Siem Reap, Cambodia

We wake up late on the 29th in Bangkok and quickly shower and get dressed before jumping into a taxi to take us to the Mo Chit Northern & Northeastern bus terminal. The taxi driver was an absolute legend, speeding along and overtaking everything he could to get us there in time to catch our bus (the taxi cost 120 baht/£2.40 plus the 45 baht/90p express way toll). We didn't have time to eat breakfast so we grab a weird pizza bread from a bakery (40 baht/80p) before jumping on the bus just in time.

The bus wasn't air conditioned and it was searingly hot. I thankfully managed to sleep for most of the four hour journey but by the time we arrived we were both quite sweaty. Just as the lady at the ticket office had promised, the bus dropped us just around the corner from the border. As we got off the bus the only other westerners on it, an Australian couple called Jess and Tom, ask where we're off to in Cambodia

Border Crossing

. It turns out all four of us are going to Siem Reap, so we decide to stick together during the border crossing (as we had all heard horror stories about it, people being made to pay more than they should etc.) and to get a share taxi to Siem Reap together. We had to queue for a good hour and a half to get stamped out of Thailand, then we went into an office to get our visas, we filled out a few forms and I went up to hand my passport in first. The guy who took my passport took my $20 (£13) visa fee then asked for 100 baht (£2), I point to the sign that says $20.

"That's the price" I tell him
"Yes price for visa but you need to pay me fee of 100 baht to get it for you"
"What for?" I ask
"For quick processing" he tells me
"That's OK, I'm in no rush" and I go and sit down.

It was so easy! I go and tell Mark, Jess and Tom what the guy had told me and he didn't even bother asking them for the extra dosh.

Once we get our visas we then have to queue to get stamped into Cambodia, this only takes about 45 minutes and goes smoothly

Views from a tuk-tuk

. After this we sit on a bench and wait to get a free shuttle bus which will take us to a place where you can get either a bus ($9/£5.80 each) or a share taxi ($12/£7.80 each) to Siem Reap. When the shuttle bus arrives a gaggle of Americans also arrive and a guy who we chatted to briefly while waiting, ushers us onto the bus and gets the driver to drive off before the Americans can get on. "They can get on another bus", he says while sneering at them.

We get off the shuttle bus and dive straight into a share taxi. I think we're all pretty hot and sweaty and none of us really wanted to sit on another bus after the one from Bangkok was so hot! So a lovely air conditioned taxi it is. We stop at a shop under the pretence of 'washing the car'; a man squirts the front of it with a hose while a woman keeps telling us to buy things and we eventually buy a bottle of water, as soon as money changes hands it seems the the car is clean enough for us to get back in. It takes about two and a half hours in total to get to Siem Reap in the taxi.

Jess and Tom have already booked a place to stay, as had we, so we ask the taxi driver to drop us to two different hostels. He drops us off at a stand and tells us that two different tuk-tuks will take us to our accomodation free of charge

Sunset at Phnom Bakheng

. Mark and I are both wary of this, but we aren't left with much choice so we say goodbye to Tom and Jess and jump into our tuk-tuk. We get our map out and show the driver where we want to go, "Sure sure," he tells us "I know Palm Garden Lodge". After driving around for a very long time I spot the name of a hostel that we drive past which is on the map and realise we are nowhere near where we asked to be taken. He pulls into a place called 'Coconut Lodge'.

"This isn't our hostel" we say
"Yes, yes it is."
"No it's not" we tell him, "it has a different name and is in the wrong place" and we show him the map again.

The manager comes out at this point.

"Yes, I own Palm Garden Lodge too. It is full, so you have to stay here, you can't stay there, this is my other place."

We tell the tuk-tuk driver that we want to be taken to our hostel. It's fairly obvious that he has just driven us to a place where he would get a commission for bringing us there if we stayed, I mean how on earth would the tuk-tuk driver know that the first hostel was full and to take us to the "owner's" other hostel? He tells us to look around, and it we don't like it, he'll take us somewhere else

 

Angkor Wat

. We get out and look around just to speed up the process of him taking us to the correct place, rather than just sitting there arguing. We politely decline the room and then hop back into the tuk-tuk, "OK, I will take you to Palm Garden Lodge" he says, and he does, for free, just as promised.

When we arrive at Palm Garden Lodge we are greeted with a free glass of orange juice and a sit down. The place looks really nice and the staff even wear gold uniforms! We think we are getting a bargain for $9/£5.80 a night (double room with a fan, ensuite, free breakfast). The manager of this place then comes out to tell us he has given our room away! There are also about five other couples whose rooms he has given away! He drives us to his 'other hotel' (I was dreading the drive thinking we might show up at Coconut Lodge!) but it is just a hotel they are renovating which had some rooms. We are told we can stay here for one night, then we will be picked up in the morning and be able to check into Palm Garden Lodge. The rooms at both places were absolutely fine for the price and the free breakfast offered was a choice of noodle soup, or fried egg on toast which was a nice change to the toast and jam you usually get!

That evening we go out for a few drinks after discovering they were $0.50 (35p) each. When we walk back to our hostel we are approached a young girl (no more than ten years old) holding onto her baby sister begging for money. The reality of where we were suddenly hits us and Mark goes into a shop to buy the girl some food, the girl follows him and asks him to buy milk formula but we don't have enough money with us to buy it so we end up giving her a few dollars. Afterwards we are unsure of whether or not this was the right thing to do, as in every guidebook we've read and all the info we've read online it says not to give money to children as they rarely get to keep it

Bayon

. It's better to buy food, which is what we wanted to do but we just didn't have the money with us at the time to buy what she wanted.

Cambodia is confusing. Every time I hand someone money I'm unsure whether I'm spending it 'correctly', as there is so much corruption here you never know who or where the money you're handing over goes to. We have spoken to staff working at our hostel and working at restaurants and street stalls and they tell us they work eight to ten hour days, seven days a week and in that week they earn ten dollars. Ten dollars. It's nothing. We have been generous with our tipping so far

One night I bought two photocopied books off a boy who came up to us while we were having dinner ($5 for two books 'First They Killed My Father' and 'Brother Number One') and once he left I wondered whether that was the right thing to do, as he was young and I was unsure if he would get to keep the money. As I pondered this a man with one eye and no legs came up to the table and was trying to sell the same books. I felt awful. This was a man who had lost so much and was still trying to be self sufficient and I had to decline buying anything from him. Then I felt awful for feeling awful as me feeling confused and guilty about being in Cambodia is nothing compared to having no legs, or money, or a home, or a chance of an education, or any living family

Ta Prohm

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Every single time we've bought anything (save a couple of times), or eaten anywhere we have either been overcharged, given the wrong change or just plain lied to about the price. It can get frustrating after a while, but you just have to put it into perspective and remember just exactly where you are and how lucky you are in comparison. This isn't to say that I didn't ask for my correct change when there's a couple of dollars missing, or correct the person telling me our dinner costs $10 when I know it's actually $6 (make sure you write the price of everything down when ordering food etc).

We spent four full days in Siem Reap. The first day we walked through the town, then went to get our three day ticket for Angkor Wat ($40 each) in the afternoon before going to watch the sunset at Phnom Bakheng within the Angkor Park (after 5pm it is free to go and watch sunset as long as you have a ticket valid for the next day). We hired a tuk-tuk from the hostel which cost $3 (£2).

The next day we did the mini tour of Angkor ($10/£6.50 for a tuk-tuk for the day) which included Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Bayon, Baphuon, Phimeanakas, Terrace of the Elephants, Terrace of the Leper King, Thommanom, Chau Say Thevoda, Ta Keo, Ta Prohm and Banteay Kdei. The temples are incredible and it is pointless to even try and describe them with words, instead I will try and describe them with video games; it was basically like being in Zelda. Food within the Angkor Park is expensive (the cheapest dish was $4/£2.60) so we decide the next day to buy food in town and bring a picnic for ourselves. We find a bakery in town called The Blue Pumpkin that has half price pastries after 8pm (at half price they are about $0.50/35p) so buy ourselves a few croissants and cinnamon rolls

Angkor Wat

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The next day is New Year's Day, so we wake up at 4.30am to get to Angkor Wat for sunrise. It was truly stunning. We walked across the bridge in the dark following other people's torches. We watched the temple go from being shadowy, dark, looming towers, to having a pastel sky surrounding and illuminating it, it's reflection shimmering in the water. It was beautiful and a great start to the New Year. We jumped into our tuk-tuk as the sun was still rising and got to Preah Khan temple (which means 'Sacred Sword'). There was no other tourists here the whole time we explored this huge sprawling maze! It was incredible, definitely my highlight of Angkor, the architecture was incredible and having no one else there certainly made the experience better. We were here at exactly 7am, which would be midnight at home, so we give each other a hug and wish each other happy new year. Goodness knows what sort of a state all of our friends were in while we were doing that! We also go to Neak Pean, Ta Som, East Mebon and Pre Rup. We paid $13 (£8.50) for this day (the extra was for the early start).

The next day we go to the Roluos Group temples, which are the earliest built temples having being built in the 9th century. It's great to see these although the architecture isn't the kind we prefer, but who cares when you're seeing something that's a 1000 years old?

School

! There was also a monastry and school at the Lolei temple and we spoke to a monk who showed us around his school and got us to help him write out a sign for his library in English and to tell him what the English words were for some of the fruit trees around. We made a donation to his school because the work he was doing there was fantastic. The tuk-tuk for this day was $10 (£6.50), we were given the option to go somewhere else too but we were both pretty tired of walking around temples by this point!!

We get back to our hostel and book our tickets to Battambang for the 3rd which cost $4 (£2.60) each.

Food in Siem Reap seems to be more expensive than the rest of Cambodia (from what we've heard and read at least) with dishes ranging from $1.50 (£1) for a basic noodle soup to $3.00 (£2) for a curry with rice. Cans of soft drink can cost $0.75 - $1 (50p - 65p) and big bottles of water are 2500 riel (40p) for those lovely 'ozone treated' bottles of water. You can pay up to $2 (£1.30) for a bottle of 'proper' water!!

Sorry to be brief with the descriptions of Angkor but the pictures will do more justice than my words will!

(Just to quickly summarise the money situation in Cambodia. They accept US dollars everywhere and this is what you will get from ATMS. You will often get your change in both US dollars and Cambodian riel. Riel is basically rounded to 4000 per dollar, so 1000 riel is 25 cents. I will write things down in dollars and riel depending on what I pay with, but I'll always write it down in pounds and pence too for any people from the UK reading this thinking of going away and wanting to know what to expect to pay!)