Siem Reap
Trip Start
Jan 25, 2007
1
4
19
Trip End
Mar 22, 2007
Siem Reap, Cambodia
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Yesterday we had another great day in Phomn Penh. We started lateish and after another exotic fruit breakfast we headed for the Central Market to pick up some bargains, which we all did. the most interesting thing i bought are what can only be described as traveller pants. They cost about a pund and make me look deicdedly like a hippy! However for all the palaces and temples we have to coer arms and legs and my slobbies from home just cook me in this heat. So you can look forward to photos of those! Babs found her fishermans trousers she was looking for and we both picked up a little day bag (which my pink dice are now attahced to Jen!) You kind of lose perspectie haggling over a dollar or 50 cents over here, at the end of the day, a tshirt oif pair of trousers for a pound...u cant really argue.
After that we went to the Grand Palace, which again, was ery grand indeed. There was a lot of out of bounds areas as we presume the king weas in residence. We were only allowed one camera (as we had to pay for each one and we were being cheap) so check out James' blog for the photos - there are some assumin 'brochure-style' poses. The gardens were also incredibly beautiful, it is clear they do not scrimp on quality and precision over here.
Last night we chilled on the balcony again before hitting our favourite bars, the flying elephant (where the other 2 were teaching me card games) and the vodka bar, run by a very hobbit-lie brit. most entertaining, he took quitea shine to babs!!
An early start this morning, we got up at 6.30 am for out bus to Siem Reap. We were led to beliee that the bus came to the guest house, but no. We had to get on those little moto bikes, yes, with our travel backpacks on. Bumps and corners were worrying to say the least as my bag is almost as big as me!
The bus ride istself was relatiely painless, een though it was nearly 6 hours it went very quickly. It had aircon and stops evry 2 hours to wee in disgusting hole. Lovely. Disembarking the bus was a challenege as we were swarmed by tuk tuk drivers and guest house reps. Luckily, the guys out the Phomn Penh guest house had organised a guest house for us that they knew of so we were ok. When we found our driver we were loaded in to a tuk tuk, big bags and all, and the pot holes made the ride extremely entertaining.
We were ery impressed by the guest house, it has a roof tob bar to watch the sunset, a marble room, and a bathroom with warm water and a toilet that flushes! all for $7 a night. bargain. we are now out and about in town. There are suprsingly a lot of ery modern bars and restaurants, but we have an early start for the temples tomorrow so no big one tonight. After tomorrow we are heading to the coast for some beach time as we are all still far too pasty!
