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round-the-world in 2005

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Cambodia

Dec 20 -Dec 25, 2005

Ankor is great, but there is more to Cambodia than that.

Colourful reflection

20 Dec 2005 Siam Reap, Cambodia

The Longest Day
This is probably the longest travel day we have had. We started our epic journey from Bangkok into Cambodia at 7am from our hotel. The skytrain, then taxi to a ‘luxury bus’ to the Cambodian border. Crossing the border was a simple affair, but finding an onward bus, at a reasonable price, was more difficult. We took the only option (someone has a monopoly out here) to Siam Reap, the town close to Ankor Wat. We arrived at 7pm and were taken to a hotel, not of our choice. We moved on to find one with hot water. We later found out that the promised hot water was warm at best. Oh well.

Old tree root

21 Dec 2005 Siem Reap, Cambodia

Ankor What a long way!
After getting cashed up with the local currency (Reil), we hired some bicycles and rode the 6 km out to Ankor Wat. From there it was a long slog of 26 km looping around the main attractions. First and foremost was the most important Ankor Wat - the largest religious structure in the world. It has amazing bas relief carvings surrounding the exterior of the building. The sheer size of the area was phenomenal - Ankor Wat is just one of hundreds of temples and buildings in different states of ruin - some still overgrown with trees. It took us longer than we thought to visit all we wanted, and it got dark quick with still 6km to cycle, and along some roads with no lighting. An extraordinary day seeing an extraordinary site. One day is enough for us. In the evening we ventured to the town square for some cheap food, but not for long as we were both exhausted.
Cambodian meal

22 Dec 2005 Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Killing Fields
Another early bus to the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh. As usual we forsook a short tuk-tuk ride, and walked to find some accommodation alongside a nearby lake. During what was left of the afternoon we sorted out our visas for Laos, and after weighing up the choices we went with the easy option and paid someone else to do it for us. We checked our mail and Clare was very surprised to learn she had been short listed for an interview at the English Institute of Sport - something to disturb the calm of this traveling. We watched the ‘Killing Fields’ movie shown at a restaurant, to update ourselves of the recent history of Cambodia - what a tough time these people have had.

Golden temple

23 Dec 2005 Phnom Penh, Cambodia

So many buddha's
We paid a visit to the S-21 museum - an old school converted into a torture prison by the Khmer Rouge, where many horrific atrocities occurred. The simple room displays, graphic photos and informative displays were very emotional. We walk down along the mekong and had lunch while waiting for the next sights to open - the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda. These were pretty interesting, and from here we walked (it was a walking day!) to the market for a look at local life. Phnom Penh is a fairly uninteresting medium sized city, but where we stayed at the lake gave us an easy going backpacker feel.

Spider sellers

24 Dec 2005 Kratie, Cambodia

One More Sleep
An early and long distance bus (are we getting repetitive?) heading north and closer to the Laos border. With so much ground to cover in this region and not much time left on our trip, we are doing a lot of this. On one of the bus stops, Clare indulged in one of the local delicacies, fried spiders! And they look as bad as they sound. Yes, she overcame all her spider phobias and nibbles on a hairy leg! She couldn’t bring herself to eat any more than that, though it is much more than Rob was willing to try. We had enough time in the afternoon to jump on the back of a motorcycle for 30 minutes north along the river to a location for spotting some irrawaddy dolphins, a rare freshwater breed. We saw heaps of them, and the ride there though some isolated villages was excellent. We had some Christmas eve drinks and dinner with a crazy Belgium named Thomas.

riding free

25 Dec 2005 Stung Treng, Cambodia

Christmas in Cambodia
There was no sleep in for us on Christmas day, as it should be, but no presents waiting for us at the end of the bed either. We went out for a ‘special’ breakfast, which was really just a some local dishes, then we spoilt ourselves and had a fruit shake from a street stall. We both rang home, but the internet phone line was very difficult to handle with the delay and echo. We explored the rest of this small Mekong town - mostly wooden stilted Cambodian style buildings and a few old French colonial buildings. Lunch was a little more ‘special’ with us both having seafood coming to a grand total of $4. We took an afternoon bus to a smaller town of Stung Treng, a little closer to the Laos border. Again we dined alone on Christmas day, some beers and Cambodian food on the edge of the Mekong.

 

Next we cross over the border to Laos.

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