Cambodia welcomed us with a fairly well organised visa entry, however we couldn't help feeling we'd been ripped off when the officer told us we had to pay $32 each for our visa when the sign clearly said $30 each. After trying to argue there wasn't much we could do but pay the pesky officer his beer money for that evening and get in the country hassle free. We jumped back on the bus and continued our journey to the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. We arrived there late afternoon, and as we stepped off the bus were hounded by tuk tuk drivers offering to take us to our guest house. We perhaps stupidly chose to walk, not giving in to their sales pitches and ignoring the 'Stuart' sign that one of the tuk tuk drivers was miraculously holding. 4km's later and 10lbs lighter due to the sheer amount of sweat the walk had taken out of us, we arrived at our guesthouse and took a much needed shower. Our guesthouse was right near the riverfront, so we grabbed some tasty street noodles to refuel and took a walk around the town. Cambodia uses two different currencies which we've found a little confusing to date - US dollars and Cambodian riel. We expected the cash machine to give us the Cambodian currency so went to get cash out to last us a few days, but after some confusion at the ATM, we walked away with just $40 US dollars instead! The riverfront is really pretty with lots of cafés and restaurants to people watch from. However I did notice that the poverty seemed more rife here and it was hard to watch the number of street children begging and selling things on the side of the street. That evening, we went to a local Cambodian restaurant that sold traditional curries and so both tried the local dishes which were amazing. We're finding that Cambodian food might actually rival the Thai! They also did a bloody good cup of tea too so we decided to chill there for the rest of the evening after our long day of travel.
The following day, we decided to rent bikes and ride to the Cambodian killing fields, a now monumental site where just 35-40 years ago saw some of the 3 million Cambodians killed under the genocidal regime of prime minister Pol Pot. We each had an audio headset and followed an interesting journey around the killing field that told you all about the history and the awful things that happened to 1 in 4 Cambodians. Rivalling the concentration camps in Germany, it was a really shocking insight into what has happened, and as it wasn't that long ago, there were still fragments of teeth and bones in the mass graves at the sight. Although remains of the dead have been excavated, the rain still brings up bone fragments of the people who were killed there. The monument that now stands there is a really nice pagoda in place for families / locals / tourists to come and pay their respects.
Memorial at the killing fields
We took the 20km bike ride back to guesthouse, ate street noodles once more and went to relax in our room for a while to get out of the heat after walking and cycling for most of the day. An hour later, I think the heat (or the noodles) had got to me as I was really sick and then confined to the bed for a few hours to get over the sickness. Poor Stu had to go sightsee on his own, and headed to the local market for fruit and water supplies. Later that evening, and feeling better we headed back to the same restaurant as the previous evening (stuck to what we knew) and had another good meal followed by frozen yoghurt on the river front.
On our final full day in Phnom Penh, we walked the town by foot, heading first to a market known as the 'Russian Market' purely due to the number of Russians who used to visit in the 1980's. We passed by a swanky shopping mall too that had the nicest toilets we'd used in the whole of Asia, and some rather expensive looking shops that we chose not to venture into. I avoided the street noodles today, and went for $1 street stall rice instead which was good and thankfully was easy on the stomach. By the afternoon, the walking and the sun had given us a thirst for beer and so we went to a roof terrace on the riverfront and indulged in some $0.50 draft beer. As we were up there, a massive storm hit Phnom Penh and so it looked like we were stuck up there with cheap beer at our disposal to watch it pass! 6 beers later and the storm had passed so we headed back to the guesthouse. That evening, we went back to the same restaurant as the previous night and tried a different Cambodian curry which didn't fail to impress. We then headed to 'Flicks 2', a small cinema screen nearby attached to a guest house that did daily screenings of different films. We watched an old film called 'The Killing Fields' which was about an American journalist and his Cambodian interpreter in the 1970's Pol Pot era, well worth a watch if you're interested in finding out more about the history of this time.
Stu's $1 street stall rice
Forced into drinking beer due to the storm!
The next morning we were up early to get our bus to the next area of Cambodia - Siam Reap. A horrendous journey in which the girl sat next to us was being sick into a see-through plastic bag, the air con wasn't working, the journey took 9 hours instead of 6 and the only other tourist on the bus had his laptop stolen during the journey. Before we all got off the driver had to do a bag check of everyone on the bus, but the laptop unfortunately didn't turn up so looks like that guy had an even worse journey than we did! We were relieved to say the least when we finally arrived at our northern destination!
Siam Reap (10th - 15th Oct)
Siam Reap- the 2nd largest city in Cambodia and the home of the '7th wonder of the world' - the ancient city of Angkor temples. We arrived in the city late afternoon and tucked into an Indian to help us get over the hellish bus journey. Then we had a walk around the local area, discovering the boozy 'Pub Street', numerous markets and then on to the nicer back alleys filled with cozy restaurants and cafés. We noticed the number of massage parlours offering $1 'post temple' foot massages, which gave us an inkling that the following days of temple sightseeing might be a little tiring on the old feet!
The next morning we woke up bright and early to enjoy the free breakfast that our $12 per night 'Kings Boutique' hotel offered. Forget cereal or porridge though, this has to be the earliest I've ever eaten a plate of rice and spring rolls (a common breakfast dish in South East Asia). It actually went down pretty well, seems that we're getting used to the food here now! We'd decided to use today as a relaxing day exploring the local area some more and using the pool at the hotel. Common sights included markets, pubs, $1 massages and bug food. Yep, food made of bugs. From deep fried tarantulas being sold on the street, to a whole restaurant dedicated to selling cricket shakes and worm spaghetti, bugs are pretty popular here! Eating a worm in Bangkok (which tasted pretty peanutty!) was enough for me so I gave the Siam Reap snacks a miss. In the afternoon we went to a nearby gym full of local Cambodian guys with their tops off grunting and sweating as they 'pumped the iron'! Stu got approached by the biggest guy in there who quite obviously just wanted to show off to the rest of the gym that he could pump more iron than everyone else. He told Stu that he has always been the strongest guy in there, and then asked him if he wanted to do weights together. Stu didn't really have much choice but to agree to work out with him and after about an hour came out soaked in sweat!! A local Cambodian curry for dinner that evening went down well and we walked around the town before heading back home to bed.
Relaxing at the hotel pool
The next morning, full of our 8am breakfast of noodles and spring rolls, we decided to hire bicycles to transport us to and around the Angkor temples. We cycled 15km to the entrance to this ancient city and decided to buy the 3 day Angkor pass, so that we could take our time seeing all the sights. The ruins of the temples spans out over many kilometres and differ in size and appearance. We decided to cycle a loop which covered some of the smaller more intricate temples and were so impressed by what we saw. The temples were built thousands of years ago and the destruction was due to war, but what is left is still incredible.
We had a great day cycling in the sun around the city, with a picnic for lunch amongst the ruins. We finished off in the temple which was used in the filming of the movie 'Tomb Raider', which has to be my favourite of all the temples we saw, with massive trees growing around the stone and into the temple, it was an excellent sight to end the day on. We cycled back late afternoon and worked out we'd cycled around 55km that day, no wonder we were tired! Curry and Angkor beers went down well that evening and a deep sleep ensued at Kings Boutique.
Cycling around the temples
The temple used in the filming of Tomb Raider
The next day, our numb bums got back on the bicycles to ride back to the Angkor city, this time to go and see the bigger temples, the most famous of which is one called Angkor Wat. 10k into the ride there, my bike tyre started hissing at me - I had a puncture! Lucky for me, I have a fitness freak of a boyfriend and Stu kindly offered to cycle back to the bicycle office to swap the bike for me. Stu shot off down the road - the tyre getting flatter and flatter as he went- it looked more like he was riding a motorbike the speed he was going - whilst I lazily sat in the sun watching ants crawl up a tree! 20mins later, Stu was back dripping with sweat but with a brand new shiny bike in tow! We continued on to the temples and were once again impressed by what we saw. Angkor Wat is huggggge, we spent a good hour and a half walking around the massive expanse of ruins and gardens and had another picnic lunch in the grounds. We went on to explore more that afternoon, watched monks feeding monkeys by the side of the road, and then headed back to the guest house later that afternoon. By this point Stu's bike now had a flat tyre too and our bums were even more numb so a chilled out evening was in order. Unfortunately the massage parlours didn't offer bum massages so we just headed to a Mexican restaurant for dinner that evening.
Dinner in town
Day 3 of the temples and we headed east of Siam Reap on the bicycles to a different cluster of temples. We chatted to the local kids, picnicked in the ruins again and came back to the city early afternoon for some beers and a hunt for some superglue to fix Stu's broken glasses! We carb loaded that evening with pasta for dinner at a nice colonial style restaurant in town.
The following day we checked out of the hotel in the morning but our bus to the south coast of Cambodia wasn't scheduled until later that evening. So we spent the day relaxing around the pool, reading and blog writing. We then filled up on food at a nearby restaurant ahead of getting the 'hotel bus' at 7pm. We'd booked a slightly more expensive overnight bus to take us on the 12 hour journey from North to South, and the pictures we'd seen showed a private comfy looking double bed, private tv and headphones. The reality was a little different - multiple signs once we boarded the bus warned us that bag theft on the bus was common, so look after our belongings. The bed was tiny, especially as we had to cram our bags in there with us to stop them from being nicked! And the tv and headphones were for display purposes only as nothing worked. But it was home for the night, so we slept as much as we could and endured the 12 hour journey to the coast. Knowing there was a beach waiting for us at the other end definitely helped!
Sinhoukville (16th - 18th Oct)
The next morning we arrived at our beachside destination in the south of Cambodia. We'd heard a beach named Otres beach was the best, so we got a tuk tuk there and checked in to a little wooden shack at a place called 'Indigo beach bungalows'. They were pretty basic but the beach was 5 metres from our front door so we were happy! We spent the rest of the day walking and lunching along the beach, ensuring we avoided standing on any of the many jellyfish that had been washed up onto the shore due to the change in season. A day of sunbathing, relaxing and reading was just what we needed and we finished the day off with a couple of beers over sunset.
The view from our beach hut
We woke up the following morning with a coffee and cup of tea on the beach and saw some locals taking a massive net out to catch a school of fish that they'd spotted close to shore. They circled the fish and brought the net onto the beach, where we saw they'd captured around 150 fish, 20 jellyfish and a few crabs too... not a bad start to the morning for them! We hired a motorbike later that morning as we wanted to take a ride around the local area and the other beaches that were on offer in Sinhoukville. We stopped at a Cambodian restaurant for lunch and had no idea what any of the dishes on offer were, so just pointed at 2 random dishes that we could tell had chicken in, and hoped for the best! Luckily we chose well and the food was really good!
On the drive back to our beach, police were parked up on the side of the road pulled people over to do checks. Surprise surprise, the policeman stuck his baton out and pulled us over. First he asked for Stu's driving license, then his international driving license (which isn't needed in Cambodia!) Stu did have an international license, but he hadn't brought it out with him that day, so the policeman used that as an excuse to fine us $5. With only $7 on us and the ATMs not working that day, I was a little worried that we would run out of money, and made that clear to the policeman. Stu then pretended that we only had $2 on us and we got away with just paying that. Annoying as the reality was that we shouldn't have had to pay anything! When we got back to our beach bungalows we played a couple of games of pool and met a lovely couple called Sam and Caroline. We all agreed to go out for dinner together that evening and had a few beers on the beach. Whilst getting ready that evening, I unfortunately saw a rat run through our beach hut and that night, whilst asleep, it had a good nibble on Stu's flip flop too - I'm still surprised the rat survived - Stu's worn down smelly flip flops are not for the faint hearted! Luckily for us (and the rat) we were moving on the following day!
Koh Rong (18th - 23rd Oct)
Waking up early the next morning for another cup of tea on the beach, we then packed up and got a 10am boat to the beach island of Koh Rong - a 45 minute boat ride away, it's a small white sand filled paradise with a population of just 50. All electricity on the island turns off at 2am and wifi is a luxury. When we arrived, the beach was even more impressive than we'd imagined. We checked into a beach front guesthouse and went for lunch at a Spanish cafe.
In the afternoon we headed around the edge of the island with Sam and Caroline through shallow rocky water to a more remote beach that didn't house any guest houses or bars. It was such a peaceful beach, with just one woman selling cold beers from her house, so we each took a can of the local Klang beer and sat in the sea. The only unfortunate thing was that once in the water, we all felt our skin stinging a little, as if there was something on the water giving us little electric shocks, so we had to just sit on the sand instead. Rumour has it that it's either microscopic water insects that sting you, or jellyfish eggs. We trekked back to our beach by land and that evening, we dined on the beach front ( having 2 dinners each due to the first restaurant being pretty poor!), and met Sam and Caroline for more beers on the beach.
Playing pool with Sam and Caroline
The following morning, we were woken up by so much noise in our guest house, it turns out we not only picked the guest house next to the one bar that stays open pretty much all night, but the guest house was also full of noisy locals who like to get up at the crack of dawn! We decided to move guesthouses to ensure the rest of our stay on Koh Rong included actual sleep. Then after a $1 egg baguette for breakfast, we spent the rest of the day sunbathing, playing volleyball and swimming in the sea (minus the jellyfish eggs on this particular beach side). It's a hard life! Dinner was an amazing beach front Khmer curry and a night out followed with a gang of people we'd previously met it Vietnam. We were all enjoying ourselves in the one bar that stays open late, then as 2am arrived, the music, lights and fans all just stopped dead, the electricity on the island had gone off for the night, and other than a couple of places on the beach front that must have had their own generators to keep their parties going, the island was in darkness. We stumbled home in the dark, brushed our teeth with the iPhone torch and tripped over a black dog camouflaging itself in the corridor of our guest house.
The two hangovers I've had on this trip have both taken place whilst in a baking wooden hut with no fan, shared dirty communal toilets and at a point when our bottled water has run out. This was hangover number two and comparable if not worse than hangover number one! The free Spanish breakfast helped and we took a morning dip in the sea to cool off. Today was officially another chill day due to my fragile state, and involved sleeping on the beach, cooling off in the sea, and sleeping on the beach some more. We carb loaded for lunch and in the afternoon I headed back to our hot box of room to lie down and have a bit of a read. Stu, Caroline and Sam had decided to get back on the beers later that evening, so with a vitamin banana shake in hand, I joined them at the bar and the night continued into the early hours in a Sky bar up in the forest. 2am came and we once again, blindly walked back to our room. This time I led the way as I was alcohol free whereas Stu had shots of tequila in his system which led to a wobbly walk back! At 5am in the morning, we were rudely awoken by the 2 people who were in the room next door. The rooms are all connected and there is a big open roof so you can hear everything, and the 2 people next door decided to continue the party at 5am with French music on their iPhone and deep and meaningful conversations about the drug concoctions they take. Unsurprisingly I was not impressed and made sure they knew about it the next day.
Tequila night for Stu, Sam and Caroline
After just a few hrs sleep that night, we were up feeling a little sleepy but booked a boat trip which included snorkelling and fishing. We went back to basics with the fishing, and were given a piece of plastic with some fishing line wrapped around it and a piece of squid on a hook at the end. Stu and I soon got the hang of it, Stu caught 6 fish and I caught 5. The other 4 tourists on the boats caught 2 between them all! I might have to take up a career in fishing when I get back home. Once we'd filled a bucket up with our catch, we headed to a beach called 'Long Beach', the most beautiful on the island. We went for a swim and bbq'd the fish we'd caught (ensuring we didn't cook the poisonous puffer fish I'd caught!) whilst watching one of the best sunsets we've seen. During our fish dinner a giant horsefly took a liking to me, I tried running away from if but it kept finding me. It landed on my leg again and the Cambodian kid running the trip told me to stand still, I closed my eyes and he gave my leg an almighty whack, squashing the thing there and then on my leg! Turns out it was the best thing to do as at least it didn't sting me!
Stu and his makeshift fishing rod
BBQ'ing our fish on the beach
Once the sun had set and all was dark, we got back on the boat and headed to a completely pitch black part of the island to go swimming with plankton. It's quite a daunting experience jumping into the pitch black sea, but I decided to brave it and went it first. As soon as I touched the water, the plankton lit up! The rest of the boat jumped in too and we spent the next 10minutes nervously swishing our arms around in this Avatar-esque experience, plankton clinging to your arms as you brought them out of the water, and your body under the water lit up from the thousands of plankton around you. It looked a little like we were all sparkling human torches in the sea! A very cool experience! Back on land, we went for another delicious curry dinner and finished the night off with a drink in a bar called Cocos before heading to bed (pre-2am this time and enjoying the fan whilst we had electricity!).
The following morning involved another guest house move as our place was fully booked. We were ready to have the cheapest day to date as we couldn't seem to change our final $100 note to smaller notes anywhere on the island, the locals do not like giving that much change and all looked scared of it when we asked for change! So we were prepared to live off just $16 between us for the day! Whilst eating our cheapest lunch to date to ensure we stuck to budget ($1.25 each!) we luckily managed to change the $100 note and so celebrated with a smoothie. After sunbathing in the afternoon, we went to the only reliable wifi outlet which was in a bar that was run by solar panels and got a drink and free wifi there. Our final night on Koh Rong finished with a beach front curry and beers with Sam and Caroline until the lights went out at 2am. We said our goodbyes as it was just Stu and I getting the boat back to the mainland the next day, then headed to bed to get a good nights sleep ahead of our boat back the next day.
A few last beers on the beach together
Sam copies Stu's 'thumbs up' pose for camera
Sihanoukville (23rd - 24th Oct)
With another beer head in tow the next morning we jumped on the boat with an egg baguette in hand. Annoyingly whilst waiting for my egg baguette, my flip flops were stolen outside the front of the cafe, then after 10 mins of looking for them...they were then returned by the woman who worked at the cafe (she'd just decided to try them on it seems!). This meant that we didn't get a seat on the snazzier quick boat back to the island and were lumped on a big slow carcass of a boat that took an hour longer. When we finally got back to the mainland of Sihanoukville we booked into a nice guesthouse just off the main beach front and went to get some lunch. In the afternoon Stu set off for a run and I planned to relax around the hotel pool, but the rain came in and Stu's run was cut short, so we decided to play a few games of pool in the bar for the rest of the afternoon instead. A nice meal at 'Nice restaurant' went down well that evening and we booked to bus to our next destination town of 'Kampot'.
We started the next morning with a run, then packed up ready for our 2/3 hr bus journey to the smaller Cambodian town of Kampot.
Kampot (24th - 27th Oct)
We arrived in the sleepy riverside town of Kampot early afternoon, and had decided to stay a couple of kilometres outside of the main town centre for the first night, in a riverside bungalow. We walked through the town and to the outskirts where we found our bed for the night at 'Naga house'. We had a lovely little bungalow for the night right near the riverfront. However other than sitting in the bungalow, there wasn't much else to do around Naga house, so we hired bikes and cycled back into the town for lunch and a look around. We found a place full of cheap eats called 'Captain Chims', a family run restaurant that did excellent food and so filled up for lunch there. The rest of the afternoon was spent cycling around the town. I was particularly amused by the massive durian (the local spiky smelly fruit popular in Kampot) statue that sits in the centre of the town. We had a beer early evening at a riverside bar and then got takeaway noodles to cycle back to our riverside bungalow with. We ate our picnic dinner on the bed and then devoured a pack of our favourite Cambodian biscuits whilst watching a movie on the iPad.
Durian statue
After our night in the quieter riverside bungalow accommodation, we decided to move to a guest house closer to the sights, bars and restaurants of the town centre. So we walked back into town that morning loaded with our backpacks and decided to stay in Captain Chims guesthouse, just down the road from his restaurant. The offer of free laundry there was just too appealing, and at $7 a night for for a modern, clean double room, it was our cheapest accommodation to date. Today we explored the town on foot. Stu braved a $2 haircut at a side street barbers and now has quite a shorter style going on! The barber tried to convince Stu to keep a floppy bit of fringe but thankfully he told him to shave it off. We booked a tour for the following day and then went for noodles and dumplings for dinner, before heading to the cosy movie house that had comfy beds to lie on to watch the film 'Inbetweeners 2'.
We were picked up the following morning by a minivan to take us on the tour we'd booked to the nearby national park of Boker. There were 4 other women on the bus who were all lovely, so there was a good group of us spending the day together, even though Stu was a little outnumbered (for once). The park was an hr away, but around 3/4 of the way into the journey, just as the van was climbing a giant hill... the clutch went. The driver looked a little desperate and was on his mobile trying to sort it out, but we were sure we'd be stuck there for a while. We went to look at the views while he tried to fix it, and when we returned to the van, he'd managed to temporarily fix it by putting an elastic band on the clutch peddle. 4 minutes of driving later, the band snapped and we were back to square 1. Luckily us girls think with our heads....we had a spare hair bobble going and that proved to be a stronger fix and kept the clutch going for the rest of the day! During the trip around the national park, we visited an old town that they called the ghost town. It was full of abandoned buildings such as an old church, casino and really impressive views over Southern Cambodia. We lunched on a packed lunch of fried rice at a nearby waterfall and headed back to Kampot early afternoon. After a salted caramel shake at a cafe near or guesthouse, we met back up with our tour group at 4pm for a riverboat cruise for sunset. Everyone took a couple of beers and crisps on board and had a good laugh chatting and drinking down the river. After saying our goodbyes to the group, Stu and I headed to good old Captin Chims restaurant one last time (I tried their spicy homemade red soup with slow cooked beef and veg served with bread, which has to be the best meal I've had since coming out to Asia!). We had our last Cambodian beer on the riverfront that evening and packed up ready to head back to the capital of Phnom Penh the following day to catch our flight to Singapore.
Me pretending I know what to do with a car
Phnom Penh Airport (27th Oct)
A 6am wake up alarm kick started our final day in Cambodia. Our bus to Phnom Penh was picking us up bright and early and we had a 4 hour bus journey back to the capital. We had a packed lunch of bananas and cookies to see us through the journey and had arranged with the driver to drop us off at the airport instead (which actually sits 20km outside the city). Once we'd been dropped off, we had 5 hrs to spare before being able to check in for out 5pm flight. So we learnt how to become professional time wasters - sitting in a Costa coffee for 3 hours with just 1 purchase made, sitting in Burger King for 2 hours for lunch, playing cards and rinsing the free wifi. At 3pm we checked in and meandered around the terminal for the final 2 hours before catching our flight to one of the most expensive cities in the world!
