Day 87
Today we are finally leaving the beach and I've got mixed feelings about it, yeah we were sick for most of it and I had my self shook by the time hear but it really is beautiful, my tan is now pretty spectacular and who can love sun, sand and shrimp?
We aren't leaving till tonight as we are on the night bus to Siem Reap so the plan is to get as much sun bathing is as we can and as soon as we're packed up we head straight to Elephant Paradise and set up camp on their sun loungers. We get a good few hours in till an ominous cloud appears and we get in early this time, setting ourselves up on some comfy sofas as the heavens open. Definitely time to leave. We waste the afternoon playing cards, chess and eating their delicious food until we go and get our bags and get a tuk tuk into Snooky to catch the bus.
We arrive about an hour before bus should leave but we are let on within 5 minutes and it's brilliant! We are in the first pod in the floor and it consists on a 3/4 bed, power plugs, pillows and curtains blocking you off from the rest of the bus. It is missing a curtain n the window but we don't mind as its dark. The bus begins to fill up and the Cambodians are no different to any other Asian country and the pods that should fill 2 suddenly have 6 and a pile of bags in one corner. They also start to fill up the corridor with people, it's New Year here and everyone either goes home or goes to Siem Reap so they are cashing in on all the space they can find. We don't really mind until the family across from us bring a box of raw fish on and the people in the corridors start leaning on Ben, maybe being in the first bed wasn't as good as we thought.
Day 88
Turns out we can't turn our air con off either and it's unbearably cold so I can to improvise with a pair of fluffy socks but I do sleep quite a bit and you really can't beat lying down on public transport. The bus stops a lot for wee and cigarette breaks so it means we arrive 3 1/2 hours later than planned but Siem Reap is a brilliantly temperature and at least we are away from the fish, or so we thought. We grab a tuk tuk to our hotel which is the other side of town when we both realise the fish smell is following us and a quick check later we realise both our bags are damp. Turns out the raw fish wasn't just in the main bus, it was also in the baggage container underneath and it's leaked, urg!! Lucky for us our next place does laundry and has a balcony area so we can wash and dry out our bags, it's not the only good thing about the place, the rooms are huge, the owners lovely (a quite excitable English guy and his lovely Cambodian wife) and there's a pool! So you can guess where we spent the afternoon.
Our main plan for Siem Reap is to see the temples at Angkor and we are going to do a sun rise there tomorrow but there is a nifty little way to get a free sun set viewing what doesn't include on your 3 day pass. If you arrive at the ticket office at 4.45 you can buy a ticket for the next day but they allow you in to the park with it that night. So we get a tuk tuk and join the queues to get our tickets and make our way into the park. Angkor has been somewhere I've been longing to see for a long time and my excitement grows as we drive closer to the park. As its Khmer New Year the place is rammed with people, stages and stalls and has a real festival feel to it and I'm so engrossed in watching the crowds of food sellers and family's that the Angkor Wat temple appears out of nowhere and I'm taken back, it's everything I imagined and more with its imposing stone walls creeping out of the forest. I'm in love.
We aren't going their tonight as our driver recommends Phnom Bakheng as better sun set views, it's a little temple in between Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom up as steep hill that gives fantastic views over the TonleSap river which the sun setting behind it and up on the top of the pyramid shape temple, a view of a hidden Angkor Wat in the distant. I'm a bit entranced by it all and as we wander keep oohing and aahing at the faded carvings and haphazardness of the stones. It's full of people all determined to get the perfect photo that I think half of them miss the majesty of the place. We do join the throng though and get some great snaps before making our way back to rest up for our 5am start tomorrow.
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