Siem Reap - Bangkok

Well we have come from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, which although isnt very far away (relatively) is a completly different world! The city is based around one main square and one street - Pub Street, and so it is really easy to make our way around as it all really just happens in one area.

First things first our bus from Phnom Penh... probably the biggest experience as of yet! Our bus firstly was anhour late and we were left waiting in the boiling heat baking for an hour, and as our bus that we were meant to go on had broken down we were on the smallest minibus - cramped in with the same amount of people that were meant to fit into the huge VIP bus, so Emily and i were squashed at the back with our bags in the gangway infront of us, with 20 locals, to start with - thats always fun... not. So apparantly it was bring your child to Siem Reap day and so everyone seemed to have at least one screaming child on their laps, bar me and Emily of course (we didnt want to adopt a child just yet as it may take up room....), so infront of Emily was this girl who had TB or something and was throwing up flem and blood and seemed to have a serious cheast infection - we felt so sorry fo her , she was SERIOSULY ill. Anyway apparantly as this was a local bus there are no rules etc so she ws just throwing up on the floor infront of her - right infront of us so on our 8 hour bus after an hour in we were not thoroughly impressed. So about 3/4 of the way into the trip she threw up (after us giving her a strepsil - our good deed for the day) into a towel her mum had, her mum subsequently decided to shake it out of the window and get rid of the sick. Stupid woman - becasuse of course the sick came flyng back through the window and flew right onto Emilys face and into her hair.... not impressive in 34 degree heat and 100% humsity, but all you can do is laugh (becuase it didnt happen to me....)
It didnt help that everyone was looking at us on the bus becasue we had decided to make the best out of a bad situation and sing disney songs at the top of our voices to drown out the terrible Cambodian pop idol wannabes. So anyway as these people got out of the bus they pulled a bag out from the bottom of their feet which had 3 chickens in it.... i cantimagine they were happy to be on the bus let alone have some girls sick all over them.

After that eventful journey we woke up the next day to go to the temples of Angkor for sunrise. Who knew that the sun rises at 5 am and that warrants us being up at 4...We had organized a tour guide- Dara and a girl we met in Phnom Penh Laura came with us to share the cost. So our first stop was sunrise at Angkor Wat - the main temple - which was just incredible - something i cant describe in words but just amazingly breath taking as we satby the lake and saw the reflection of the main 5 temples.

NExt we headed for angkor Thomw which is the bridge leading to the South gate of the main temple of angkor thom, which has 2 incredile ballstrades of gian serpents and an incredible first impression was made even more overwehlming by the elephant taxis going to and from each temple

our next stop was the Bayan which was the Kings state temple. Smiling in every direction are the 4 faces of Avolokitshura who has a great likeness to the King Jarayvamen 7 (J7). there are 54 towers in total with 216 faces.

We then went to the terrace of elephants which is eastof the royal Palace where Royal war elephants march along the 350m length topped with hunters and warriors. At the north point is the royal horse shaded by Umbrellas. Also the terrace of the Lepper king was here, named after the statue which sits 6m high where some believe it represents King Yasovarman 1 who apparantly died from leperacy.

The last stop for the day me made was the Temple Ta Phrom. This is where Lara Croft - tomb raider was filmed and in true fashion we went around re-enacting the movie (minus the spandex)... we all looked really attractive as it was 38 degrees and our grey t shirts had turned black from the sweat ... really attractive... it was the most incredible day though, these temples are truly the most beautiful and astounding things i have ever seen.

The next day we did more temples, but as we had done the main ones the day before we went to the ones that were not as touristy and further afield. The first temple we did was the citadel of women dedicated to shiva - it ius the most delicate and most intricate of all the temples and although it is relatively tiny in size compared to angkor Wat its intricate carvings is believed to be the instigator of the Khmer art movement. The detail is astounding and each doorway and each wall is a masterpiece.

We then went to the land mine museum which is run by a man who was pu t into the Khmer Rouge at the age of 10 and planted land mines for the next 5 years of his life. He then realised that what he was doing was wrong and went and fought for the Vietnameese army as a land mine specialist. He now goes around Cambodia dismantelling landmines, which there are siad to still be over 6 million on the Thai/Cambodian border. He now dismantles around 30 a day. This was absolutly heart breaking as there are still people who are affected by this who live in rural areas and as they are walking to get fire wood or hunt they step on trip wires that are still live and loose limbs or die and cant work.

In the evening Laura took us out for a "foot massage" this consisted of tiny fish (about 100 of them) nibbling at your feet and eating all the bacteria and dead skin - very wierd but great fun!

So we are now in Bangkok and having got here yesterday evening we are just waiting for our bus that will take us down to the South islands where we are starting our "get brown" campaign. Emily has decided she has had enough of local people coming up to her and commenting on her "beautiful white opalescent skin"... haha well at least shes getting complimented for it! Our first stop is Ko Tao, which is pretty remote and i cant imagine there will be much to do but is one of the most desireable diving islands in the world, so we may do a course and go diving (whcih neither ofus have ever done) or jsut laze on the beach and do absolutly nothing for once! We have spent the last 2 days just wandering around the Bamlaphu area in Bangkok where we are staying and it is amazing but so overwhelming as this is by far the biggest area we have been. However nice to get our bearings a bit before we spend 4 or 5 days here at the end of our trip.

So not a particularly long post this time but i have about 5 minutes left of credit on the internet and i thought i would jsut touch base and make you giggle about our epic adventures (hopefully!) hence also the reason for the spelling mistakes and grammer mistakes but i just dont have time to change it! Hope you are all well... more hopefully from the islands! .... if there is internet there... hmmmm....


lots of love xxxx