Voyage to Siam Reap (Cambodia)

Firstly sorry that I havent posted in a while, Cambodias internet was less than useless. No upload or downloading of photos - superb. Anyway this place is a bit better except the keyboard doesnt have a working shift button. So if I miss a capital here and there forgive me.

So Cambodia is south east of Thailand and about a five hour train journey from Bangkok. I checked the times and there were two trains one at 5:50am and another at 1:30pm. I decided that the 5:50am would be a good bet and stayed in the local hotel, the Train Inn.

Paul who I had been travelling from Laos back to Bangkok left that night and I went to bed.

I slept really badly that night, I dont know if the bed had bugs or what but I got a really bad rash and just couldnt sleep well until about 4am. My alarm went off at 5 for the train, I laughed, thought 1:30 will be fine and feel back asleep.

The journey was slow but steady and we arrived in a place that still I cant pronounce but its spelt Aranyaprathet (sure its should be easy to pronounce and by all means try, it wont be correct!) . Arriving at the station I was met by a couple of Tuk-Tuk drivers and we went to one of the guesthouses. It looked ok - so I setup camp. I was still feeling rotten from last night - so got some food, had a search for internet - failed and went to bed.

The next day woke up - slept a bit better, though the guesthouse was really noisy. Wandered around to find the bus station to pick up a lift to the border.After some discussions with the tuk-tuk drivers my negotiation skills failed me and then pointed me in the direction of a sagwnathrew which is basically either a pickup or a big lorry. I walked over to the lorry asked if going to the border and jumped on. An hour later and 10 baht i was at the border, met by a horde of touts, I let them guide me through it all. Its easier that way - I can choose whether I will take their bus at the end.

This was my second border crossing and this was the worst, I had to pay an extra 5 dollars so that i waited 15 mins instead of 4 hours. Though to be fair had i know how long I would wait at the bus station I could have saved myself 3 quid! Met up with a bunch of english lads and we got our visas and headed for the bus.

Then the wait... we were originally told that we would be waiting about half an hour. three hours later and after a few of us started to ask for our money back a bus arrived. We boarded and waited to setoff.

I decided to have a chat with this fella from the states. Now he was a little older about 40 and was also travelling on his own, my conversation lasted about 5mins after which he said some weird sh*t and then kept making little rhymes like "sharing is caring" (depends what your sharing - i thought).

When you judge that someone is a little strange, you always wonder if its just you who thinks that.

Fortunately the fella from the states was sitting on his own. The bus driver then said that we would go once the seats were filled. There were about 8 seats to fill... just at that moment a bus pulled up and a horde of people got off and started to queue for tickets. Before I knew we had three canadians, 2 swedes and an english lass who came and sat next to me.

The swedish girl got to sit next to the guy from the states, who wouldnt move his backpack for her and within 10mins he put his arm around her - which she promptly pushed back. YES! he is weird, back luck for the girl but he is weird great!

Michelle was travelling with Abraham (swedish guy) and Gabrelle (swedish lass) since Bangkok - pretty interesting lass. One of her stories was about how she met this bloke called David Walliams about 5 years ago .. got completely pi**ed up and puked everywhere and told him "I'm a lady...." over and over again. She wasnt sure if she started his Little Britain sketch ... but it sounds like it was possible... I like to think so.

The trip was pretty crazy, I had been warned by lots of people and books that the roads were bad, but you always think they cant be too bad... well they were. Fortunately the rain had soften the dirt track up a bit - however we were still bouncing all over the place.

Suddenly the breaks were slammed on and we stopped... the driver got out looked around the bus, then told us to get out... we had a flat. 30 mins later we were back on the road, I thought to myself well its only a 4 hour journey and its been 2 so we are half way there.

We pulled up at a stop for dinner, had a bit of food with the english lads i met at the border and waited for the driver to come back (he was getting the spare tire sorted). We then waited while he had some food and we all got in to the bus. This time a guide joined us and at the front of the bus the service door had been opened and the driver was tickering with the engine.. great i thought.

20 mins later though we were on the road, then the guide told us that actually we still had another 4 hours to go, oh and also the roads get a lot more bumpy from now on .... Great!!!

Yep he was right the roads were bumpier and also the bus was swerving all over the place, i thought he was dodging pot holes but apparently he was trying to hit any wildlife he could .. fortunately he missed the 2 dogs....

When we finally arrived in Siam Reap it was about 12:00 - 12 of us got in tuk-tuk and headed off to a guesthouse that had been recommended... unfortunately it was shut. Finally we found a bargain little hotel for $6, me and Abraham got a room and then girls took another.

Michelle talked about getting up for sunrise at 5am and getting to Angkor Wat - sounded good to me.... I crashed out.