The Adventures of Doug and Bec: Cambodia

While in Sapa we booked flights from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh as it is fairly close to the Cambodian boarder.

We had a fairly uneventful trip from Sapa to Hanoi, where we arrived at about 6am and took a taxi to the airport... we didn't realise at first but the airport is like 45 minutes from town, so we had to end up paying in US as we did not have enough VND on us. They driver did not know the conversion but seemed to trust we did not rip him off!

We arrived in Ho Chi Minh airport about 10am and stepped outside in the 35 degrees weather and quickly stepped back inside the airport and after some further research on the 12 hours of buses it would take to get to Siem Reap we decided to fly which was only 45 minutes.

After a long wait for the flight we arrived in Siem Reap at about 8pm and checked into our hotel, the Im Malis. We discovered we had inadvertently arrived on their new years eve! and that it was a big destination for Thai people, and that there was an estimated 15,000 of them in Siem Reap on holidays at the time! Sure enough there were lots of decorations on buildings and a lot of people out and about... unfortunately after a night on a train and day of flying we were in no condition for enjoying the festivities.

Day one in Cambodia was very relaxed. I had a quick look around town in the morning but it was too hot to stay out. It felt like about 40 degrees but not totally sure what it was! I did however find a little shop where we bought a bottle of polish vodka and a bottle of boubon for $5 each... it seemed this was the going rate for a 700ml bottle of alcohol!

On day two we went on a private tuk tuk trip to Angkor Wat and another hillltop temple for sunset. I could not belive the number of tourists at Angkor Wat, plus a massive number of Cambodian people there having picnics on one of the new year public holidays.. we perhaps could have picked a better day!

Angkor Wat is definitely a place to see, and as many had told us was so massive and spectacular compared with most of the temples and tombs we had seen in Vietnam. Shortly after we arrive the area got hit by a storm, which we sheltered from under the eves of a toilet block with a family who were selling paintings at the site.

After the short storm with intense rainfall w headed into the inner walled area of the complex. The carvings on the walls were amazingly detailed and supposedly told a story of one of the kings of the country... They would have been impressive when they were new as it was apparent that there was some damage and degradation.

The inner building of the temple was massive and looked perhaps 5 to 6 stories high. Unfortunately due to out attire (it is a significant religious site so singles are not accepted) we were unable to climb to the top as some of the visitors were doing, so we headed out the other side of the complex and relaxed in the shade from the intense heat.

We got collected again by our tuk tuk driver about 4:30pm to go to another site to watch sunset, Phnom Bakheng, which involved a 200m walk to the summit... which was more like 1 km than 200 metres.... as once again the distances advertised were way off!

When we arrived at the top we were greeted by a high temple and a massive line with a sign saying the entry closes at 5:30pm... and it was already 5:05. From what we understand they only let 300 people up the top at a time, so to get up someone else has to come down. By about 5:15pm we were sure that we would not get up, but the line slowly continued to move, and at 5:30 everyone who was past a certain point was allowed up all in one lot, and the hundreds of people lined up behind us were turned away. Unfortunately after waiting about hour for sunset we were disappointing due to the clouds on the horizon, and headed back into town.

We headed into town for dinner and markets and had a $1.50 red curry which was one of the best meals i have had, before buying a number of canvas paintings from a stall in the markets which were amazing and cheap, with the intention of posting them back to Australia

After a massive day out in the sun we had a quite relaxing day which involved a bit of TV and Bec getting a pedicure and facial we planned our next move which was to Thailand. We tossed up the bus/train route which meant 4 hour taxi, 1km boarder crossing walk that takes a hour, bus to train station, then a non air conditioned 6 hour train to Bangkok... and decided against it and headed via plane to Phuket via Kuala Lumpur.

View from our Tuk Tuk - notice the ute packed full of people

Bec and a big snake statue thing at the entrance to Angkor Wat

Walkway over the moat to Angkor Wat - they have repaired the right hand side as you can see....
There were sooooo many tourists here... but it was still worth seeing.