Cambodia: 21st October - 2nd November 2013

Saturday 2^nd November 2013 – Kratie to Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Out of the room for 6.15am for our pre ordered bacon butties and cold drinks before the mini bus back to Phnom Penh. Managed to avoid our American friend, and awaited outside the front for the bus to show up. When the small 9 seater bus arrived it already had 9 locals in the back, and one girl in the front. We're still un-sure why they don't pick up the tourist paying customers first seeing as we're paying for times the price.

The locals had sat on the middle and front rows of the bus, leaving only the back row free. The young driver pushed the old women out the way and small one and tall one had to clamber over the other rows and passengers to get to the very back seat. They got their and found there was no leg room, the seats in front pushed so far back, and so many bags of rice and fruit on the floor that they had to sit with their knees up near their ears. Then two other backpackers arrived, a big Polish fella (who was living in Syndey) and his Cambodian (not very pretty) female prostitute. They then both squeezed into the back row with us, bearing in mind there was only 3 seats for the 4 of us anyway, nobody was very happy. It was then the Polish guy who noticed the front three seats of the bus only had two small 5 year old children on them, but yet they had chosen to put the tourist over 6 foot tall squashed in the back where there was no leg room.

By now the locals in front of us were back in their seats and weren't moving, so we started to argue with the young driver who was looking s bit confused as to what to do. The hotel staff also came out to watch as Tall one and Small one, the Polish man and his prostitute climbed out of the back window and on to the street. We told the bus we were not going, and that he had to put the children in the back, to which their parents didn't look happy about this. The driver eventually did this and we left the hotel.

Though 5 minutes later we stopped at the main bus depot, as obviously we had to pick up more people. They took our backpacks out the boot and loaded some more locals in there and in the other seats already taken – they knew better than to put more people on our row, as Tall one was already sat in the gap between the two seater and single fold up seat small one was on. Now fully loaded with passengers there was no room for out backpacks, and small one got out to check where they had them. The driver and the Manager now got involved and kept trying to lead small one back to the bus to sit down, but he insisted on staying to watch our bags get loaded. They made several attempts to squash them down in the boot, slamming the door on them hard, but to no avail. The Polish man at this stage worried about his own bag asked small one to bring his to him now and he'd keep it in here. Small one did this, but the Manager and driver we;re shouting that it was not aloud as only one bag per customer in the bus – so the Polish man gave the bag to the prostitute (who was travelling light), and they let him keep it. Next step was that the driver started getting out lengths of ropes and was trying to tie our bags on to the back door of the mini-bus – their was no kind of rack or hooks to attach any luggage he was literally just tying ropes between doors to try and strap bags on the back. Small one stopped them and said we'd bring the bags in with us or we'd leave, and again finally they gave in. So now we were even more squashed on our 3 seats, with the Polish man, the prostitute, his bag and our bags. The driver then asked tall one to put his backpack flat on the ground in the gap next to the driver's seat and front passenger's seat, he soon saw why as one of the other staff members (navigator??) clambered in over our laps, and sat down on Tall one's bag.

Four hours later, and Tall one's bag had been sat on and walked on by the young Cambodian navigator, and was also used as a foot rest for the bare feet of the Polish an and the prostitute. Was a long journey, but finally got in around 12pm to Phnom Penh. The bus hadn't even stopped in the busy depot and Tuk Tuk driver's were literally swarming round the side door window and banging on the glass. We dove out with our bags and pushed through them, they were all so persistent we just walked away, and in the end decided to walk the fifteen minutes to the Hotel despite the heat.

Found the cheap hotel we had book via email online, 'Bluehome Villa II' for $12 for a double room with AC. There was a young Cambodian lad sat outside in the sun smiling, wearing the same tourist 'Temples of Angkor' t-shirt as Tall one. He handed us a piece of paper which read, “you pay da-room now”. The poor lad had no english. Small one asked to see the room first and he did not understand and had to phone the manager. Small one was put on the phone with the manager who told him they were fully booked, small one said they had a booking 'Michael Barton', to which he said he on ly had a 'Michelle Barton'.... that's us, said small one, we want to see the room before we pay – the man said to put the young lad back on. The lad then wrote on his hand the number '12' and small one went upstairs to look for the room. He came back down and said there was only 9 rooms, and we realized that 12 was the price. So as we were tired and hot, we paid it and said take us to the room. The lad then took us into a large dorm room, with 1 double bed and three single beds – the room was unoccupied, however one bed had still not been made (wasn't like the lad had been busy he'd been sat outside in the sun). We tried to tell him we asked for private room, but he did not understand, Tall one even drew him a sketch of one bed in one room with a tick next to it, and one room with several beds with a large cross through it – he now seemed to understand but just shook his head. Small one asked if there was a key for the room and the lad shook his head, no key. We asked him to phone the manager again, to which he told us the manager was upstairs. Small one grabbed our bags and asked for our money back – the lad looked a bit scared and gave us our $12, and we left. Later in the afternoon the un-seen Manager sent us this absurd email: “What the hell eh. You book room, then you don't stay. Many customer want room today but i keep for you. You did like this its unfair. You don't come again ”. Well, we at least agreed with the last bit.

Tried the hotel a few doors up, but it was $40 a night. Tried the Suite Home Boutiqe Hotel which had a fancy looking restaurant underneath. A friendly Cambodian man greeted us, and showed us a room for $27, he talked us round to it – it was a nice room, with large TV, fridge, safe, kettle and tea/coffee, bathroom with separate shower / toilet. We sat down in the restaurant and filled in the long paperwork, and were given a free cocktail as a welcome drink (half yellow half red?). We went for a walk round the area, and round the outside of the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda (we're too cheap to pay to go in). Found the 'Friends' cafe from the Lonely planet book, which apparently employees street kids as staff – but found they were no longer kids and were more adults serving gourmet food out of our price range. Instead we went down the road to a grotty Irish Pub called 'Rorys'. Only miserable young Cambodia girl's working, and a strange dusty bar with the usual cliché Irish bar décor, an enormous dusty photo of Michael Collins above the bar, next to a smaller photo of the Cambodian King. Had a quite nice jacket potato with chicken dippers, then walked home in the heat via the Cambodian-Vietnam Friendship Monument and the Pavilion Hotel. Stopping off to buy a strange tasting can of 'grape'? Fanta, and some Penicillin packs for 80 cents each without subscription.

Back in the air con expensive hotel room small one spent an hour on Skype with the mother and father – Daddy Hegarty cooking breakfast on his new gigantic George Foreman grill, whilst Mummy Hegarty showed us her two new china dogs on the mantle piece and made them say hello to us. All one made small one a cup of coffee using the mini kettle and sachets provided – the cups to use were tiny black ceramic pots which could fit in the small of the palm of your hand, with a half handle and saucers which were more like bowls. Also found that the bottle of talc in Tall one's wash bag had burst everywhere, this was probably due to every one on the minibus using his backpack as a bouncy castle. Around 7pm went down to the empty fancy restaurant for our dinner. Ordered the lasgane but was told they did not have it, so had two pizzas – which we watched the young Cambodian chef hand spin the doh and then slid into the stone bake red brick oven. Pizzas turned out very nice, and asked for one of their desserts, though they did not have this either. Headed up for another early night.

Our last full day in Cambodia had come to an end, and we fly to Laos tomorrow afternoon. Although today was a little problematic, we have had an overall fantastic time in Cambodia – with many surprises at how easy going and friendly the culture is. Majority of the Cambodians have been very positive and always willing for a joke, and the young children were especially heart warming – when you would expect the country to have become a more sombre, melancholic type only 30 years after the genocide of the Khmer Rouge. Has always been nice to see how west has met east, and how the country has incorporate the west's ways and products into their daily lives with their own eastern take – using empty plastic mineral water bottles to float their fishing nets in the river (leaving a string of plastic bottles floating in a line) or a small three door car they have cut the roof off and added a cloth canvas roof and turned into a monstrous Tuk Tuk-Car, seeing the old ladies and children out working with Ox and ploughs in the paddy fields – but the children are wearing a Manchester United shirt, or sitting on a boat miles from land passing through a floating village and half of the huts are watching TV whilst our boat driver is talking on his mobile phone. A strange mix of poverty and wealth, their culture and our culture, and old fashioned with modern. We only had 2 weeks here, which was enough to cover the five main points that we did, though wish we had had more time to explore off the beaten track to perhaps see the otherside of the country.

Friday 1^st November 2013 – Kratie, Cambodia

Early start again, but had caught up with sleep after falling asleep by 8pm. Had the hotel's bacon butty for breakfast and booked our bus to Phnom Penh for 7am tomorrow (4-5 hours in a minibus for $7USD). Tall one ordered an iced coffee with milk, and the waiter asked if he'd like breast milk? Small one and Tall one were a little confused, until he repeated himself and realized he was saying 'fresh' milk. The hotel fella told confirmed that our Tuk Tuk was booked for 8am this morning to take us to the Mekong River village where we could do the 1 hour boat tour to see the rare Irrawaddy dolphin. The quite small, navy coloured porpoise like dolphn with a short beaked nose – which numbers have fallen to around 70 in the Mekong River (in Laos and Cambodia). The Hotel manager confirmed there was also a girl who wanted to do the tour, and he had suggested she share our Tuk Tuk and we split the cost 3 ways, which we agreed with.

The girl turned out to be a bit of a monster, Amercian (though this was not her reason for monstrouity), quite frumpy girl, bit of a Kirsty Alley look to it. She seemed friendly enough, however one of her eyes was infected and over breafast we had to stare at this bulbous eyeball which had turned browny yellow. She was a noisy eater, chewing her egg baguette with mouth open, crumbs smeared over her cheeks and chin, noisly licking the runny egg from her fingers. Our Tuk Tuk met us at 8am, and took us the 40 minute ride up the dusty road running north along the wide, muddy Mekong river. Past several little villages and wooden shacks, as well as a few schools. Dropped off at a little depot area where they sold an awful lot of overly varnished wooden carvings of these dolphins – though for the first time since arriving, nobody activley tried to sell us anything.

Paid our $7 each ticket for the boat trip and were led down to the river side by a man with little english. Was only one of those narrow long boats, with the proppellor on a stick at the end. After we ll boarded and were about to set off, a single Irrawaddy dolphin came up a few times near the boat and ended up being the best sighting we had. The driver told us more dolphins further out, so we took the boat for a 15 minute ride into the middle of the Mekong where lots of shurbs and bushes seemed to be protruding out the water.

The American girl moved to the front of the boat, and to small one's horror he found out that she was not wearing any knickers – he was terrified. What made it worse was that she had been shaving down there, and it appeared she did more shaving there than to her hairy armppits. Good news was at least that we saw a few pairs of dolphins, and stayed out for about 40 minutes with them. A couple of other long boats were out there, one full of child Monks in orange garbs, and another tourist boat which had tha bumbling english couple from the bus yesterday. The dolphins did not appraoch the boat like the standard ocean dolhpins do, but just fished away merrily, occasionally come nearer by chance only.

Our boat headed back after an hour total, and our Tuk Tuk driver finalyl came back and picked us up. We made a stop at Sambouk Mountain, and took a brief walk up to the Temple – passing the same English couple again. The American girl continued to disrupt the morning with sneezing fits (which she'd been doign since breakfast) we could oly presume that she was allergic to herself. Back to the hotel and we took a walk up the Mekong, and found a restaurant whch served Poutine chips which we'd not had since Canada and they gave tall one a virtually raw steak. Small one then had a sleep back in the hotel and Tall one sat with nothing to do as the power had gone off. The young chirpy Hotel fella was banging about trying to fix it, and seemed to of changed his shirt three times already today. After small one woke we sat and had a snack in the balcony, only to have that beast from this morning prowl around and try and sit next to us. We then ran and hid in the room to listen to the geckos making their clicking, chirping noises somewhere in the window frame. Did manage to catch another great looking sunset over the river Mekong.

Thursday 31^st October 2013 – Bus Siem Riep to Kratie, Cambodia

An early start for our 7.30am bus from Siem Riep to Kratie. It had cost us $11 each, and we were told it would take 12 hours and we'd have to change buses in Kampong Cham. Downstairs and the staff we're n their pjamas after sleeping on the hard benches in reception – and were nice enough to make us fruit, museli and yoghurt for breakfast (half an hour before the kitchen opened). The fruit salad had a lot of water melon riddled with hard black pips which small one spat out onto the plate like bullets.

A free mini bus drop off at the bus depot – which was a large indoor warehouse type buildng. A young fella loaded our bags on to a bus without asking where we were going, and guided us to plastic seats by a local family cooking food to sell. The locals immune systems much be like iron stomachs, as we watched them cook various rags of meat on a filthy black grill, serving cooked food with the same unwashed tongs they'd been alternately putting more raw food on with. Got on the large bus and settled in to our seats, and outside saw that a lone white Ox had wondered into the bus depot , the bus drivers were trying to coax him towards getting on a bus for a joke, without success.

The bus left promptly at 7.30am, though we made a couple of stops which last half an hour each and seemed to achieve nothing (it did appear that the bus was leaking water and the driver walked around a lot with a spanner). Two hours in to the journey we had only been driving for one hour. At one of the stops we'd collected most of our passengers, which were a few large families with many many very young children. Some parents sat with four kids on their laps, others just let their kids run up and down the bus. Within half an hour the bus was littered with crumbs, food scraps, empty cans rolling up the aisle, as people made no effort to keep their things tidy. The two girls next to us felt sick, and one threw up outside the bus – she then spent the next twenty minutes with her head inside a black plastic bag, and when she was done some more she threw that under he chair with the other rubbish. One poor father had his child piss all over him, and after hosing the baby off in one of the petrol station stops, he stood on the bus and changed his trousers in front of everyone. One of small one's worst pet hates is a noisy chewer, and sure enough to our side some young lad next to his girlfriend was munching away on nuts with his mouth open. There was also the usual colourful and high volumne tv entertainment, firstly some unknown bizarre 80's movie set in Africa dubbed in to Khmer – was a weird slapstick farce with various characters running around live African animals (title:The Gods Must Be Crazy II). Despite not having the language we kind of enjoyed it, though when that was finished we were subject to some strange Cambodian pantomime show – where people dressed up for Halloween screeched some funny voices. At least we weren't the only westerners suffering this, as one mopey British couple got on and sat quietly at the bus in a pit of despair.

Around 1pm we got into Kampong Cham where we were told we'd have to change buses. However we got off and asked the driver who directed us to the office who told us to get back on the bus (and took our tickets). The British couple were also going to Kratie and so followed suit. A Cambodian fella had been chatting to tall one and said he was getting of next to transfer to Vietnam, he'd also mentioned how his ticket only cost him $2 compared to tall ones $11. Tall one asked what he was studying and he said he was learning to be a cook and then he was going to university to be a lawyer?? After half an hour's drive we stopped at another town (don't know the name) Tall one's new friend got off and then our driver ushered the rest of us off the bus at this new town and told us to follow this new man, who he made carry small one's backpack for him. The new man showed us this mini bus with 9 passenger seats (and 1 driver, 1 front passenger seat). There was only 3 other passengers and the British couple who we're bickering about something and the ginger girlfriend refused to sit next to him.

Half an hour into our mini bus journey we stopped at a gas station and then pulled to the side of the road next to some other buses.... seemingly there was more passengers to pick up. It was not a big mini bus, there was a very small boot area for bags, then three seats with just Tall one and Small one, then three seats with a Cambodian fella an the British fella, then another three with a couple with 2 babies and the ginger girlfriend. Outside the bus 3 young Cambodian girl's had to get on, and the driver sent one back with Tall and Small – she took the remaining free seat. Then he sent another back with us, and she squeezed in between tall one and the other girl.... then to our shock he sent the third back here as well, and she had to sit on the other two girl's lap. Two other Cambodian's were then squashed in to the next row next to the British fella, making it 4 on his 3 seater, he wasn't very happy about this at all and reacted by making some nervous, very pompous English schoolboy remarks to the driver that, “sir, sir.... there is no more room”. Another girl was put in next to the ginger girlfriend and we thought that would be all. But then there was a little old man left standing outside the bus. The driver didn't want all of us to get out the bus and so opened the back window to the boot and looked in then showed it to the old man. The old man reviewed the window for a while, smiled and shook his head – he wasn't going to climb in through the window to sit in our boot. They then had to untie the back door of the mini bus (which was tied up to hold a motorbike on the outside of the van??) - they then rearranged our bags, and loaded up some bags of rice for the old man (they had a haggling argument over the price), they then loaded not just the old man, but a middle aged woman and an old granny into the boot. Now with 20 people on 11 seats they closed all the doors shut, including the granny in the boot – and before we pulled away one of the locals outside the van knocked on our window and held up a pineapple and a bag of quail's eggs and asked if we would buy..... we said it was not a good time, and hoped that she did not need a ride.

Was then a two hour cramped bus ride to Kratie, along the banks of the Mekong over looking paddy fields being resewn by the local farmers. Lots of very noisy metal bridges to cross, and a herd of buffalo to skirt around in the road. Pulled in to Kratie around 5pm and had the usual assault of Tuk Tuk drivers. Walked past the local school to the Balcony Guesthouse which was only 350 metres away and overlooked the Mekong river. Was a perfectly nice place, though a bit slow at cooking our burgers, and a few too many flies on the balcony when the sun went down (though to be expected). Took a brief walk to the Mekong river's edge to watch the amazing sunset – in which the sky and clouds turned orange, pink and red, with the exception of some strange blue lines cutting through the red colours.

Wednesday 30^th October 2013 – Siem Reap, Cambodia

A day off in Siem Reap. Walked round the market again and brought two hammocks for $5, and a photo copy of a book for $3. Dropped off our laundry for $5 in the place next to the Hotel (who were 20 cents cheaper per KG). Caught up with booking hotels and other Internet stuff. An exciting day.... Also went round the Night Markets, which sold the same stuff as the Day Market and was also open during the day. Had dinner up one of the small side alley cafes away from all the hideous noise and outgoing people of Pub Street. We'd had breakfast here this morning, and came back for dinner – the same very quiet, cheerless young fella served us. Small one had spaghetti bolonaise, and tall one had what was advertised as a Beef Country Stew, but was a Khmer version – a bowl of perfumed hot water with diced spring onions and other veg, with some pale sliced beef with side dish of rice.

Tuesday 29^th October 2013 – Siem Riep & Temples of Angkor, Cambodia

Showered in our trange hotel room – with the 4 metre high ceilings, but 6ft high ensuite bathroom (Tall one having to slouch when showering, being 6ft 3”). Next to the market for a breakfast, tall one tried their advertised 'Cappuccino' which was on par with a petrol station coffee. Wondered the markets avoiding the uual hecklers, and questions of “hello sir, you buying 'something'?”. Small one sat down for a haircut from a young Cambodian fella. The fella put a towel round small one's neck, put some lotion on, sharpened his scissors and started cutting. Small one watched for a while and then said, “I haven't told you what I want done yet?”. To which the fella smiled and kept cutting. Small one tried to say again, but to no avail – so just sat there to wait and see what happened. The haircut (for $3) turned out fine, though the hairdresser looked nervous as hell as Small one got up and examined it in the mirror.

The Tuk Tuk driver we had promised to do the temples with at the boat docks yesterday, turned up promptly outside our Hotel. After not taking him for the ride into town yesterday (as our free ride finally turned up) he had looked pretty upset, so we were unsure if he'd show up. He had however shaved off that teenage boys fluffy moustache he had yesterday. He wasn't the chattiest of men, though seemed sound enough, and explained our planned route for $13 from 12pm to sunset. His name was printed on his motorbike, Mr Khim.

Bumpy dusty roads up to the Temples of Angkor, stopping at the ticket booths where they took your photo and printed your face on your ticket ($20 per ticket). First temple was the iconic Angkor Wat – the famous 3-4 long pine cone like shaped domes, overlooking a lake/moat. Tourist were about in numbers on the long bridge up to the temple, along with many Cambodians trying to ram magnets, guide books, t-shirts and water bottles down your throat. Some friendly children at the end of the bridge cheerfully collected our empty water bottles though. Walked around the large, long square interior of the temple, covered with carvings from floor to ceiling of Cambodians on elephants, or fighting arm in arm. Climbed some very steep steps into the domes themselves, and some old Chinese lady laughed at us struggling to come back down the steep steps. A few local monks were wondering about in their iconic bright orange robes. Though the illusion of their respectable spiritual image was a little shattered as they wondered around like a typical tourist, holding their cans of Coca Cola, and taking photos of each other on their IPhones. On the way out of Angkor Wat, we were some how accosted into buying one of those God awful tourist Temple T-Shirts for $2, which Tall one is unlikely to ever wear.

Back to Mr Khim, who took us to the next temple – Ta Prohm. Small one would not give up talking about how much he needed a baguette, since we'd arrived in Cambodia he'd been virtually living off these baguettes, breakfast, lunch, dinner – he'd add on to whatever meal we ordered. Now he was on the quest again for a baguette. When we arrived at Ta Prohm, tall one was surrounded by girls selling water bottles, whislt small one found a little stall to get his much prized baguette – though he had to have it remade after they started squirting fish oil filled sauce all over it after he'd told them (or tried to tell them) he was allergic to all things fish. Inside the temple and a forest walk to the ruins. This temple was apparently used in Tomb Raider, and is famous for the many large trees which roots and branches have grown in and around the temple ruins. Toursit bus groups had started arriving, but we found they went around in flocks, and if you stayed between the flocks you could get plenty of photos without people in them. Though any spot you caught up with the flock you could barely move as they tended to stay put and not move for any other tourists. Near the entrance to the temple was more little girls collecting water bottles, 2 of them had found a way to attach empty water bottles to the bottom of this 2 year old Cambodian girl's dress. By unscrewing the cap, and putting the bottle on the inside of the bottom of the girl's dress, and then screwing the cap back on – on the outside of the dress – this made the bottles hang on – and all dangle around the bottom of her dress. The 2 girls thought this was great, though the 2 year old looked a bit blankly around not sure what was going on. Came out of the temple via a grazing Water Buffalo un tethered by the path. Was the best temple of the day, as there's only so many carvings you can look at in the others.

A brief photo stop at Ta Keo, then dropped off in the Angkor Thom complex. Past the Terrace of Elephants and Baphuon, then into the famous Bayon – hundreds of giant faces carved into it's walls and towers. A German middle aged husband and wife with a tour group stopped small one, and the husband asked if he could take a photo and pointed to his wife – small one gladly stepped over next to the man's wife and said he was ready for the photo. The wife shook her head very confused, but the German husband took the photo, understanding small one was only joking. Out at 4.30pm as the sun was slowly coming down. Next and last stop was Phnom Bakheng for the sunset. Past the many sellers and elephant rides and joined the throngs of tourists also heading to the top of this hill top ruins for the sunset. Past three of the Tourist Police who checked our tickets, and one of them asked if we were Australian, to which tall one said he was in English, and the policeman then asked why he had blue eyes if he was English? Tall one pointed out that lots of people had blue eyes in England – and that was the end of that. Was very busy at the top and managed to get good seats when two young Monks got up and left. The poor monks were accosted by some young, loud American tourists, who took photos with them sticking their thumbs up – they then shook the monks hands in that stupid high five like hand shake, and asked “hey man how old you guys?.... (24) .... wow, that's crazy man”. The sun then slowly dropped through the clouds as the Asian tourists burst into applause (for the sun??) there was also a spherical hot air balloon rising and falling across the temples. Was a nice sunset in the hazy skies. On the walk back down an army of large 'white ants' (which were black) where chaotically scurrying across the track in a swarm – one of the tourist police made people wait, but when the ants kept coming he just made us carry on walking.

At the bottom Mr Khim took us home and tried to convince us to hire him for a trip tomorrow, to which we declined. Back at the hotel we gave him a few dollars for a tip to which he was thankful, and then he tried suggesting we come to his house tomorrow for beers and he could pick us up. Small one declined, though Tall one felt bad to reject the man's offer – though it seemed most likely a ruse to get another tip out of us for driving tomorrow (after rejecting all his official trip suggestions), and he'd barely spoken to us all day and all of a sudden was now inviting us for drinks. Perhaps he was genuine, though his shifty eyes said otherwise – and iif it had been the friendly, chatty young fella from the Hotel who picked us up for free – we may have gone as he seemed more the sociable person. We had dinner at the same place we had breakfast and small one could not get the wifi to work. Then both showered and found are legs were caked with red/brown dust sprayed up on us from the road trip up the the temples.

Monday 28^th October 2013 – Boat Trip Battambang to Siem Trip, Cambodia

Up early, having booked our Tuk Tuk friend to pick us up at 6am to take us to the farther boat pier – for our 6-7 hour boat to Siem Reap. Apparently as the river was so high, we had to board at the furthest ramp 13km out of town, instead o the one in town. Left the room and found we could not go down the stairs as the door was locked from the outside to keep us on the landing? We rang a door bell and one of the owners got out of bed and unlocked the door. She then gave us back our deposit, and had to unlock the front door, and then finally unlock the entrance gate to the courtyard. So if there had been a fire or if we had wanted to leave during the night, we were essentially locked inside by three different doors. The security guard slept through all this inside his hammock – wrapped up like a cocoon with all his mosquito nets.

Waited on the street next to the dance aerobics crew, and were about to go back in to the hostel to phone for a Tuk Tuk (after waiting 25 minutes, and it was now 6.15am) – when are guy finally showed up. He took us the 13km to the boat depot outside of town – which was up some fairly bumpy, dusty out the way roads, through some tiny little villages and shacks, and past a misty paddy field. Thanked him for driving us for the last 3 days and then he left us essentially in the middle of nowhere.

In the river were 5 long boats tied up, 4 looked about ready to sink, and the nearest was a big wooden impressive boat with seating. We had arrived at 6.35am and stood by the shore till about 7am, watching the locals waking up who had been sleeping on the boats, and then they brushed their teeth, showered using a tub of river water and got changed into their fancy jeans and smart shirts. At 7am someone finally spoke to us, and let us get on (thankfully) the big wooden boat. After we sat on there for another twenty minutes, watching two of them take up the floor boards and tie and re-tie ropes together that connected the drivers brakes to the back engine – we were then told that we were on he wrong boat and we would have to ait for our boat to arrive from the City boat docks in about twenty minutes..... So, essentially we could have caught the boat in town, instead of getting up early and waiting at the boat stop twenty minutes up the river for an extra $6 Tuk Tuk fee out. Oh well.

The boat arrived, and was a long white plastic canal boat. We then had to clamber and jump over the four tied up boats to reach it – with the help of one other new passenger, some local Camodian lad bringing two boxes with him. Tall oen ripped his shorts n the process of jumping on, and then we struggled to find boats as it was packed with guests who'd got on before us. Tall one sat next to the Cambodian fella who got on with them, and small one sat opposite amongst what seemed like mostly french tourists. The boat then took off at a moderate speed, making large waves either side of the bow – as we moved up the murky river past little fishing huts, boats and palm trees.

A little Cambodian boy with down syndrome appeared and budged people off the seats and decided to sit down right next to Tall one. At first we thought he was with the french tourists, but then we saw his mother sat up the other end of the boat knitting. He was a bright young kid, and completely uninhibited moving among the passengers, his name was Rathana. He saw Tall one's camera and started examining it, lifting up the flash, trying the various buttons – and then started coaxing tall one to take photos. In the end he got the camera off tall one compeltley and he started taking photos of the other passengers.... mostly of the girls, but also off the young Cambodian fella next to Tall one, who was fast asleep – that is until Rathana kept prodding him to wake up for his photo to be taken. Small one then got out his tablet computer and Rathana shifted over to his side to explore the computer screen. Small one brought up the Thai Tims book on the screen, and Rathana got to grips very quickly with how to scroll up and down on the touch screen and zoom in and out. After a while he disappeared up on the roof of the boat. Small one went up later and sat again with him, and Rathana again got hold of the camera and encouraged a police officer also riding on the boat to pose for several photos with his thumb up.

After exiting the river we entered a large marshy lake area, with lots of little floating villages. Quite substantial villages, as although initially they looked like wooden or tin sheds on rafts – some had full mechanical workshops, or iron mongers – most residents had a TV antennas. There was also floating temples, and floating schools – with young children rowing to school in their white shirt uniforms. The younger children eagerly rushed out to wave at us from the house windows, the teenagers and adults looked a bit more nonplussed. Tall one joined small one up on the roof which was more spacious, and no less comfortable. The views were great from the top of the marshes, villages and wetlands birds. One of the crew sat with us, his name was 'Hoy'. He found out tall one was from England and said he wanted help to learn english. He produced a small Englsih to Khmer (Cambodian) book – whih was full of pen notes of his own, then went through and pointed at all manor of random words to get the correct pronunciation: “legally.... crippled.... bury..... cremation....culture....plumber”.

The boat also made various stops to make deliveries, from bags of rice and baguettes to dropping off some of our passengers to their homes (including the policeman, and the young Cambodian fella to a floating phone shop??). We eventually left the marsh like areas and floating villages, and headed into the lakes open waters (Tonle Sap Lake). The water got very choppy here and a lot of spray came up on to the boat. Our knees were also quite sunburnt by now. In the distance we finally saw Siem Reap, and a large slanted mount like formation.

Exactly 6 hours since the official start of the boat trip in Battambang (7am) we arrived in Siem Riep at 1pm. We had made a reservation with 'Cambodian Guesthouse Backpackers' for a much need air con room and also an apparent free collection from the boat depot – which they had confirmed. As the boat pulled in we noticed all the Tuk Tuk drivers come alive on the shore and literally run alongside the boat to get to where we were docking. A dozen or so of them desperately shouting, “where you going.... $5 Tuk Tuk!”. One of them saw Small one wave good bye to Rathana, and told us that his child was the same as him (down syndrome), and then wouldn't leave us alone. We looked for a Tuk Tuk driver holding small one's name as they had said they would, but no one was there for us. We sat down in one of the small dusty cafes, and watched as gradually allt he other customers were picked up or chose Tuk Tuk drivers. The remaining Tuk Tuk drivers continued to heckle us to go with them, saying that our pickup would have come by now. After 45 minutes we made a deal with one of the drivers to take us to town for $3, and to do with Angkor Temple tour with him tomorrow for $13. He bedgrudged the discount but went to get the Tuk Tuk. Though before he came back our free pick up arrived (very late) from the Hotel. So we went with them, but told the first driver that he could still do the Temple tour with us tomorrow.... he didn't look happy.

Our free pick up was very lively, a young Cambodian fella wearing a small straw hat with a string tied under his neck. The road up took half an hour and was terrible, full of pot holes. Past lots more fishing huts and marshland. Made it into the town, which centres around 'Pub Street' – which is much better set up for tourists than Phnom Penh, Battambang or Sihanoukville. A large central market, and lots of pubs and restaurants. Checked in to the hostel which seemed quite empty, but staff seemed nice and Hotel seemed fine. Went for some much needed food up Pub Street (after only having peanuts, crisps and a custard roll to eat on the boat as no food was served on there). Walked round the market and brought post stamps and some of knick naks we were needing.

Sunday 27^th October 2013 – Battambang, Cambodia

Awoke much earlier than we would have liked, and sat on our balcony watching the dance aerobics at 5am – in the park opposite. Have found that although the hostel has a great layout and run by nice people, it's a bit rubbish, grimy, and low-tech / inadequate fixtures. The english breakfast turned out to be quite rotten (though cheap) and left us feeling queasy all morning. But it has been the cheapest place so far at $10 a night, so can't complain anymore. Although the doorways were built for 5ft and a half people and the dog is mental.

Took a walk down the street to the Wat Sangker – lots of faces in a row surrounding a temple. Over to view the brown river, and found the spot we were standing in was littered with condoms. Across the bridge to the west side, and found a Cambodian man wrapped in a towel who was hanging his clothes to dry on the back of a Triceratops Dinosaur statue that was in the centre of town. Next to him a man was collecting wet mud from the street into a large pot, and a mongrel dog was in the middle of the road playing with a half dead bumble bee. Rubbish was in abundance on the streets and in the river. Tall one spotted a Celtic Top for sale for small one,, though it was so cheap and flimsy, as not worth the few dollars they wanted.

Our Tuk Tuk driver from last night arrived just before 12pm, Tall one did not recognise him as he had a helmet on this time. Took us to the Bamboo Train – and most tourist pay the $5 each to take a 1 hour return ride, but we said we didn't want to – it sounded too long and noisy and expensive for us. Back in the Tuk Tuk to the dismay of the driver and the Tourist Police who'd spent 5 minutes giving us a speech on the train. Headed out of Battambang past the paddy fields, where houses seemed to have spread their grain out on canvas sheets – and some were burning it, and others were walking on it carefully. Then arrived at Phnom Sampeau where are driver left us to do an hour and a half walk to the top of a hill to see the Killing Caves and emples. Was hot sweaty work, and at the top we were accostered by a 6 year old boy who in perfect english started asking us how we were, and the history of how the Khmer Rouge killed their victims here and threw their bodies in these caves. We went down some caves, and one had a large open cabinet filled with skulls (the boy claimed that skin was still hanging off some of them?). An old man had followed us down and shook us down for 1000 riel with his prayer tray, the boy (who had essentially appeared uninvited out the jungle to be a toour guide) then asked if we would help pay for his English lessons. We said he had better english than us, and gave him a couple of thousand riel.

Our ascent continued up to the temples, where a few noisy angry looking monkeys were darting about and leaping through the trees. Pass the temples and monks and locals selling cans of Fanta there was an amazing view overlooking the paddy fields, surrounding hills and small town below. Our descent only took 15 minutes down very steep stairs. Our tuk tuk driver then took us back to town, after only spending about 3 hours with us compared to the 5-6 hours originally quoted – though he was a sound enough young fella, and we were about down for the day. Dropped off in Phsar Naht Market, where we tried bartering over the price of Palmolive Shampoo and Conditioner, but found these old Cambodian ladies didn't want to budge on the $3, so had to cough up. Stopped for some adequate spaghetti polonaise then back to the room to sit under the fans and wait for the electric to cut out again.

Saturday 26th October 2013 – Sihanouk Ville to Battambang, Cambodia

Up early before the cafe opened for breakfast. Our minibus transfer arrived late at 645am to take us to the bus depot for our 10 hour bus to Batambang, via Phnom Penh. We stopped to collect a Spanish fella in a blue t-shirt, who got the driver to stop at a hotel while he tried to get his $5 deposit back (without success). We boarded the big red bus at the depot, which had an interior lined with this strange purple valance / curtain hanging around the inside ceiling of the bus. Behind us sat a mother with a noisy baby. Tried the free wifi advertised all over the bus and depot, but could find nothing (this seems quite common). Tall one also noticed this morning that he had lost his hiking boots which had been strapped to his backpack – they were not in the room, so can only presume they were left behind somewhere on the minibus that brought us down a few days ago.

The bus journey started, along with the familiar sound of the bus driver using the horn every 2 minutes to shunt other road users out of his way. The main rule of traffic being, the biggest bastard has right of way. The driver also put on a DVD, which to our delight was some kind of Cambodian X-Factor singing competition. All the songs were subtitled in Cambodian (Khmer), but thankfully the rest of the bus decided not to sing along. For the first ten minutes it was kind of endearing to see their singing videos – with large groups of Cambodians dressed in well ironed, colourful shirts – warbling some tune whilst slowly doing some Macarena hand movements with dead eyed expressions and smiles. The backing music was incessant, and akin to something you'd expect on a merry go round, or at best a demo track on an old Yamaha keyboard. The novelty wore off after the first ten minutes, and fifteen hours later (as the journey turned out to be), the singers incessant cheerful faces and singing was nothing less than some sort of demonic hypnotism. And of course the driver insisted on the video being at full volume, so nobody could get any sleep (with that and his use of the horn). Even one of the locals asked him to turn it down and he declined.

The bus from Sihanoukville to Phnom Penh was supposed to take 5 hours, where we were then to change to a bus for Battambang for another 5 hours. After the minibus we took down to Sihanoukville a few days ago took 3 and a half hours (plus a half hour break) we were surprised when it took us 6 hours to get back up to Phnom Penh on the larger bus. We were however slowed down by some immense flooding in the southern parts of Phnom Penh. Streets were a foot deep in murky water, and bicycles, tuk tuks, lorries, buses and street sellers waded through the roads which were now canals. When we finally disembarked at the bus station small one found his bag soaking, as presumably the flooding had reached the luggage compartment. Then as our bus was an hour late, we had missed our connecting bus to Battambang. Was then a confusing matter of wrestling our way through Tuk Tuk drivers, and lots of other people asking us where we were going – to work out how we found out which bus we now got. Finally found the service desk, and was told they had no record of the second part of our journey to Battambang – but she was nice enough to put us on the next bus at 2.30pm, an hour and a half later. We brought some strange, sweet tasting tuna sandwhiches, and other confectionery from a petrol station and sat down and waited. Chatted for an hour to a chirpy English girl travelling Asia on her own for 8 months (then heading on to South America for 10 months).

Our Battambang bus was finally announced, and we found Bus 37 in the end bay – and the not particularly friendly driver (with a little bum fluff goatie) loaded our bags. We then noticed how the front side of the bus was virtually on the ground and it looked like it had a flat tyre. We used the Bus Depot toilets, which strangely the men's urinals were actually outside the toilets, and so all passegers (men and women) walked past you as you went. Tall one also noticed he was urinating on large chunks of pineapple – which the locals must use as some kind of cistern blocks? We boarded the bus at 2.30pm, and the driver left – there was never any tyre changed and so the reason why the bus was at such a funny angle was never quite explained. The bus was half full, and we found we were the only non-locals on board. To our delight the bus driver then put on a DVD of Cambodian music videos.... much the same as the singing this morning, except it was more young 'hip' Cambodians singing in the middle of some terrible love story..... endlessly.... for the next 8 hours.

The driver was quite erratic, presumably spurned on by the hideous music. But despite his seemingly fast driving, we made very poor time. Some nice scenery on the way however, through some vast wetlands – as the sun set through some settling mist. Large numbers of Ox and Water Buffalo were being herded along the road sides, and of course the usual mongrel dogs, and mangy looking chickens. Through one section of paddy fields the daily workers were obviously being taken home, and we over took several small pickup trucks absolutely packed with women (only a few men). They were all standing in the back, crammed in like sardines – the truck looking like a human hedgehog with this group of 30 heads standing out from the back. Also noticed to our dismay how filthy the streets and countryside was. Heaps of rubbish was scattered all up the sides of the roads, streams and fields.

We pulled over to the side of the road at one point as a man in camouflage gear holding a very large gun flagged us and all other cars down. We had no idea why, and were left waiting at the side of the road to see if he would approach us. Finally a convoy of about twenty army Rvs speed towards us in the opposite direction – sirens all flashing. A few minutes later they were gone and the man with the gun, and the bus continued. It soon got dark, and the roads got very rough. Pot holes were very common, and we would have to swerve into the opposite lane to avoid going into large holes – this seemed a bit unsafe as there were numerous other trucks, and not to mentioned motorbikes without even headlights weaving around the pot holes coming in the opposite direction.

As advertised the bus from Phnom Penh to Battamnbang should be 5 hours, and as we left at 2.30pm, we though we had arrived when the bus pulled into what we thought was a depot at 7.30pm (exactly 5 hours later). But apparently this was mearley a lunch stop, and the driver and passengers got off and ordered some rice dishes in the restaurant, whilst we stood about confused. We asked some young Cambodian fella in a black and blue t-shirt how much further to Battambang, and he told us another 3 hours! We looked it up in the Lonely Planet and our current location was indeed another 100km south of Battambang (we'd only come 188km). So back on the bus, more Cambodian music, more pot holes, and more tears from small one.

Finally arrived just after 10pm (we were originally due in at 5pm). Some aggressive Tuk Tuk drivers surrounded us, but we walked away and flagged down some nice young lad who was driving a Tuk Tuk going past. He took us to 'Here Be Dragons' Hostel, and we agreed to meet the same driver for a half day tour tomorrow. Outside the hostel the thin Cambodian security guard (complete with ill-fitting uniform) got himself out of one of the outdoor hammocks and lead us in to reception/bar. There we met the young English couple who owned the place, an overly friendly big dog and another English fella behind the bar. They weren't serving food any more, though he was nice enough to drive to the local pizza takeaway and pick us up two surprisingly good pizzas. Afterwards headed to bed, leaving the security guard to his hammock.

Friday 25th October 2013 – Sihanouk Ville, Cambodia

Left early for breakfast, and went to a sweaty, but nicely decorated restaurant for a $3 breakfast. The sweaty, white Englishman owner turned up giving out instructions to the la about Cambodian staff in his most polite friendly banter manner. In fact most bars we past on the beach seemed to have Westerners stood behind the bar counting up their cash.

It was a sweltering hot day, and we walked the whole length of the beach to Otres Beach, however the litter pickers stopped after the tourist area and so we had to dodge the numerous hypodermic needles, used nappy piles and water bottles filled with piss scattered up the beach... that's the trouble with paradise, there's no one to collect the rubbish.  Walked past a fella fishing with large nets in the ocean, and many a family living in the scrubland by the beach with a few skinny ox. Turned back when the area looked a bit rough so nnever made it to the Hostel (Everythang Otres) ran by Small one's friend's friend.
   
Back to the main beach and Cafe Amigos to watch the locals try and get aa jet ski and Banana Boat started. Amazing how the local fella whore a thick black shirt and black jeans waist deep in the sand and sea and under the hot baking sun to get this thing started, the same as the builders wearing these fancy shits you'd wear out to the club – whilst doing manual labour on a building site.

Sat down and started drinking our Angkor Beer for our last day at the beach. Ended up being a long day at the beach. We met every beggar and salesman twice over. Small one got talked in to getting a bracelet hand made for him by some young Cambodian fella, which got tall oen into trouble as some girl had been pestering him the last two days to get one off her and made him 'promise' that he would find her if he wanted one. Then the short fella who sold Small one sunglasses yesterday noticed tall one had new sunglasses too, and so he was pissed off that Tall one had not brought sunglassess off him. Turns out tall one's sunglasses weren't even 'polarized' as the sticker advertised, as when this fella showed him a picture of a man fishing he could only see the man and not the fish??? Then another girl showed up who Tall one had dismissively said “maybe later I buy bracelet” (to get rid of her) and now she saw small one getting one made and sat there and started to  cry. Sweet jesus, Tall one didn't want any sunglasses or bracelets, and now he was stuck having to justify buying them off someone else to stop people crying.

After dinner played a game of pool in our hotel with a Cambodian fella and his friend who wore girl's sunglasses. As far as we could tell their names were Jelly and Ice cream, and when they spoke a lot of Khmer between each other and we asked what they were saying, their answer would always be 'nothing', despite the conversation being 5 minutes long. Went for dinner at 'Toms', just up from the beach – in which we met Tom who was a Swedish man with a Cambodian 'friend' who had just opened the restaurant. He literally said this was his opening night and that we were his first customers. Just after we ordered, we sat down and a rains storm came down...... a bit ominous. We had to move inside, where Tom gave us free orange and vodka shots, and also said that the draft beer (Angkor) was free tonight for the opening (despite it being a washout). The outside BBQ was flooded, as were all the outside dinning tables and chairs, we were literally his only customers for the night, and drinking his free booze. He was a nice fella though and so we left after 3 each (and dinner), and wished him all the good luck we could for the future.

We had also spent all day worrying about the toilet seat that tall one had broken yesterday, wondering if the hotel was run by some crooked bastard who'd charge us $50 to replace it. This mornign we left and went to speak to reception, but no one spoke English so went to the beach. When we came back after lunch, some old, white man was sat at Reception and we told him about it. His response was, “oh don't worry that always happens, they put on the wrong type of toilet seat and they break all the time, i'll get maintenance to fix it”. Then we went back into the room and found it had been fixed by the cleaning staff after all. Small one went out and told the old fella that it was fixed and not to get maintenance onto it. Less than half an hour later tall one sat down on it and the new toilet seat shattered.... it had happened again. This time we thought we'd just check out in the morning without saying anything. What a toilet seat saga.

Thursday 24th October 2013 – Sihanouk Ville, Cambodia

Did not eat in the Hotel restaurant again, as much cheaper up town and nicer by the beach (the Hotel cafe and pool has a great view of a building site). Went to a small cafe which had $2.50 breakfast , including a coffee – and ironically was the opposite side of the street to a large construction site. Was good entertainment though, watching these building clamber over scaffolding without protection, and hoisting up huge bags of cement or buckets o brick on a long rope just by hand. As we ate one of the local monks in the bright orange shawl stopped outside the cafe, and the three young Cambodian waitresses came out, took off the shoes, and gave the man some money – then bowed in front of him as he blessed them. On way to beach brought postcards for 50 cents each, which seemed expensive, and was quoted $1 USD for each stamp, which seemed ridiculous (they were half that in Singapore).  Stopped up a side alley off the beach and booked our 10 hour bus to Battambang for Saturday, for only $13 (including Hotel pick up) – compared to the $16-18 we had been quoted elsewhere. The friendly Cambodian man behind the desk (Yow?), was keen to sell us local island tours, and chatted about where we were staying. He said he paid $30 a month for his accommodation, compared to our $25 a night. He also started talking about how he did not like to serve beer at his tour desk table, though sometimes he liked to eat off of it – neither of us had any idea what he was talking about. Then as we were literally a few minutes walk from the beach, we had the usual Tuk Tuk drivers asking if we wanted a ride.... despite it probably being quicker to walk.

Afterwards headed to the beach and sat in the sun outside Cafe Amigo to work on our sun burn. Watched up the beach a large group of people swimming and two jet skis cutting right through the middle of the crowd at top speed. Enjoyed some cold Angkor beers, and then the beggars and sellers started. The same woman with no english (who small one gave a chicken nugget to), then the man with no legs who was sliding his way up the beach very slowly. The women selling foot massages, the girls selling bracelets, and the young lads selling sun glasses. One young lad was sharp enough to point out small one's sunglasses (Brought in Aoraki) had a crack in them – and managed to barter his way into selling sun glasses for $10 (originally quoted $20), small one said he would only pay $5, so the salesman said if Small one won a game of noughts and crosses he could have for $5, if he lost he would pay $8.... the salesman drew the line the sand and won (he obviously has lots of practise). As soon as that salesman left, another came up with sunglasses and tried to convince small one to buy another pair??? Somehow a few hours later, Tall one ended up buying a pair, when there was nothing wrong with his own glasses.

After trying a local coconut (which weighed a tonne) we headed back to the Hotel. On route a tall, white fella in a beard was begging for change (an oddity seeing a white fella beg in this country). He claimed he had just lost his passport and wallet, but was quite acting quite weird and not very genuine. After we declined, he started going through the bins. Back at the hotel had a dip in the pool (the ocean at the beach is a bit filthy, lots of garbage). Tall one managed to break the Hotel room toilet seat, and then we headed back down to the beach to get 2 starters and 2 mains for $10. Had one beer by the beach after sunset, and we were then pestered by some 4 year old children trying to sell fireworks. Didn't seem the safest of times, when this virtual toddler walked past with a shoulder full of fireworks, near to our table with open candles sat on them. He sold some to two young backpackers, who stood by the shoreline. The little girl lit his firework with a cigarette lighter whilst he was still holding it, the girl then ran away leaving the young fella holding a lit firework asking, “what do I do, where do I point it?”. The tube then started spitting various shoots off into the sky for about 5 minutes. After this excitement we went home before we took a stray one in the face.

Wednesday 23rd October 2013 – Phnom Penh to Sihanouk Ville, Cambodia

Up early for the bus to Sihanouk Ville on the coast (a beach break being a much needed antidote to the genocide of our honeymoon the day before). Ordered breakfast at 7am, though they cocked up the price and then short changed us by 2 pieces of bacon. We asked at the desk about the minibus service with Golden Bay buses, and they said there was a protest on at the bus station but they would take us. So the lanky Camboian lad with the weird giggly laugh drove us into town and dropped us at a separate depot.

Boarded the mini bus with two young backpackers, and a middle aged German man – the rest were all Cambodians. We presumed we were the only ones paying $10 for the 4-5 hour journey. We had to move seats a few times for some un known reason, and there was no room for the backpacks, which had to be squashed into a small boot space and then stacked up next to some poor Cambodian fella. The minibus journey was quick enough, the horn was used frequently and at times we had no idea what he was actually beeping at. He did persist in overtaking other cars just before a corner, and we tired not to look as too many times we were overtaking in the other lane as a lorry was approaching the other way. Other hazards on the road included Children, Buffalo and White Ox (the ones with the humpy necks and baggy throats). Stopped halfway for a lunch break, where we were charged $1 for a plain, butterless white roll (it would have cost less in New Zealand). The German man next to small one said he currently lived in Thailand and travelled South East Asia looking for gold and silver to sell – he also advised us not to pay more than $2 for our transfer to our hotel.

We arrived at 12pm (exactly 4 hours) and the torrential rain started. A few Tuk Tuk drivers were around us like flies once we stepped off the bus. One fella wanted $2 each for the 2 kilometre ride to the Aqua Resort we had booked online. We sat down and said we'd only go for $2 for both of us. He eventually accepted and took us the very very short 5 minute ride round the corner. Checked in to the Hotel, which was essentially deserted. Our room was by the swimming pool, though because of the rains all the women with tree branch brooms were out trying to sweep the 1-2 inch deep rain water off the courtyard back into the pool. We swam to our room and checked in successfully – room had a bit of an old damp smell about it, but the resort itself seemed nice enough. Laundry was only 75 cents per KG compared to the $2.50 per KG in Phnom Penh.

Took a walk out into the town, past the giant golden Lion statues on the roundabout, and some builders sat precariously up the framework of a billboard sign doing some welding. Walked a few KM into the area marked down town on the map – was pretty sparse, and mostly Cambodian local stores. Had a toastie and chips in the Fisherman's Den from 2 Cambodian girls with little english. Back to hostel and sat by the pool until the sun went down. A nice pool, though the view (and sound FX) consisted of building works going on the other side of a vacant lot.

Took a walk down towards the beach, and found that the road going in the opposite direction from the Golden Lions Roundabout was filled with western cafes and hotels. Along the beach we found many bars with soft chairs out in the sand, along with a lot of garbage floating in the sea. Lots of puppies wondering round on there own. Sat down and had a beer and a $3 BBQ – then the beggars came; the children with bracelets, one legged men, women clutching babies with no english (who we presume were begging, though may have been asking for directions). Old women with children clutched around us asking if we wanted foot massage, and then if we wanted our toe nails cut – small one showed them his in growing toe nails and they shrieked and left. Walked back to the hostel after sunset, and in the dark past two Ox sat in the middle of the road.


Tuesday 22nd October 2013 – Phnom Penh, Cambodia

A big breakfast, and then we booked our bus to Sihanoukville for tomorrow morning. Though the Asian girl at the counter examined the 50,000 Riel note like a forensic expert and didn't want to take it as there was a very slight 3 mm tear in the centre – we told to to cancel the booking then, and she accepted it. We then asked for our day tour on a Tuuk Tuk to the Killing Fields and S:21 museum.
   
Our Tuk Tuk driver did his best to fish for a tip, telling us how expensive gas was when he stopped to fill uup, then had to stop to buy new gloves duee to sun burn on his hands, then how he had to go pick up all his children from school whilst we were at the museum.... we gave him $2. Was the usual wild ride through the City, though this time the roads were mostly unsealed, dodging round post holes whilst dust flew in our faces. Noticed how despite the continuous traffic violations and near accidents, of cars/bikes driving the wrong way up roads or cutting across a fast moving highway and halting traffic – we have seen zero anger or road rage from the drivers, just a polite beeping. Compared to New Zealand where drivers would yell out the window at us for driving just under the speed limit. For a while we drove behind a motorbike which had a driver, and then a toddler behind him, and then a second child on the back who was holding up in the air above the toddler's head a drip bag that the toddler was connected to. Driving through the suburbs you see the strange mix if poverty and wealth, the slums and hundreds of street stalls, next to a BMW show room, and other signs of the Westerners creeping in, such as the kids and young men wearing Man United tops. When we were stopped in traffic at a junction, we jumped when we noticed a little girl had come up to the side of the Tuk Tuk and was looking up at us with pleading teary eyes, holding her hands in a prayer motion (presumably begging). We smiled and nodded and waited for the Tuk Tuk to drive away.

Killing Fields of Choeung Ek were just outside of town surrounded by paddy fields. A lot of tourists were there, including bus tours. Was only a small complex, but an audio tour was included (never done one before), and it took us half an hour to listen to the first two tracks, in which time we had walked about 10 metres. Around the complex were signs were the former building used to be of the guards, and the scattered large pits dug in the ground (half filled with water) were the mass graves dug up following the genocide of the Khymer Rouge of the 1970s (1 in 4 Cambodians killed). The bones and skulls were exhumed and are now in glass cabinets for viewing in the tower in the centre of the complex. Around the paths you could still see parts of clothing half buried, and also bits of bone fragments or teeth – as following rainstorms, new parts surface from the ground. Was all very sad and grim, including the Killing Tree where children and babies had were killed against – and visitors had left bracelets and gifts around the fences. There was also a video in the Museum, which had the msot God awful english (young backpacker sounding) voice over. Despite all the death around the area, there was lots of chickens roaming around with large broods of chicks, as well as various butterflies around the plants near the graves.

Next was Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (S:21) – back into town. This was a former school turned in to holding cells by the Kyhmer Rouge to interrogate and torture hundreds of civilians before taking them to the Killing Fields. Another grisly site, worsened by the two beggars at the entrance – one with half his arm missing, and the other whose face looked bloated and burnt and one of his eyes the colour of dried glue.  It was interesting to see all the well dressed middle aged women tourists getting out their air conned taxis to be faced with these fellas, and hearing them politely decline trying to hide their disgust. The complex here was essentially four very large three storey grey building, each crumbling, stained concrete with various rooms to go into. Some re-created the basic cells, and others had exhibitions of the endless black and white 'mugshots' that were taken of all prisoners. These endless photos had quite a haunting affect, especially as the eyes of all these deceased and tortured people follow you around the room – not just men, but old, young, children and women included in the numbers. Stopped in the outside gift store, and a photocopied book was $8.... so we left and headed back to the hostel.

Had a baguette and sat by the pool. Collected our laundry which we had given in yesterday. This was charged by the kg and it cost us $11USD for the load, when the same size load last week cost us half that amount. Back up in the room we counted out the items and found we had some one else's t-shrit and was missing one of our own – so had to go and sort this out with reception (surprisingly successful at that). For the evening headed back out to the river front to find somewhere else to eat before packing up for our move to the coast tomorrow. The quiet stroll down the river front at sunset was eventful enough. After being haggled to try and go on one of about 40 boat trips for the river sunset, we made it down past two temples, and to a line of international flags. At the end of the flags was a man with three small cages, 2 packed with swallows, and one with some kind of finch. Small one asked the fella what they were for, and if they were for eating. The man told him that they are for releasing (we later presumed that this was probably the reason given to tourists). Small one then (Randomley) purchased two small swallows for $1USD, and was allowed to throw them up into the air, to which they took off lie bullets and we did not see them again.    

Walking back up the main road along all the river front bars and restaurants, we were accosted by many 5-6 year olds (some still in school uniform) – and producing a coat hanger each, with rows and rows of cloth bracelets for sale (3 for $1 USD). Small one declined many, but then remembered Tall one had hung one of his on one of the posts at the Killing Fields, so up the road when there was only one kid, he asked to buy 3 for $1. Suddenly there was a frenzy, around 8 small children came from the shadows, along waving coat hangers filled with bracelets. They surrounded small one alll asking for $1 – Tall one stood to the side and a few tried to approach him, to which Tall one pointed to small one and said “he has the money” (which was mostly true). We managed to escape the throng (with 3 bracelets), however a kid in a yellow t-shirt continued to follow small one and was stepping on small one's flip flop to try and get it off his foot. This continued for a good few blocks, until small one told him to 'go away' – and then the little fella started punching small one in the arm and scratching him. We eventually got away from him and hid in a restaurant.

Had some 'western' food for a change, which was quite good, and the Angkor beer was on special for 60 cents a pint. The Cambodian bar man was wearing a Celtic Top, though when small one brought it up, the man seemed at a lost as to hat small one was on about. We moved tables (away from the path) after a small midget woman selling photocopied books wouldn't leave us alone, and then a man selling sun glasses in a suitcase didn't help (selling sunglasses at night time to 2 people who had sun glasses clipped on to their shirts?). From the cafe we watched a large group of Cambodian woman doing some exercise star jumps and dance movers across the road by the river. We briefly chatted to an American girl sat on her own to our side. She was flying back to New York that night. One of the little kids (we'd turned down earlier for bracelets) found us and started to bug us at the table. Small one tried to palm him off on to the nice New York girl, without success. Though it was Tall one who was stuck with this one. The kid was only about 6-7 years old, and started telling Tall one to “be a man” (and buy bracelets?), and “don't be a lady boy be a man”.... and then went on to “it's a hard life”.... The waiters eventually got rid of him though he lurked in the shadows of the bike rack for a good half an hour. We figured it was too tempting to give him a dollar to get rid of him, as if we do that and the other kids see, they'll all be over trying that tactic. We left after the dinner and 2 beers and headed back to the Hotel up the river front. We were briefly assaulted again by the small boy in a yellow t-shirt, though he left a lot sooner this time. We were also past by a man with no legs, sat on a skateboard – who went by wrapped in Christmas lights and playing music from his stereo – even the locals looked confused at that one.

Monday 21st October 2013 – Singapore to Cambodia

Up for our last breakfast and a black girl who we presume was staying in the hostel came in off the street and proceeded to throw up in the toilets by the eatng area. After the toast and jam we flagged a yellow taxi outside the hostel at 7am. A chinese driver, was the most chatty and upbeat we had had yet. He got on the subject of football and wanted to now what teams we supported, tall one just shook his head. Small one told him Celtic, and only Celtic. The driver's response was “ah... the Hoops! The Hoops!.... I remember in the 70's the Hoops came here and I seen Danny McGrain play and what a player he was, so fast, working so hard up and down the pitch'. Small one was delighted and the taxi driver ensured himself of a tip.

At Changi Airport Small one had his emotional good bye with the taxi driver. Inside the terminal there was this bizarre art installation – these hundreds of silver rain droplets, each suspended on a thin wire – and each one moving up and down at different speeds – in unison – doing different waves or rain formations. Check in was painless and we then went through immigration, till we ended up at the Gates – and so far had been through no bag check, which was worrying as you'd almost prefer that all passengers were checked. Small one latched on to the free Internet terminals for his Internet fix. Had a rough Burger King from a hard selling Asian woman, and then when we finally boarded we had to go through a separate bag check right by the gate. Going through the bag check they stopped small one and enquired if he had any books in his bag? When he said yes, they then told him he could carry on?

Flight just under 2 hours, and looked down through the cloud at the vast green landscape of Cambodia – a patchwork of different farm lands – and some large areas of what looked like flooding – that brown water just smothering some areas, with a few thin palms scattered around. At the airport came through the immigration, where the officer's were as joyless and humourless as the ones in Singapore (no hello, no thank you.... nothing). Stopped at the currency office outside the airport and asked for 2 Million Cambodian Riel – paying by Visa. They told us we could only purchase US Dollars by Visa, and then they could exchange the US into Riel.... all very bizarre, considering it was the same office. After a lot of waiting, and a lot of confused looks and recounting the other side of the counter, we were given about 1880 Riel for 400 USD (the Hotel later told us we would have got 1 Million Riel per $250 from them). Then to the pre-paid Tuk Tuk taxi booth, and got a ticket for $7USD.

The Tuk Tuk's were more like a large trailer with seats being towed by a motorbike, compared to the trike like things of Thailand. The driver decided to drive the whole way in the centre of the road, down the middle of the white lines – causing cars to drive in the next lane to get past us. The roads were pretty chaotic and reminded us more of Vietnam. Motorbikes swarming down past us, some tacked with huge sacks of food or towers of merchandise balanced high above the driver behind them on the back of the bike. Some bikes with three people, some normal bicycles were in the mix of it all with school children complete with school bags, and then the regular occurrence of some motorbike or even a car deciding to come in the opposite direction against the flow of traffic.

Made it to the Eighty8 Backpackers. A large downstairs, open bar area with palms, a variety of seating areas, a large bar and an outside pool. The room was up some exhausting steps and across a bizarre echoing courtyard. The room itself overlooked a crumbling concrete wall, and it's ensuite bathroom did not have a door – and so small one could wave at tall one whilst sat on the toilet. We also found that the air con was quite weak and took a long time to cool the room, which was made worse that to stop you leaving it on when we went out – to build up (and be cold for when you return dripping with sweat from being out in the heat) you had to leave your room key slotted into the holder in order for the air con to be able to work. Thankfully found a way around this, by just taking the key ring apart, and so could leave the large key ring in the room (and air con on) and just take the key itself with us – so we could return to a cool room.
new hostel, no door on bathroom

Had the obligatory beer downstairs in the bar (Angkor Beer), the bar was filled with lots and lots of westerners / backpackers. Confusingly all prices are un US dollars, so they convert their Cambodian price into USD to quote to us, then when we want to pay by Riel, they have to convert it back from USD into Riel. This was more confusing when we paid in Riel and were given change in both USD and Riel for the same transaction. Apparently 4,000 Riel is worth $1USD – and so took us a while to get our heads round it, but seems like we should have just got USD and not the Riel at that confusing airport currency exchange. Food was cheap enough though, $4-6 for a main meal, and beer was $1.25.

Went for a walk down to the Central Markets, it had been pissing down so borrowed a hideous umbrella from reception – though never needed it. Few  footpaths on the streets (and when there was, there was cars parked on them) so had to dodge our way down the street walking in the road between he traffic. Like Vietnam the electric cables running suspended down the street were an absolute abortion – a tangled mass of wires, would hate to be the repair man. At the markets (a big yellow domed building), we wakjed around the guards with the very big guns strapped round them, to browse the cluttered, narrow aisles. Every stall the seller jumped up at the sight of us and was asking, “you buy hat, you want sunglassess.... you want watch....(or more vaguely) you buy anything?”. Small one managed to buy two pairs of combats which he was happy with. We then headed for the river front, but stopped in an extremely dingy and very hot Irish Pub on the way. It had 6-7 customers (all Irish), they were playing some heavy music from youtube on the TV, the menu looked nice, but the atmosphere was awful.

Made it to the river front where the sun was just going down. Lots of locals about, some were kicking a shuttle cock into the air between a group of people. Another couple of fellas were in the murky river waters casting  net out wide – only to pull I back and empty out garbage while a crowd gathered round to watch his failure. There was a nice atmosphere at the river, lots of shops and cafes, good friendly crowd of locals playing sport, palm trees lined the streets and boats were disembarking for river tours down the fast flowing water. Headed back to the hostel up the now dark and still chaotic streets. Sat down by the pool and tried to plan our week. So far everything was well, and all the Cambodian people we'd met had been very friendly and had a good sense of humour.