Saturday 2nd October

Grand Final Day - take 2!

I was awake reasonably early, given the match didn't start until 10:30am local time. In between showering and breakfast, I got distracted by the movie '27 Dresses' which was playing on TV. I would have watched it to the end, which would have given me 15 minutes to grab breakfast before the match coverage started, except I had to remember where I was - nothing fast happens here! (Case in point - did you know there is an overnight bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh, even though it's less than 200km!)

Did anyone else feel the second time around lacked the excitement and atmosphere of the first? By halftime, things were looking grim, and the sight of Eddie McGuire's face in the last quarter was enough for me to want to throw something at the TV. Thank goodness I am not living in Australia at the moment, with Julia Gillard as PM and Collingwood as premiers!


I was starving when the match finished, but there were a couple of sights I wanted to see before they closed at 5:30pm, and I didn't want to waste time eating. First off, I walked to Tuong Slel. Previously a school, it became a home to the innocent Cambodians during the Khmer Rouge's reign before they were shipped off to the killing fields. It really does look like a run down old school with a few notable exceptions - the most extreme being the barbed wire strung up along every balcony - effectively fencing the victims in and preventing them from committing suicide. The classrooms had been converted to museums, housing some harrowing and extremely graphic images, both real and re-created, of the torture imposed on the victims, including waterboarding and amputations.


From there, it wasn't far to the 'Russian Market;. Lonely Planet had said this was the market tourists shouldn't miss during their stay in PP. It was full of tiny allies and crammed stalls, a large number of which were clothing stalls selling branded clothes that had 'fallen off the back of the truck'. (You may know, thanks to the recent press coverage of the strikes at the garment factories, that a large number of Western clothes are manufacture in Cambodia, including Levi and Adidas). I accidentally ventured into the food section, where whole ducks that had been literally just 'de-plucked' (eyes, mouth etc still in tact) were strung up on hooks - yuk!


I had the tuk-tuk driver drop me on the river, intending to eat at a cafe recommend by 'the Bible' (LP). Whilst I couldn't find the cafe, I witnessed 2 crashes whilst looking. One, with a 4WD collecting a motorcyclist, and the second with  4WD reversing straight into a parked car (before promptly speeding off!)

I ended up at an American themed bar (all in all, the food in PP had been very unimpressive), before having a Khmer massage nearby to the guesthouse. It was the worst massage I've ever experienced, with the girl torturing my muscles rather than soothing them.

I took shelter in the internet cafe whilst the skies opened and then collected my laundry from the guesthouse. There has been 2 items missing from the batch I'd dropped in on Thursday, and I wanted to make sure they'd returned. They hadn't - and another item had gone missing.

Despite speaking English, it was hard to explain to the owner, who put in calls to the laundry but were unable to find the items. The owner seemed unfussed and said the laundry had probably given them to someone else, who had since checked out. Not impressed, especially when the missing items were my favourite Billabong skirt, a brand new Adidas hat and pair of Adidas socks. I did end up receiving some compensation from the by then very unfriendly owner, but it made me extremely mad and glad to be leaving early the next morning. They will be receiving a very bad review on TripAdvisor!!

Thursday 30th September

Friday 1st  October

Another early start as I was picked up from the guesthouse at 8:20am for transfer to the office of the company for which I'd booked the mini-van to Phnom Penh. We departed at 9am with 3 Westerners (all Aussies) and a few Cambodians in a spacious mini-van for the 165km trip. For the 4.5 hour trip (!) we were even supplied with a bottle of water and cake. We stopped halfway at Kampong Thom for a bathroom/snack break - I was just glad to be stopped, as even though the road is sealed all the way, it is not a very smooth ride!!

We arrived into Phnom Penh at about 1:30pm, and the fight for customers was on from the tuk-tuk drivers. I wasn't even out of the van when a man had grabbed me and started pulling me towards his vehicle!


First impressions of Phnom Penh are that it's a town of complete contrasts. On one side, there are numerous mansions and impressive embassies lining the streets - very similar to Hedges Avenue on the Gold Coast, with large walls and security out the front. There must be a big ex-pat community here as well, as there are an equally impressive number of large apartments. Then on the flip side, there are UN and Unicef vehicles roaming the streets, and children and amputees beg at every opportunity - even in restaurants or the middle of traffic.

The guesthouse was located in one of the 'nice' areas, and I quickly dumped my bag and handed in my washing (almost every outfit!) for cleaning. I had assumed whilst in Siem Reap that there would be ample malls and 'Western'' style shops everywhere in PP, given it was a city of 1.3 million people. Except of course, that was not to be - which is good, the fact that Western culture has not completely infiltrated here! (Still no signs of a McDonalds!!) I asked at the front desk where the 'best' mall was, as I needed to stock up on a few things - a razor, pair of shoes, Delhi guidebook etc. He directed me to Sorya Mall, so I headed over in a tuk-tuk. Except ... this was nothing like I was expecting. It was more like 6 stories of market stalls, with each level having a different theme (shoes; accessories; IT). Epic fail for what I wanted ...

I decided to acquaint myself with PP streets by walking and attempting to find somewhere for lunch/dinner. On the way to the guesthouse we'd passed numerous tempting bakeries (the French influence), and I thought it would be easy to find one. Um ... no. I must have walked in the wrong direction, because I found nothing like what I was looking for! In the end I asked a motorbike taxi driver to take me to Lucky Supermarket (like Siem Reap, they sold Vegemite and Aussie Cadbury chocolate) but I left empty-handed, catching another motorbike back to the guesthouse.

Next door to the guesthouse was a nice looking cafe, so I had my normal lunch/dinner at 5pm, consisting of a spinach burrito. It tasted absolutely foul and took up the whole plate - I had a few bites and then retreated nicely into the internet cafe next door for an hour on the web. Last item on the agenda was a manicure, and I stopped in at the beauty salon under the guesthouse for the worst manicure I've ever had ... shoddy old polish poorly applied ... I could have done better myself, and that's saying something!

Friday was my only real full day of sightseeing (Saturday was a write-off with the AFL Grand Final). I had a 'minor' sleep-in, waking at about 9am and wandering down to a nearby cafe for breakfast of an omelet and toast. Whilst the toast was relatively normal (nice thick rye toast - not full of sugar thank goodness!), the omelet had two special ingredients - onion and chilli. Whilst I love my onions, my tastebuds have not yet been de-sensitised to chilli, despite efforts in Singapore and Thailand, and I hate to hunt them out for fear of burning my throat further.


The number 1 'attraction' (I use that word very loosely) for the day was the 'Killing Fields', about 15km out of town. I enjoyed getting a look at the 'real side' of Cambodia on the trip out. A few fascinating sights - a remork completely cover with chickens, hanging upside down off the rim (feet tied down) - making them look like feather dusters; and wooden shacks with numerous chairs set up inside, resembling a cinema (as the shack housed the community TV).


Arriving at the killing fields, the mood was somber, as you'd imagine. Paying the admission fee of $2 granted you access into the space where Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge regime had brutally killed and then disposed of millions of innocent Cambodians, during their reign between 1975 - 1979.


The space, smaller in size than a football field, has been preserved to ensure the atrocities here are learnt from and not forgotten. Two buildings have been constructed on the site - the first, a small museum, housing a theatre and items found on the site (including victims' clothes, bones and killing instruments); and the second, a 17 story structure built in Khmer architecture.

To provide some context, a 20 minute movie played inside the museum, horrifying all who watched it. But it made me remember the lessons I learnt in my high school history class - 'We must learn from our past to ensure history doesn't repeat itself'.

Each storey of the Khmer structure contained a different grouping of victims' bones that had been found on the site (i.e. skulls of men 25-50; femur bones). There is also a box full of clothes found on/near the executed victims. I felt bad taking photos, but felt it was important to 'get the story out' for discussion, rather than pretend it didn't happen.


I was also moved to find numerous strings of colourful paper cranes that had been left, as are found in abundance at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. (For those that don't know the story, Sadako (a Japanese schoolgirl) diagnosed with leukemia after the bombings, was told that if she made 1000 paper cranes her wish to get better would come true. Unfortunately, she died before completing 1000, but this story has lived on in Japan,k with paper cranes becoming a symbol of peace and hope).

Around the building were the 'mass graves' where the Khmer Rouge had dumped their victims. Wooden plaques revealed the atrocities committed at each site - '160 headless victims found here'; '10 women and children found here'. Quite often, to save on bullets (and to ensure the upcoming victims didn't know what was to come), the soldiers would bludgeon the victims to death rather than shoot them, and most of the skulls revealed large fractures. The signs also revealed that with each downfall of rain, more items would come to the surface (i.e. teeth and bone fragments).


The most depressing story of all (WARNING: GRAPHIC, DISTURBING STORY AHEAD), was how the soldiers would take babies by their legs and bash their heads against a tree. The 'killing tree' still remains on display at the killing fields.

Needless to say, it was a moving experience, and had me thinking of all of the needless atrocities in history - Hitler and the holocaust; the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Back in Phnom Penh city, my next stop was Central Market. This was a large market dominated in the centre by jewellery merchants. I enquired as to the price of a shiny bracelet. "$2000 madam!" responded the smiling shopkeeper. "Real diamonds!" Oh ... I hadn't realised they were real!

The market sold all types of things - souvenirs; clothes; kitchen utensils; even razors and soap. I purchased an 'authentic fake; Marc Jacobs wallet (forward planning for Canada) and tried on a pair of wide length cotton pants - my wardrobe consists of short skirts and shorts which may attract unwanted attention in India. I refrained from buying them though - I just refused to join the fisherman pant wearing, hippy backpacker crowd.

One of my favourite moments of the trip came shortly after. Whilst idly perusing the stands, I came across a tiny stall with a dirt floor, consisting of 2 ladies and their sewing machines. The singlet I was wearing had a rip in it, and I'd been trying to find a seamstress for a while. Not speaking English, I lifted my shirt to reveal the rip, and then pointed at them. They nodded. 'Now?' I acted. Again, they nodded. I changed out of the singlet in the tiny stall, the women holding up a sheet to try to protect my modesty, and they sewed up the rip in less than a minute. 'How much?' I asked. 25c!!!

On the way back to the guesthouse, I took a detour to City Mall, which Wikitravel had described as the best Western mall in PP. Another epic fail - although the supermarket wasn't too bad, and I bought a few snacks. The motorbike ride back to the guesthouse was an experience - the driver couldn't speak English and thus had no idea where I wanted to go, so there I was, riding side saddle on the back of the bike, Lonely Planet out trying to determine where we are and playing charades to give directions, all in the middle of heavy PP traffic!


An hour out of the sun and I was back out, this time down to 'Sisowath Quay' (the riverside), which was made up of numerous cafes and travel agencies. I was dropped at the far end and proceeded to walk down the river, past the Silver Pagoda and Royal Palace, before stumbling into a bookstore and purchasing Shantaram for my trip to India. (It's an international best-seller written by an Aussie who escaped prison in Australia and fled to India. The book is made even better by the fact that he had to write it 3 times, as prison guards ripped up the first two copies).


Having skipped lunch, I had an early dinner of crepe and salad, whilst intermittently being interrupted by beggars (yes, even in the confines of a restaurant). I finally got a hold of Mark and then spent some time on the net before retiring to my room.

Tuesday 28th September
Wednesday 29th September

I was awoken at 4:45am on Tuesday morning by the people in the room next to mine - they were getting up (presumably) to watch the sun rise over Angkor Wat. As I was awake, I decided to get a drink from my fridge (yep, I was staying at a high class establishment - I not only had my own room and bathroom, but a TV and fridge too!). Flicking the light switch - no light came on. Hmm, maybe a blown bulb I thought. But no, the heat in my room soon confirmed that all power was off. As I'd booked for a sunrise tour of Angkor Wat the next morning, I was hoping that the electricity wasn't turned off during the night or else I would be dressing in the dark the next morning. (I checked with the owners later, who said that a few rooms had been affected by an overload).

The power was on when I re-awoke at 9am. It was nice to have a sleep-in, finally having a day where I hadn't booked anything and had no place to be. I returned to my new favourite restaurant, Cafe Central, and had a delicious breakfast of cinnamon French toast with maple syrup - yum.

The rest of the day was devoted to doing nothing. I watched a DVD at the guesthouse, spent some time walking around the town, and went to a 'spa' for a pedicure. Well, I walked in wanting a pedicure and walked out 3 hours later, having been talked into (quite easily) extending my pedicure to a foot scrub, foot reflexology and massage for a grand total of $18! I also booked a mini-van for Thursday to Phnom Penh, and investigated options for guesthouses there. I can't remember if I spoke of this previously, but Cambodia has two currencies, the US dollar and the Cambodian real, with an exchange rate of $US1 - 4300 real. (How well do I always time it for my trips overseas! Last time I went to the USA in 2008 was when the dollar reached it's all time high against the US dollar, and now it's near record levels again!) No coins are in use in Cambodia, so for example if you pay for a $4.25 meal with a $5 note, you will be given the 75c in real (about 3000 real). So it's making for some interesting maths, converting Aussie dollars to US dollars and Cambodian reals!

It really sounds a lot of the time like I do nothing, but you'd be quite surprised at how busy I am when I have a 'do nothing' day. Simple things like buying a moisturisor can take up hours - walking across town to check in at every pharmacy or supermarket for the right item. Posting photos on the internet can also take hours - some internet cafes are extremely slow; some USB drives don't work; etc etc. There are always tours and buses to book, laundry to drop in, blogs to write, and food to eat - days revolve around meals quite heavily sometimes!!


I had an early night as the next morning I had a 4:30am wake-up call. Seriously, 4:30!!? I was quite surprised with the energy I had when I jumped out of bed though, and was downstairs five minutes early to meet my tour guide. This time we would be using a remork (motorbike-tuk-tuk) rather than a sedan, and we joined the 100s of other tourists on a piligramage to Angkor Wats. The lights of the remorks and cars in the early morning looked just like the headlamps of the hikers on Mt Kinabalu had. (Random fact of the day: In 2000, Cambodia had only 5000 international visitors for the year. Last year, they had over 2 million).


We sat on the steps of the library ruins near the lake that overlooks Angkor Wat and waited the sun to rise. Unfortunately, there was no spectacular view that morning - the light seemed to go from black to clouded in an instant, and the clouds prevented an image of Angkor Wat from being reflected in the lake. It was at this point that my guide, who I had booked the tour with until 10am,  told me he had to leave to éscort his 90 year old grandmother to the pagodá', and left me in the hands of the remork driver. I doubted his story - I think he had actually booked to be the tour guide of another group that day, and as the tours started at 8am he needed to bail from me. I can't really blame him for double-booking though, given the small wage he earned.

My 'half-day' tour took me out to two previously unexplored ruins that were quite a distance from Angkor Wat. I had to pay the remork driver an extra $5 for the drive (this is the norm, not a rip-off) and he needed to pull into a 'service station' on the way to refuel. When getting petrol here, you pull up to a roadside stand where a litre of petrol is housed in a glass container, similar to the containers that milk was carried in in the early 20th century. Before he poured it in though, the driver had to undo the padlock he had on his tank - wow, people must really be desperate here!


Although the ruins were great (I picked up a mini-stalker at one of them - a child of about 10 would follow me wherever I went, just watching me from a distance - at least he wasn't trying to sell me something though!), it was the trip out that interested me most. Children riding those óld women' bicycles to school, school bags merely plastic bags, and often dinking two or three younger siblings (often the one riding was only about 8!). Properties with homemade scarecrows at the front of every property, along with signs of the ''People's Party of Cambodia' (seemingly the only political party here?) The image that struck me most though was of a young boy of about 7 with his grandfather. The grandfather was in a wheelchair, which consisted of a cane basket on wheels, and a rope was tied around the back of it in a loop. The young boy stood at the front inside the loop, and pulled the wheelchair along.


I was back in Siem Reap town before 10am and re-showered and dressed, already sweaty from the day's activities. Back down to my favourite restaurant for breakfast, I then needed to find some hair ties as I'd lost my last one. Sounds easy right? Head down to a chemist/supermarket/department store and purchase! Um ... not that easy. I think I walked the whole town and checked in every store before settling for some rubber bands. In every other Asian city I've been to, there's always Western malls and Western shops to browse in. However, there is no such concept in Cambodia - apart from the couple of Western food options (here, it was KFC, Swensons ice-cream and Pizza Company), the rest of the stores were more like market stalls.

I swapped a few books I'd read at a second hand bookstore, watched another DVD (Julie and Julia), and decided to 'branch out' and try somewhere new for 'lunch' (at 3pm). Despite being so daring, the cafe I ended up in had exactly the same menu as Cafe Central ... I noticed this menu to be quite common around town! I finally found an internet cafe with a fast connection that enabled me to upload my photos over the past few days (there are more on my Facebook page if you're interested - Facebook handles images a lot better than blogspot).

In the evening, I watched yet another movie (Date Movie) and then went for a walk down to the Night Market. I'd seen the Night Market from the main street over the past few nights, and thought it was simply a few shops off the main street. How wrong I turned out to be - it was quite large, and actually had some innovative products! I most enjoyed a shop that had wall hangings of Tintin - some covers from the comics, some made up pictures - I wanted to buy one for Mark but it just wasn't practical.

I enjoyed watching 'Rush' (the Aussie drama) for the first time when I returned to the guesthouse, and then flicked onto the Asian news channel to watch the latest on the Commonwealth Games and India, as I have been doing consistently over the past week. The Aussie netball team has arrived and have given Delhi good reports (can you believe an interview with Sharelle McMahon made the Cambodian paper? Do they even play netball here?) and it is still all systems go for me at the moment.

Monday 27th September

Up bright and early, I had an awesome breakfast of parmesan and pesto scrambled eggs at my new favourite cafe, Cafe Central, before being picked up at the guesthouse for my Angkor Wat tour. I felt like a movie star with my own personal chauffeur (he even opened the car doors for me!) and tour guide.


Stopping at the main gate to purchase the entry ticket (US$40 for 3 days), we headed to the first temple, Angkor Wat. Although people call the complex Ángkor Wat', Angkor Wat is indeed only one temple in a large area of temples and structures, consisting of an area of more than 40kms in length (thus the need for a driver).

 I'm not going to try and explain all of the temples and the history behind them, but suffice to say the day was amazing. We covered all of the major sites, such as Angkor Wat and Ta Prohm (where Angelina Jolie filmed 'Tomb Raider'- the buildings which have been taken over by tree roots), and my guide told me of the history of them all, as well as of Cambodia in general and Buddhism. Some of these constructs were over 900 years old, and similar to the pyramids you wonder how they managed to build them with some precision and given the weight of the stones (some were 2 tonne!)


I also participated in a few Buddhist rituals - first, I made an offer in return for a piece of red string which was bound around my wrist for good luck (I figure with the state of Delhi at the moment, I need all the luck I can get!); and the second was a fortune-telling ritual. After the monk gave a prayer, he handed me a set of cards (in Khmer) which I held over my hands and then inserted a knife like item into. The card where the knife landed was my fortunate. My guide did his best to translate but it sounded more like a Buddhist story than a fortune - it was about a beautiful girl who got married and the man took care of her for the rest of his life. Is that my fortunate? :-)




The tour was supposed to go until sunset but I was a fast walker, so we completed the temples included in my tour by 3pm. I was keen to get out of the sun and was happy to end the tour early, so we headed back to Siem Reap town, after a quick stop at a temple with brightly coloured paintings outlining Buddha's life (which were the same as those in the dragon temple in Chiang Mai!). On the temple's ground there was also a sobering box, which contained skulls and bones of some of the victims of the Khmer Rouge. It was a very sobering reminder of the country's past - there is a major museum in Phnom Penh that I will be visiting later in the week, which contains human bones and even the clothes the victims were wearing at the time of their death.


Despite having a degree, speaking several languages (and knowing the basics of numerous more), and knowing the detailed history of Angkor Wat and Cambodia, my guide told he was paid only US$30 a month salary as a teacher, which is why he was a tour guide on his day off. I assume the driver was paid even less, so at the end of the day I gave them a tip of $2/$1, which I think made their day! (I felt like giving even more when the driver jumped out of the car and ran after me with my brand new camera, which I had accidentally left in the car!) They were both great so I agreed to meet up with them again on Wednesday morning at 5am for a sunrise tour of the complex.

I called home and then went in for my typical main meal at 4pm and purchased some supplies (meaning, Cadbury chocolate - the first chocolate I've had since leaving Singapore; diet coke; and a macaroon - the first I've ever sampled!) before returning to the guesthouse. I am absolutely loving this city but the one thing that is annoying me is how everyone calls out "Lady" as I walk past. "You want tuk-tuk lady?" "You want massage lady"? Aaahh!

After a few chapters of my novel I fell asleep at the ripe old time of 8pm, looking forward to a 'day off' tomorrow.

Sunday 26th September

After my late night out with Alan, I didn't actually sleep that well and consistently looked at the clock every hour. I had to be up by 6:30am anyway for the next adventure - a bus ride to Cambodia! I scored breakfast at the hotel which was a game in itself - as I said in an earlier post, all breakfast menus only show 'sets' only, whereas I only wanted scrambled eggs. They kept bringing out the rest of the set, each item for which I would refuse. Then when I went to pay, I gave them 120 baht for a 70 baht bill because I didn't want coins as I was leaving the country - only notes which I could exchange - but they kept giving me my change in coins!

Anyway the mini-van was early and contained the whole of one person (me!). I'd been told it was an 8 hour trip on the same bus the whole way to Siam Reap - 4 hours to the border, then 4 hours to Siam Reap. I was in for an interesting journey to say the least ...

Not much after 3.5 hours in the van we made it into the Thai border town of Aranya Prathet and I was dropped off at a roadside cafe. "You have to swap buses here," said my driver. My new driver came up to me and said, "We have lunch here for half an hour then we leave. But, you pay for bus in Cambodia. Bus doesn't leave until 2:30 and takes five hours. But if you pay extra 400 baht, I call taxi for you and it take only 2 hours". Con job #2. I paid, preferring a 2 hour taxi ride to a 5 hour bus, and then hopped into the mini-van.

"Hey, we know you!" came a voice. Can you believe it was the Germans which I'd gone out with in Bangkok? What a small world it really is. They'd been down to Koh Phangan for the Full Moon Party and (obviously) were now heading into Cambodia. We had a catch-up on the quick ride to the border, where our driver gave us tips on crossing the border (i.e. keep your bags close; don't give your passports to anyone except the immigration official).

Border crossings consist of two parts: one to leave the country you're presently in; and the second to enter the next country. Exiting Thailand was fairly straightforward; although the Germans were held up - they took about 20 minutes to come through. As we were about to walk through the no man's land to the Cambodian immigration, the skies opened and it started bucketing down (thus, the picture of me entering Cambodia with a rain jacket on). Some enterprising Cambodians started selling umbrella-assisted journeys for 20 baht, but we all braved the rain and the mud.

The Cambodian immigration was like being in Africa. The dirt floors had turned to mud, and the one fan that was working had its cord submerged in a pool of water that had gathered. ""Um, aren't electricity and water a bad mix?", I said to one of the Germans. "Take a look around - does it seem like anyone cares?" he said. Fair point, but I made sure I joined the queue on the opposite side to the fan! Despite many stories about corrupt Cambodian immigration officials who demanded additional payments for bogus fees, I breezed through with my e-visa and joined the crew outside, in a muddy street lined with casinos.


We were taken in a shonky bus five minutes down the road to the "Tourist Station" by our guide. We were told we should exchange money here as we wouldn't be charged commission (con #3: the exchange rate was paying half of the standard rate!) and I was then pooled with 2 Turkish guys to share a taxi into Cambodia. Whilst we were waiting for the taxi driver, I overheard a conversation with a couple of tourists and a guide in front of me. "You take taxi alone then?'" said the guide. "Well, you said it's cheaper to share, so we will wait for others to join us" said the couple. "You can wait all night then" shot back the guide, who then stormed off. Cambodia wasn't getting a good reputation in my books ...

This continued when we hopped in the taxi. The three of us were forced to share the small backseat and leave the front seat free, as apparently the driver would be picking up another passenger on the way, as the price we had paid was as if there were 4 passengers paying. With a little more probing, the driver told us there was no additional passenger waiting, and we would have to split the additional cost between us (which we didn't end up doing).

Farewelling the 'guide' at the tourist centre (who had the nerve to ask, "What do you have for me?" when we left - i.e. a tip), we started driving along the road to Siem Reap. Cambodians drive on the wrong side of the road - and I mean this in two ways. One being that they drive on the right hand side, and two meaning our driver rarely actually drove on the right hand side, preferring to drive either in the middle or the left. Whenever we were within 100m of another car, bus, bike or similar, he would hold his hand on the horn and drive on the opposite side of the road. The two Turkish guys and myself occupied ourselves with conversation instead of the driver's antics instead, although I did see some interesting sights out the window. (You've all seen the pictures of how Asians can and will haul anything on a motorbike - well, we saw a large sow being carried on the back of one, and then saw a parrot in a basket of a bicycle!)

Forty minutes down the road the car pulled into a tiny road-side shack. "The driver needs to clean the car"", the owner said. Um ... con # ??? (what number are we up to now?) The driver simply sat down for a cigarette whilst we were pressured to buy books and food (again, an offer I rejected). Back in the car for the final hour's stint, we pulled into a 'tuk-tuk' stand on the outskirts of town. We'd been told the tuk-tuk drive to our hotel was included in the price, but again (no surprises!) there was a catch: we had to commit to using the driver for our visits to Angkor Wat. I flat out refused again, so by the time I arrived at the guesthouse you can just imagine what I was feeling about Cambodia - get me out of here!!


I'd had just a few snacks since leaving Pattaya, so my first order of business was lunch. I was expecting numerous hawker style set-ups, and was surprised instead to find very modern cafes in abundance. I stopped at the first one, Cafe Central, and had an amazing bowl of linguini with mushrooms, pine nuts and spinach with freshly baked baguettes for the grand total of $4.75. I was to find over the coming days that the food and standard of cafes in this town was amazing (finally - a place with no McDonalds!). And, unlike Thailand, they opened early for breakfast, which was another bonus!

As per tradition, I set out for a walk to orient myself with the city. It has a very French provincial feel with lots of green space. I found a Raffles hotel which advertised high tea and found a number of mini-marts which sold Vegemite (Vegemite is actually offered as a condiment at restaurants) and even Cadbury chocolate made in Australia (most Cadbury chocolate in Asia is the Asian produced version, which tastes very different - and not in a good way). I also scored my first snowdome of the trip, of Angkor Wat, and purchased a book called 'The Lost Girls', which was actually based on a travel blog I had read whilst in Melbourne.


I had initially planned to have a quiet day the following day, but decided I would head out to Angkor Wat instead. I found a travel agent and booked a personal tour, consisting of an English speaking guide and personal driver and car for the massive price of ... $40!

I returned to the guesthouse to veg out for a while - turns out they have free DVDs (DVD players are standard in every room) - so I watched New Moon (terrible - books are much better). The guesthouse also offered free internet, so I jumped on for an hour in the main lobby. Whilst I was on the 'net, a guy came up to the lobby and asked the owner, "How much for dum-dum?" The owner was confused, and said, "Pardon?" The man turned and pointed to me and said, "How much for the girl - how much for massage from girl?" The owner set the man straight and then turned to apologise to me. I'm assuming the guy was drunk .....

After that fun I headed back into town, finding 'Pub Street' with its neon signs and bars, walking along the Night Market, and sampling a Cambodian pancake (I'd had 'lunch' at 4pm so didn't need another meal).
Off to sleep for a big day at Angkor Wat tomorrow!