It is Wednesday again!
I hope that you all had a lovely long weekend and have been enjoying the late summer sunshine.
So, after two nights in Bangkok, we headed to Cambodia…. and this is where I will pick up on Part 2 of our travels
days 1 & 2 – Phnom Penh
We arrived at the airport and sorted out our Visa, a very long but uncomplicated process. We headed to collect our bags and make our way to find a Taxi. We had booked for two nights at The Plantation Phnom Penh, which was very last minute as our hotel cancelled. We only booked this one as Bookings.com said that the prices were reduced due to building work and it was very central. On arrival, we found that the location was actually excellent and we received a very warm welcome. We checked into our room and headed to the pool bar in order to have an early dinner. As a bonus we didn’t actually notice any building work.
The next day we woke up early and went for breakfast, which was a buffet style and much better than the roast dinner we had previously experienced. We then decided to head out for a walk and approached a Tuk Tuk driver who gave us a very interesting tour. This included going to a Monkey Island that was a temple full of monkeys and a weird fairground music. The sad thing about this temple was the amount of children asking for money, I had read not to give money as it discourages education. We also saw more temples and were a little bit shocked when the Tuk Tuk actually went on a boat to get us back to the main island. After this we were very thirsty and needed to cool down so headed to the pool to relax.
The hotel was so nice that we decided to stay in again that night and have a relaxing day by the pool the following day. Mark had some work to do and I sunbathed however, I did burn this day as the sun was so hot!
days 2, 3, 4, 5 – Siem Reap
We woke up early and had the amazing buffet breakfast before packing up our belongings and heading to the bus station. I had been in charge of booking our transport while in Cambodia and after reading reviews of the buses decided to opt for Giant Ibis as these seemed the safest option. If budget allowed, it would have been nice to fly just to save a six hour bus journey to Siem Reap.
The bus had wifi so we could check emails and we actually watched the Inbetweeners as we had downloaded this in readiness. It had one stop for food and the use of a toilet so I was carefully on the amount of water I drunk.
It was about 6pm by the time we arrived in Siem Reap and the first thing I noticed was the heat. It was much more intense than what it had been in Phnom Penh although there wasn’t as much sun. Our Tuk Tuk driver to the hotel was very friendly and we made a deal with him that he could take us to Ankor Wat for sunrise in two days time. We felt that we needed a day to recover beforehand.
We had booked to stay at eOcambo Residence, which was nice but not as high end as the previous hotel.
We found that there was a lot more to do in Siem Reap, although we did make time for days around the pool too. We visited the national museum which was interesting and was all about the temples and how they were formed, unfortunately, you were not allowed to take photos in there. The rooms of Buddhas would have made good photos. We also found that there was a lot more high end shopping aimed at tourist and we found a Starbucks, a hard Rock Cafe and even a ‘strip’ called ‘Pub Street’ where we spent a night in a dance club full of mainly Chinese tourists.
The main reason to come to Siem Reap was of course, to see Ankor Wat and the other Ankor temples. We set our alarms early on the day we had planned, at approx. half 3am and met our Tuk Tuk driver at 4am. He took us to buy our tickets (for which they took a photo, I was not expecting and did not look my best at that time in the morning) and then to the temples. It was so busy and every arrives before opening to get a good view of the impressive sunrise, which you can then admire as the sun is rising further walking towards the temple as it opens. We spent a good few hours here exploring, before heading back to our Tuk Tuk driver who took us to all the other temples including he Tomb Raider one and lunch! Lunch of course, was a rip off but it was okay! We were completely templed out by the end of the day and happy to get back to the hotel.
We spent our last day in Siem Reap exploring further in the morning before a lazy afternoon as we knew we had a 10 hour night bus journey to Sihanoukville, which departed at 10pm and would arrive at 6am.
Part three will inlcude our stay on the Islands.
Love, Minnie xoxo
Minnie VII 