23rd - 26th July 2012
The bus journey to Phnom Penh was uneventful thank god! We have heard so many horror stories about crossing the Cambodian border and how the officials demand bribes to let you into Cambodia but the bus company we went with (Sinh Tourist) organised all our visas and a rep brought us across in a group so no bribing required by us! It was quite funny though seeing our big bus drive onto this pretty small ferry to cross the river with loads of motorcycles and tuk tuks!!
We arrived at about 1pm having left Saigon at 6.30am. We couldn't check into our hotel as the room wasn't ready which was really annoying considering the amount of places we had checked into at 7am! We went for lunch and had a bacon butty with proper rashers - first western food we have had in weeks and it was delicious! All restaurants, shops and tuk tuk drivers deal only in US dollars (ATM's even only throw out dollars) so you're unlikely to see local currency unless your change is less than a dollar! We found this to be quite strange. Sure, Vietnam accepted dollars for large transactions (avoided having to pay in tens of millions of dong) but to ignore your national tender is a bit weird.
The guy who worked in our hotel was explaining a little about the local area to us on our arrival and where things are. He proceeded to tell us about a shopping centre where they have this thing called an elevator that brings you from one floor to another when you press the button! We thought this explanation was very strange until we went to said shopping centre and realised that people appeared to have a fear of using the elevators and each lift even had a lift attendant to press the button! God love them!
We had a quiet afternoon as we so little sleep the night before! Although our hotel room wasn't really conducive to hanging around in; at one point Ronan remarked that there were people in prisons in Ireland in nicer digs than us!! And this was before we had the ant invasion.....
We booked our trip to the Killing Fields ie Choeung Ek Genocide Centre for Tuesday.
Par for the course at this stage we decided to do it a little differently and combined this with a quad bike tour. So we did an hour on quad bikes through small rural villages seeing the way the locals live. Extreme poverty basically.
We bought sweets to give to the kids, good fun. It was really dirty going though with all the mud tracks!
Then we went to the Killing Fields. The Killing Fields is where the Cambodian rebels killed around 20,000 people (men, women and children) who were associated with the government, professionals and intellectuals in the 1970's. They went so far as to kill people simply because they wore glasses. The skulls and bones are on display across 17 levels. During the rainy season bones, teeth and rags of clothes are washed up so walking along the path seeing bone & teeth fragments and bits of clothes is a stark reminder of what you are walking on. It was pretty horrendous. After this we went to the S21 prison, where all the people were kept before being transferred to the Killing Fields. All in all this was a fairly grim day. That is all the crazy depressing stuff done for a while - I think if there were a Top Ten Most Harrowing Tourist Sights listing in existence we would have done 3 of them in the last 3 days.
With all the hype about Batman over the last couple of weeks we decided to go to the cinema to do something normal for a change! We went to the cinema and Ronan's eyes lit up when he saw Batman advertised for 6.30pm - as soon as he opened his mouth, the guy working there said 'Oh Batman is only for a private screening, not on general release for a week'. So disappointed! We went to see the new Spiderman instead - Ronan's first 3D film ever so kinda random that it was in Cambodia - which was actually really good! The film was over at 9.30pm and the shopping centre had closed up which was fine except trying to get out was an experience. The whole place was a little eerie and felt like it was about 1am. We had to take the service lift (but there was an attendant to press the button though so phew!!) then go through all the staff quarters where people were getting changed, before going through the area where they park their scooters and finally out on a really dodgy street!
The following day we had a big sleep in (until 12.30pm) longest sleep in ever as we rarely sleep after 9am but we have been wrecked for the last couple of weeks so reckon we needed it! After having some brunch Ronan headed off to his photography course while I pottered about getting my nails done, writing in my travel journal and catching up on emails! It was a lovely afternoon!
Ronan's course lasted about 4 hours and he loved it! Think it's created a monster though as he has gotten obsessed and keeps talking to me about shutter speeds and exposure and loads of other things I don't understand. Although one thing I do know is the 2,500 odd photos he told up to now look rubbish in comparison to what he has done since yesterday!!
We left Phnom Penh at 8.30am on Thursday 26th to go to Siem Reap - home of the Angkor Wat temples and a potential eighth wonder of the world!!
We found a bus company online that only started in May but sounded amazing and the reports weren't wrong. I am writing this as we are reclining on leather seats with extra legroom with air con and wifi (yes wifi on a bus! Totally unheard of here) and got croissants and water delivered to our seats! Not bad for $13 for a 6 hour journey!! Ronan is like a pig in sh!t he is so happy with this little bit of luxury! We joked that we might just spend a couple of days on this bus going between the two towns as its so nice! Although a near miss with a motorcyclist along the way coupled with a tree falling on the road literally as we approached showed us that in Cambodia no matter how nice the bus, it's the roads themselves that are the danger! We were nearly in Siem Reap when a freak storm (possibly a mini typhoon) brewed out of nowhere and a tree fell on the road right in front of the bus. This was a little scary and considering the road was blocked with this tree, it didn't occur to the bus driver that maybe we should pull into an open space rather than hanging on the side of the road with loads of other trees that could potentially come down! The storm moved on almost as fast as it came and the locals came out with their little hand axes and had the whole thing chopped and road cleared in 10mins. We had arrived in Siem Reap!!
The bus journey to Phnom Penh was uneventful thank god! We have heard so many horror stories about crossing the Cambodian border and how the officials demand bribes to let you into Cambodia but the bus company we went with (Sinh Tourist) organised all our visas and a rep brought us across in a group so no bribing required by us! It was quite funny though seeing our big bus drive onto this pretty small ferry to cross the river with loads of motorcycles and tuk tuks!!
We arrived at about 1pm having left Saigon at 6.30am. We couldn't check into our hotel as the room wasn't ready which was really annoying considering the amount of places we had checked into at 7am! We went for lunch and had a bacon butty with proper rashers - first western food we have had in weeks and it was delicious! All restaurants, shops and tuk tuk drivers deal only in US dollars (ATM's even only throw out dollars) so you're unlikely to see local currency unless your change is less than a dollar! We found this to be quite strange. Sure, Vietnam accepted dollars for large transactions (avoided having to pay in tens of millions of dong) but to ignore your national tender is a bit weird.
The guy who worked in our hotel was explaining a little about the local area to us on our arrival and where things are. He proceeded to tell us about a shopping centre where they have this thing called an elevator that brings you from one floor to another when you press the button! We thought this explanation was very strange until we went to said shopping centre and realised that people appeared to have a fear of using the elevators and each lift even had a lift attendant to press the button! God love them!
We had a quiet afternoon as we so little sleep the night before! Although our hotel room wasn't really conducive to hanging around in; at one point Ronan remarked that there were people in prisons in Ireland in nicer digs than us!! And this was before we had the ant invasion.....
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| I was very popular when I took out the sweets :-) |
We booked our trip to the Killing Fields ie Choeung Ek Genocide Centre for Tuesday.
Par for the course at this stage we decided to do it a little differently and combined this with a quad bike tour. So we did an hour on quad bikes through small rural villages seeing the way the locals live. Extreme poverty basically.
We bought sweets to give to the kids, good fun. It was really dirty going though with all the mud tracks!
With all the hype about Batman over the last couple of weeks we decided to go to the cinema to do something normal for a change! We went to the cinema and Ronan's eyes lit up when he saw Batman advertised for 6.30pm - as soon as he opened his mouth, the guy working there said 'Oh Batman is only for a private screening, not on general release for a week'. So disappointed! We went to see the new Spiderman instead - Ronan's first 3D film ever so kinda random that it was in Cambodia - which was actually really good! The film was over at 9.30pm and the shopping centre had closed up which was fine except trying to get out was an experience. The whole place was a little eerie and felt like it was about 1am. We had to take the service lift (but there was an attendant to press the button though so phew!!) then go through all the staff quarters where people were getting changed, before going through the area where they park their scooters and finally out on a really dodgy street!
The following day we had a big sleep in (until 12.30pm) longest sleep in ever as we rarely sleep after 9am but we have been wrecked for the last couple of weeks so reckon we needed it! After having some brunch Ronan headed off to his photography course while I pottered about getting my nails done, writing in my travel journal and catching up on emails! It was a lovely afternoon!
Ronan's course lasted about 4 hours and he loved it! Think it's created a monster though as he has gotten obsessed and keeps talking to me about shutter speeds and exposure and loads of other things I don't understand. Although one thing I do know is the 2,500 odd photos he told up to now look rubbish in comparison to what he has done since yesterday!!
 |
| Phnom Penh City |
We left Phnom Penh at 8.30am on Thursday 26th to go to Siem Reap - home of the Angkor Wat temples and a potential eighth wonder of the world!!
We found a bus company online that only started in May but sounded amazing and the reports weren't wrong. I am writing this as we are reclining on leather seats with extra legroom with air con and wifi (yes wifi on a bus! Totally unheard of here) and got croissants and water delivered to our seats! Not bad for $13 for a 6 hour journey!! Ronan is like a pig in sh!t he is so happy with this little bit of luxury! We joked that we might just spend a couple of days on this bus going between the two towns as its so nice! Although a near miss with a motorcyclist along the way coupled with a tree falling on the road literally as we approached showed us that in Cambodia no matter how nice the bus, it's the roads themselves that are the danger! We were nearly in Siem Reap when a freak storm (possibly a mini typhoon) brewed out of nowhere and a tree fell on the road right in front of the bus. This was a little scary and considering the road was blocked with this tree, it didn't occur to the bus driver that maybe we should pull into an open space rather than hanging on the side of the road with loads of other trees that could potentially come down! The storm moved on almost as fast as it came and the locals came out with their little hand axes and had the whole thing chopped and road cleared in 10mins. We had arrived in Siem Reap!!
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| Road clearing under way |
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