28/03/2005
Something about this country didn't sit well with us, the United Nations may have moved out ten years ago but this country is still suffering from the aftermath of war. India was poor but this is desperate and a little uncomfortable. Goods and services are twice the price of neighbouring countries - where is all this money going? We had an Asian budget but faced European prices.

It's unfortunate that Cambodia was so costly as we met a number of people who would have stayed longer had their budget permitted. From the moment we crossed the border from Vietnam it was obvious we were in a very different country. Bad roads, higher prices and the famous chequered scarves (kramas) keeping the blazing heat off heads.

Phnom Penh
An interesting city with quite a few things of interest to see and do, much more than we'd orginally thought. We booked out hotel over the internet and it turned out to be a girly bar with old western men hanging around, so we moved out of their prompto the next day. The best place to stay was by the riverfront. Lovely shops and all the best cafes and bars. This is the location of the Foreign Correspondents Club (FCC), a renowned expat institution where you can sup super expensive beer while looking out across the river, as the security guard patrols the entrance to keep landmine limb damaged beggars away. Charming.

We spent time at the Royal Palace with its stunning Silver Pagoda and a morning at the Tuol Sleung (S-21) Museum and Killing Fields. Tuol Sleung was a high school that was turned into a prison where the Khmer Rouge tortured enemies, and they were then taken 17 km away to be slain in the country, a site now called the Killing Fields. Photos of the former inmates line the walls, only 7 people survived the prison. A number of torture instruments remain on display and we watched a film which documented the life of one of the former inmates who ended in the Killing Fields. You only have to step outside your hotel and you can see the evidence and aftermath of war when you encounter someone without an arm or leg. The kids are very persistant and some get very angry when you ignore them and go to hit you out of frustration. You feel torn over whether to give them money or whether its better to give to an aid organisation.

Kampot
We decided to go to Kampot to experience a slice of quiet Cambodia, away from the big cities, and quiet we got. Not much to see or do here, not really geared up for tourists, but this was a refreshing change.

We found an excellent bar (only about 3 in town) called the Rusty Nail. It is run by a former bricklayer from Manchester. Andrew said he had the best meal of the trip at this bar. He had Pork spare ribs and chips, and there was nearly half a pig on the ribs! We also got introduced to Klang beer and at 7%, it hits the spot! The local brew, Angkor, was not a bad tipple, but still had nothing on Beer Lao.

We went to Kampot primarily to visit the abandoned Bokor Hill Sation. The Lonely Planet describes it as being like out of The Shining. Well I wouldn't go that far but it is strange to see all the abandoned buildings where people once lived and worked. The main building used to be a French Casino in the 1920s and later a hotel but it was ruined in the war when the Khmer Rouge used it as a base.

Our transport from Kampot to Sihanoukville was interesting. In the absence of a bus route the only way to go was by share taxi. This was $3 each, but that meant four in the back and four in the front of a normal small car. We decided we were too big to fit another two people in the back with us so we paid double and got the whole back seat. The front was still packed in with four people, it was quite a sight. The driver sat on the inner edge of his seat, with a passenger squashed between him and the door.

Sihanoukville
RnR was on the cards and that's exactely what we got. We stayed in a lovely hotel, one of the favourites on our trip. It had a great swimming pool, cable TV and fridge for $15 (The Orchidee). Four days of nothing but relaxing by the pool. We did venture to the beach but found the persistant pestering by fruit sellers and kids too much to handle in the heat. It was a nice beach (Occheuteal), better than Vietnam, but not a scratch on Thailand.

Siem Reap
We spent our first full day avoiding the ruins and hired a bike to tour the city. We visited a miniature Angkor Wat in someones back yard and the Landmine Museum. This had all different kinds of landmines on display and volunteers take you on a tour of the museum and also teach English to landmine victims. A very worthwhile place.

The day after we bought a 3 day ticket to the temples of Angkor for a whopping $40 each. The tuk-tuk cost $10, which we shared with Jennie (Zoe's old work colleague we bumped into in Vietnam). We arranged a tuk-tuk to take us around the temples as it was too hot to cycle around the circuit in 40C heat. We were up before sunrise and taken to see the Bayon as the sun emerged. It was really quiet and relatively cool at 6am. We toured the rest of Angkor Thom, Victory Gate, Ta Keo and Ta Prohm before going back for a kip during the hottest part of the day. We left again at 3pm to go to a really hot and crowded Angkor Wat and then sunset at Pre Rup. With one day under our belt we felt we'd achieved alot. It was on the second day, after the first temple, Preah Kahn, that the temple fatigue started to set in and by the third day it was a waste of money on the tuk-tuk. Next time just one day is enough. Our favourite temples where:

1. Bayon
2. Ta Prohm
3. Angkor Wat
4. Preah Khan

The temples are huge and the park they are in also houses villages, so its a really big area to cover.

On the souvenir front we couldn't resist a wood carving of one of the faces from the Bayon and a hefty 5kg sandstone buddha face - it's really serene.

People
Didn't have too many friendly encounters and we had to bargain really hard and still had to pay twice as much as wanted to. In Siem Reap our tuk-tuk driver took a bend too fast and scraped past a van. We were OK but angry that he had risked our lives. He then had the cheek to come to us and ask for money towards the van's repairs. Andrew blew his top at this one. He also tried to tell us that 3 passengers in a tuk-tuk was illegal and that Jennie should hire a motor bike to travel around with us. Naturally, his brother would be happy to provide the bike service. We refused this offer and it turned out that the police didn't pull us over once for being overloaded. After seeing 6-7 monks in a tuk-tuk, we knew this 2 person limit was a lie.

Food
Rusty Nail - Pork Ribs, the winner for Andrew.
Curries were just the right spiciness, Thai can sometimes be too hot but the Khmer food was just to our taste. In the Happy Herb Pizza place in PP, Andrew found a few cooked ants - yummy!

Landscape
Dry, arid, a few bad roads but not all bad. Think Angkor would look much better in the wet season, with more jungle growth and greenery.

Toilets
All western, apart from stops on highways but even those were very bearable.

Health
Zoe picked up a funny tummy from a dodgy noodle breakfast outside the Bayon. At the end of the tip the funny tummy tally is:

Zoe      = 4 (only 1 bad case)
Andrew = 3 (all 3 were bad)

Coming to the end
Angkor was a lovely way to finish off our trip. We're writing this in Bangkok and by the time you read this our trip will be over. There will be one more update which we will write in Melbourne covering an overview of the trip. Thanks for reading our website over the last six months, we've really enjoyed all your feedback and comments, backpackerati will be back with another trip....sometime in the not too distant future!