Backpacking

Well we decided to head to Cambodia slightly earlier than we had originally planned as much as we were enjoying Thailand we were really looking forward to getting to Cambodia. We travelled there by bus from Ko Chang which wasnt really a long journey just a bit uncomfortable stuck on a mini bus which was full to the brim with a bag pretty much anywhere it could be squeezed in!

But eventually we got to the border at Poipet which was a bit of a nightmare once we had crossed through, although we had already paid to get to siem reap we still found ourselves waiting in a bus station saying a bus would come soon. After a few hours of waiting and being pestered to death by taxi drivers we decided if we wanted to get there before midnight we would have to give in and pay for a taxi.

The road to siem reap (well if you could actually call it a road) was hell i think that is the only way to describe it! If we wernent dodging cows then we were being thrown from our seats because the roads were so bumpy, once it was past 6oClock and was dark the driver could barely see, especially because of the dust. Also we were stuck in the car with a German couple who were doing our head in, kept asking if we wanted a banana despite the fact that we said no about 10 times.

Anyway despite the not so fun journey we arrived in Siem reap which was great the Cambodian people are so friendly and suprisingly speak amazing english. We were taken to a guest house in a moto tuk tuk, couldnt believe how cheap the accomodation was in Cambodia cpmpared to Thailand, we paid $5 for a really clean room with tv air con and private bathroom which was great. We pretty much dumped our bags and headed out to the city.

We went to the Siem Reap night market, which was a really cool place not like the usual markets you dont get pestered to buy stuff as much and can just have a stroll around, rob wasnt so keen on the strolling though. We went to a really nice bar at the nice market for a cocktail and then we went to watch a Pol pot film much to my dissmay. It was ok but you know not the best!

Didnt do an awful lot the next day just had a bit of a wander really trying to find a decent internet cafe which doesnt really exist in siem reap! Me and Rob discovered the best thing in the world when we were in Koh Samui swensens american ice cream, it was amazing and i mean amazing!!! We were absolutley exstatic to find out they had it in Siem Reap aswell so we spent a good hour in there eating ice cream...it was the best!!!

We had arranged to go to the sunset trip at Angkor Wat that night and that was good although we thought the sunset behind it so were a bit shocked when the gaurds kicked us out before dark, and it wasnt lit up like on the postcard, but it was still really great to see.

The next day we had to get up ridiculously early to watch the sunrise at angkor Wat taking Lauras advice and didnt get drunk the night before but it was still hard work getting up! Was great to see though and the temples around Angkor are really cool, one of the temples cant rembember the name but it was where tomb raider was set, and this was so good it had trees growing out of it and the trees were huge...probably see the photos.
Temples were wicked but the only thing that let it down was the kids that are begging and asking for money all the time, following you around the temples got a bit annoying but I suppose its part of the experience. I think we offended a women slightly in one of the temples, was quite funny actually, she wanted money to light an insense stick in a shrine we had litterally lit about 5 that day so were sick of giving all our money away. So rob gives the women 100 riel which is about 2pence if that, she actually gave it back to him and said she didnt want it!! It was hilarious!

I think Siem Reap is pretty much all about the temples not much else to do unless you travel further out, so we headed on to battambang the next day....rob will tell you all about it....

Well i thought since we have been away 6 weeks today i thought i would maybe get around to writing something........finally. So as you can imagine we have done a fair bit since Natalie wrote on here so decided to keep it fairly brief because cant actually remember everything, i suppose that's what all the pictures are for tho. Anyway we arrived at Phi Phi and got and headed towards the Oasis guest house that Loz and Em stayed at when they were there, is was a really handy location but seriously C D Collins could have thrown together better sound proofing in a couple of hours, any slight movement or pneumatic drilling from the builders opposite was fairly horrendous when you were sober and trying to go to sleep, and because we got a bit ill that happened far too much! But anyway i took some Imodium and thought sweet no toilet trip for over an hour, unfortunately when i tried to get to sleep a few hours later it started coming out the other end and was up getting sick for a few hours. But any way the next day felt loads better so spent some time on the beach which was pretty rammed but was quite nice, water bit shitey though so opted to stay under a umbrella and doze or read a book, Natalie was having a paddle then lying down for a bit then moaning she had sand all over here, classic love hate relationship with sand.

So we headed out that night to some joint called Tiger Bar which was pretty good, cheap buckets and few people were steaming already, so looked like a good starting point. I ended up getting chatting to an Irish lad in the toilet Cahall who was away with a few other boys for around Ireland. Ended up having a good night with a load of buckets, some wrestling on the beach then eventually decided to head home. Didnt get up to too much in Phi Phi just a fair bit off chilling out but was different to Railay because loads more young people and lot more going on, especially at night. So after Phi Phi (i think) we headed to Ko Samui which was intended to be a stop off before going to Ko Pagnan for the full moon party, which didn't happen. Arrived at Ko Samui at about 8 at night and went to the quieter but cheaper beach area, supposed to be more for backpackers. So we stayed the night in a beach hut but decided the next day that there wasn't much happening so headed off to the other busier part which i cant remember the name of. So from the time we arrived at Ko Samui until we left which was two days later it poured rain non stop, decided the full moon party would be a wash out and booked flights to Bangkok. We found out later that the Irish boys that were heading to Ko Pagnan for the same full moon had a mint time and it actually stopped raining, ah well maybe next time.

So next stop was Bangkok, the last time we were there we couldn't be arsed with the madness but to be honest we were glad to back to cheap food, drink, and accommodation. In the capital we did a few Wats and the MBK but only stayed for 4 days because was pretty eager to get back to beach life. We had a night out on ko San road when we was there though and met some girls from Rotherham which were sound,good night was had but the hotel we were staying at didn't have windows so didn't wake up till about 3, ah well.

From Bangkok we headed on down to Ko chang, were the mother em and laura stayed together this year. The trip down was a fair mission with the usual promises of no stopping buses air con blah blah, bus stopped bout 6 times, changed at least once and it actually went via Patayya which was pretty annoying, but what do you do. Got to Ko chang any way and headed to Lonely beach instead of the white sands which is more popular but looked a bit package-holiday-ey and we was looking for cheap and cheerful with a bit of night life and that. We aimed to actually do some stuff in Ko Chang since we had been doing loads of chilling but on the second day a bit of a motorcycle accident stopped me doing anything physical, for a change it wasn't because i was messing about the guy couldn't speak English and didn't explain the gears, I'll live though. We went out that night for some food to a place called the tree house which has like a jetty which goes out over the sea, nice food but Natalie couldn't handle the chillies and was pretty much crying for about it for about half an hour, ha ha. So we bumped in to the girls we met in Bangkok a few nights previous, which was random because they didnt plan to go there,and had a few drinks. Had a couple more days on the beach and did an elephant treck, which was cool. The guy got bit snap happy, think he took over thirty pics of us on it but great to do! All in all, really liked it there.

Moving on to the next country..........