When we booked our 11 hour bus ride from Bangkok to Siem Reap in Cambodia no one explained that 3 1/2 hours of that time would be spent crossing the border!
Our first hold up was caused by us overstaying our Thai visa by 1 day, having to pay 1000 bhat fine and sign our "Conviction for criminal offence in the Kingdon of Thailand" issued by the Thai police authority (worth it for one last party Bangkok style ... and we got to keep a copy of the certificate for the downstairs toilet!)
Our second was that - depite the HUGE sign as we left Thailand stating that except for the $25 fee for the Cambodian visa no money should change hands - we had to fight everyone in a uniform who wanted 100 bhat either for the visa form, the quarantine cetificate, or the entry stamp.
Our third hurdle was that each of these were issued in different buildings and it was hard to know where to go as it's difficult to understand people when they are shouting at you!
Our fourth and final hurdle was the Cambodian's themselves. Now we'd heard that they were all lovely, smiling, friendly people but we'd also been warned that their gene-pool had been shall we say thinned out a little (see below) even so we were still a little surprised when it took 3 cashiers, a calculator and 4 attempts to complete a simple currency exchange !
But we eventually made it through and despite the bus breaking down 2 hours outside Siem Reap we still made it in good time (13 hours!).
Siem Reap is home to the temples of Angkor Watt (the 8th wonder of the ancient world - a bit confusing as we thought there were only 7) and the sex tourist. Side by side they make for an odd town - with young children gyrating outside bars by night and fat old men escorting their Cambodian "girlfriends" around the temples in the day.
On our second night we hooked up with our friend Brian who showed us around some bars and then showed us round...some more bars. At this point we realised if we were going to see any of the temples we were going to have to go it alone! (once we'd finished our drinks of course)
We bought a 3 day ticket and spent the first afternoon being driven around by a tuk tuk checking out various temples including the one where the Tomb Radier film was shot...
...Bayon (our favourite)...
... and Angkor Watt.
Matt found it easy to tell when Charlotte had had enough for one day as she became more interested in pointing out the sex tourists than the sculptures so we called it a day.
That night our American friends Lex and Penny, who we'd met in Indonesia, arrived. So the next day we all got up and headed back to Angkor Watt for sunrise. Sadly when Matt asked Charlotte if she's charged the cameras and she said "yes" what she should have said was "no" so the photo below is courtesy of Lex and Penny - thanks guys!!
To ensure we didn't suffer temple overload we spent the following day relaxing at Aqua - a pool outside of town which happened to be having it's 2nd year birthday party - unusual of us to find a party, but we did it again!
We then hit a roof-top skate ramp (?) for sunset where some of the boys we were with showed off their skills and Charlotte wowed the crowd with her "retard 180" move, ruining her dress in the process.
We returned for the 3rd and final day of our temple tour once again with Lex and Penny in tow... but this time without the tuk tuk. When Charlotte agreed to Matt's suggestion that we hire a tandem bike she thought he was joking. And when Charlotte suggested that we wear matching outfits it was a surprise to both of us when we went through with it
and even more so when Cool Cat Lex and Hot Stuff Penny joined us!!
We had such a laugh - and it turns out that Cambodian people find a tandem equally hilarious and curious all at once.
Our last night with Lex and Penny was great and Charlotte and Penny were let off the leash by the boys
Well maybe not let-off more like thrown-off...
After 10 days of Siem Reap we headed for the capital city Phenom Pem. On the bus on the way we sat next to two aussie guys : Ian - on his way to represent Oz in the world beer ping pong championships in Las Vegas and Ben - on his way back to the bar he owned in Otres beach. This is how the conversation started - "Hey, you guys aren't the couple we saw on a tandem bike yesterday. That's love. Next you'll be sharing a kayak. Then you have to marry" ...
then to Matt - "you pussy!"
Five hours later when we knew everything about each other we arrived in Phnom Phen. The best way we can describe it is that it makes the Ping-Pong Show area of Bangkok look like the Vatican. If the apocolypse came and only deviant people and under-aged hookers surrounded by piles of rubbish and bars with blacked out windows were left then Phnom Pen would be the capital of the new world.
After reading a menu we decided to skip dinner...
...and head back to the hostel after 30 mins of walking about town. That night we paid an extra $20 for our Vietnamese visas to be processed in 24 hours, booked to go to the shooting range and see the killing fields the next day and then hid under the covers!
The next day turned out to be one of Matt's favourites. We were taken to a shooting range where Matt got to tick one of the things off his "black list" - fire an automatic weapon - don't ask what else is on the list - it's pretty dark!
We then went to the killing fields - and were relieved that the gun had come first ! It was by far the most sobering excursion we've been on. It was one of 200 camps across Cambodia where under Pol Pot the Khmer Rouge killed nearly 3 million of the 8 million people who lived in Cambodia between 1975-1979 including all the teachers, educated citizens and even those who wore glasses....hence the "gene pool" issues we mentioned earlier.
After seeing these "attractions" there wasn't much else to keep us in Phnom Penn so we hit the road and headed to Otres beach. When we arrived we took Ben up on his suggestion and our first stop was his bar "Oocha" - and there we stayed !! Dave, Dave and Ben own the bar and run it with Chef Chow and Gill or "Gill-doh" (Dave's girlfriend). It's difficult to put into words how insane these boys (and their customers) are or how much fun we had there, these photos may give you some idea but believe us it 'aint even the half of it, let us just say that the beer-bong-egg-tazer has gone down in local legend....
Needless to say we found it hard to leave, but after 10 days of partying, beer-bonging, playing stone paper scissors, spinning the "Wheel Of Misfortune" & tazering Charlotte put her foot down and we finally left - but not without one last night of madness which resulted in Dave spray painting our mate Ed 2 hours before he had to catch the 12 hour bus to Siem Reap - we think this is how James Cameron may have started out !!
Avatar meets Oocha.... (funniest thing we've seen so far!)
Last stop in Cambodia was Kampot a beautiful chilled out village near the Vietnamese border and a much needed few days of relaxing by the river before our journey to Saigon.....but not before checking out one last Cambodian sunset on a river cruise.
Watch this space for Vietnam, they love Western invaders....errr we mean visitors, right ?!?
Our first hold up was caused by us overstaying our Thai visa by 1 day, having to pay 1000 bhat fine and sign our "Conviction for criminal offence in the Kingdon of Thailand" issued by the Thai police authority (worth it for one last party Bangkok style ... and we got to keep a copy of the certificate for the downstairs toilet!)
Our second was that - depite the HUGE sign as we left Thailand stating that except for the $25 fee for the Cambodian visa no money should change hands - we had to fight everyone in a uniform who wanted 100 bhat either for the visa form, the quarantine cetificate, or the entry stamp.
Our third hurdle was that each of these were issued in different buildings and it was hard to know where to go as it's difficult to understand people when they are shouting at you!
Our fourth and final hurdle was the Cambodian's themselves. Now we'd heard that they were all lovely, smiling, friendly people but we'd also been warned that their gene-pool had been shall we say thinned out a little (see below) even so we were still a little surprised when it took 3 cashiers, a calculator and 4 attempts to complete a simple currency exchange !
But we eventually made it through and despite the bus breaking down 2 hours outside Siem Reap we still made it in good time (13 hours!).
Siem Reap is home to the temples of Angkor Watt (the 8th wonder of the ancient world - a bit confusing as we thought there were only 7) and the sex tourist. Side by side they make for an odd town - with young children gyrating outside bars by night and fat old men escorting their Cambodian "girlfriends" around the temples in the day.
On our second night we hooked up with our friend Brian who showed us around some bars and then showed us round...some more bars. At this point we realised if we were going to see any of the temples we were going to have to go it alone! (once we'd finished our drinks of course)
We bought a 3 day ticket and spent the first afternoon being driven around by a tuk tuk checking out various temples including the one where the Tomb Radier film was shot...
...Bayon (our favourite)...
... and Angkor Watt.
That night our American friends Lex and Penny, who we'd met in Indonesia, arrived. So the next day we all got up and headed back to Angkor Watt for sunrise. Sadly when Matt asked Charlotte if she's charged the cameras and she said "yes" what she should have said was "no" so the photo below is courtesy of Lex and Penny - thanks guys!!
The rest of the day was devoted to checking out yet more temples and statues !
We returned for the 3rd and final day of our temple tour once again with Lex and Penny in tow... but this time without the tuk tuk. When Charlotte agreed to Matt's suggestion that we hire a tandem bike she thought he was joking. And when Charlotte suggested that we wear matching outfits it was a surprise to both of us when we went through with it
and even more so when Cool Cat Lex and Hot Stuff Penny joined us!!
We had such a laugh - and it turns out that Cambodian people find a tandem equally hilarious and curious all at once.
Our last night with Lex and Penny was great and Charlotte and Penny were let off the leash by the boys
Well maybe not let-off more like thrown-off...
Not sure that was the best idea as neither could get out of bed the next day!
then to Matt - "you pussy!"
Five hours later when we knew everything about each other we arrived in Phnom Phen. The best way we can describe it is that it makes the Ping-Pong Show area of Bangkok look like the Vatican. If the apocolypse came and only deviant people and under-aged hookers surrounded by piles of rubbish and bars with blacked out windows were left then Phnom Pen would be the capital of the new world.
After reading a menu we decided to skip dinner...
...and head back to the hostel after 30 mins of walking about town. That night we paid an extra $20 for our Vietnamese visas to be processed in 24 hours, booked to go to the shooting range and see the killing fields the next day and then hid under the covers!
The next day turned out to be one of Matt's favourites. We were taken to a shooting range where Matt got to tick one of the things off his "black list" - fire an automatic weapon - don't ask what else is on the list - it's pretty dark!
We then went to the killing fields - and were relieved that the gun had come first ! It was by far the most sobering excursion we've been on. It was one of 200 camps across Cambodia where under Pol Pot the Khmer Rouge killed nearly 3 million of the 8 million people who lived in Cambodia between 1975-1979 including all the teachers, educated citizens and even those who wore glasses....hence the "gene pool" issues we mentioned earlier.
After seeing these "attractions" there wasn't much else to keep us in Phnom Penn so we hit the road and headed to Otres beach. When we arrived we took Ben up on his suggestion and our first stop was his bar "Oocha" - and there we stayed !! Dave, Dave and Ben own the bar and run it with Chef Chow and Gill or "Gill-doh" (Dave's girlfriend). It's difficult to put into words how insane these boys (and their customers) are or how much fun we had there, these photos may give you some idea but believe us it 'aint even the half of it, let us just say that the beer-bong-egg-tazer has gone down in local legend....
Needless to say we found it hard to leave, but after 10 days of partying, beer-bonging, playing stone paper scissors, spinning the "Wheel Of Misfortune" & tazering Charlotte put her foot down and we finally left - but not without one last night of madness which resulted in Dave spray painting our mate Ed 2 hours before he had to catch the 12 hour bus to Siem Reap - we think this is how James Cameron may have started out !!
Avatar meets Oocha.... (funniest thing we've seen so far!)
Last stop in Cambodia was Kampot a beautiful chilled out village near the Vietnamese border and a much needed few days of relaxing by the river before our journey to Saigon.....but not before checking out one last Cambodian sunset on a river cruise.
Watch this space for Vietnam, they love Western invaders....errr we mean visitors, right ?!?
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