the dollar however I was surprised how much the riel is used. They take it everywhere and more likely than not will give you change in riel. It's quite easy to build it up then exchange for dollars. 4000 riel = 1 dollar.
In Phnom Penh I would stay closer to the city centre if I was to go again. Where we stayed in siem reap was perfect. Always always get a room with AC!

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