Singapore

The flight to Singapore was uneventful and I landed safely at Changi Airport at 10.30am. On landing the stewardess made the usual announcements and then came out with "Ladies and Gentlemen, this is a serious announcement: drug trafficking is a illegal in Singapore and carries a mandatory death sentence"... Well that's good to know! I got through passport control ok but then got stopped at customs as my razor blade in my wash bag confused the x-ray machine (your bags get x-rayed on the way out of the airport as well as in). Took a while for them to figure out what it was but finally they let me out!

I caught the train (MRT) from Changi to Aljuied where my hostel was. The ticket system was sooo cool (well, it amused me). You pay for the ticket and the price includes a $1 deposit. The ticket is actually a card, like an Oyster card which you swipe to get through the barriers. Once you get to your destination you then put the ticket back in the ticket machine and it gives you a dollar back! Yeah I know, little things please little minds...

Got slightly lost trying to find my hostel before realising it was through an unmarked door into basically a block of flats. They'd converted one flat into a hostel so you had a proper living room and kitchen with some small bedrooms.

In my room I met a Swiss guy called Sven who had also just arrived so the two of us caught the MRT and then a bus to the infamous Changi Prison where the Japanese had kept POWs during World War II. The prison is still in use but has been modernised and the old structues are no longer there. All that's there for tourists to see is a small museum just about life in the prison and Singapore during the Japanese occupation. It was quite interesting but very small and not what I was expecting. From there we caught a bus into the city centre and found somewhere to eat. Then jumped on the tourist "hop-on, hop-off" buses for a tour of the city. It was a really good way to get an overview of Singapore, especially as I only had the afternoon there. We saw the Singapore Eye (5m bigger than the London Eye), the F1 racetrack, Little India, China Town and the old colonial buildings as well as driving down a really posh street full of expensive houses and the famous Orchard Road with all the designer shops and malls. We got off at the super-posh Raffles Hotel which looked like something out of the 1900s colonial era (which is actually was but it was so glamorous!). From there we went to the Bugis indoor market for a nosey around before grabbing a drink. After that I headed back to the hostel to finish packing and get an early night.

Singapore was very bizarre. It's definitely not an 'Asian' city, but nor is it really European or American. I'd definitely say it's unique. I couldn't make up my mind whether I liked it or not. I don't know if more time there would have helped, or if my one afternoon was actually enough. Odd.

Had a panic attack the next morning as I realised I hadn't changed the time on my phone so when I thought it was 6am it was actually 7am and I had to rush out to catch the MRT back to Changi Airport. The train felt like it took forwever and I rushed to the check-in desk only to be told it was ok, I had pleant of time. Panic over, I got through security and then remembered I hadn't found out the address of my hostel in Perth. Luckily they had free internet so I could quickly look it up before boarding my flight to Australia!!!! :D

Thailand Part 2

Part 2 of my Thai adventures:

The road to Pai has seven hundred and sixty two bends in it. And in the back of a minibus I felt every single one. I was a little queasy, though there were many people worse than me. I don't think there was a single person on the minibus that didn't feel sick and we were all relieved when we arrived in Pai - it only took three hours!

Pai is tiny. Very rural with only three main streets and it has a really laid back, 'hippie' atmosphere. We stayed at a place Tash's friend had recommended: Baan Pai Riverside. It was wonderful! To get to it we had to cross the the river on the rickitiest bamboo bridge ever. Did not feel safe but we made it and our reward was our own little hut on the river side. It was made out of bamboo on little stilts and though incredibly basic was wonderful. Feeling hungry we went to find food only to bump into Tash's enthusiastic mad/lovely friend Lucy, who took us to a cafe called 'The Good Life' which was full of wheatgrass! I had my first ever taste of kombucha (fermented tea - really nice) as well as tofu and rice. We met a Texan called Ray who wanted to show us around in his jeep but we were too tired for today. We spent that afternoon having a gentle walk around the town and then chilling out at our hut, and also at the lounge built over the river. We met Lucy that evening and fitted all of us onto her scooter so we could go to a restaurant called 'Charlie and Lek's' where I had some delicious fried rice. Thai food is really really good :D

I got up early the next morning to go on a two hour elephant trek. We fed the elephants bananas before getting aboard - via their trunk! I had no seat, just a blanket spread over their back. My elephant was called Ot and she was lovely, if a little uncomfortable and did like backing into trees. We had a trek around a 'mountain' - just a big hill really - before heading for the river. Ot seemed very keen to get in the water and even keener to get us in the water! Apart from the usual thing of spraying us with water we did 'elephant rodeo' where she basically just shook us off. The water was cold but at least the sun was out. It was so much fun but I was drenched!

I got back to Pai early that afternoon and met Tash and Texan Ray for lunch before we hopped in the back of Ray's rusty, 1960s Thai army jeep to go to a local waterfall. The top pool was packed with kids so we went to the quieter bottom one, where we met two Japanese guys with their Thai friend. The conversation was... interesting to say the least. They'd never seen a belly button piercing in real life (only 'online') and couldn't understand why we wanted a sun tan. They were really interested in our cultural differences so it was a funny talk. After the waterfall we drove through a local Tribal village before looking at the river and a temple. We ended up at the hot springs which, surprise surprise, were really hot! It was nice to relax in them, though we couldn't stay in the water too long. We had dinner at a place called 'Farmers Village' where we were served by another grumpy ladyboy(!) but the meal was worth it.

That evening after meeting a tattooist called Newton and a dog called Lola (long story - no tattoos involved!) we went to a bar which has little fire pits everywhere where you could just crash out on cushions around an open fire. It was really nice and they had fire-poi performers showing off their stuff.

I had to head back to Chiang Mai the next day to catch my overnight bus back to Bangkok so Tash and I had a lazy, food-filled morning before saying goodbye *sadness*. On the minibus back to Chiang Mai I met an aging hippie originally from California but who had lived in Thailand for the past fourteen years. It made for another interesting conversation. Once we arrived in Chiang Mai I went back to the Green Tulip House to wait for my bus. Stella was so happy to see me! She made me a banana pancake with a heart on it drawn in chocolate. So funny. I still had three slices left when the songtaew came to take me to the bus so they put them in a bag for me to take along. The overnight bus was dull and long, but livened up by the movie Avatar shown on the little tv and the fact that it felt we were traveling through some sort of war zone. There were so many police checkpoints along the route - because of all the planned political protests!

I arrived in Bangkok at 5am and walked to Khaosan Road. Nowhere was open except for a couple of clubs (complete with drunk all-nighters still playing pool). Finally found a little cafe to have some breakfast in before trying to get a room in the hotel I'd stayed at before. It was finally ready at 8am and I dumped my stuff and hurried out to book a bus to the airport for the next morning. Due to the time of my flight I had to get the 4am one. Gah! Ah well. That done, I went straight back to my hotel to sleep for quite a few hours, only getting up again in the afternoon. Did some last-minute shopping on Khaosan Road but it was so hot and sweaty I was only out a couple of hours before finding somewhere for dinner and then crawled back to bed.

Getting up the next morning wasn't too much of a challenge, but it was very odd walking down Khaosan Road at 3.30am with all my stuff while people were out partying and stumbling down the street. The bus office was closed so I sat outside and someone turned up to take me to the bus. There was an incredibly drunk Italian guy also getting on the bus. I was impressed he was still standing let alone had managed to get him and his stuff to the bus stop on time. We arrived at the airport at 4:30am and I found some breakfast after getting through all the security etc. The plane took off on time at 7am and I was off to Singapore...

Thailand Part 1

I only spent a total of ten days in Thailand so I figured I could put all my adventures into two posts. Here's Part 1 (Bangkok and Chiang Mai)...

The bus to Bangkok was pretty dreadful. From Siem Reap to the Poi Pet border wasn't too bad, but the border crossing was manic! So busy. Luckily I had no issues in getting through immigration or in getting my Thai visa. I've heard so many horror stories of people going the other way, but as you don't have to pay for the Thai visa there's very little they can do to rip you off. Even so, the crossing took almost two hours due to the queues. Once we were across we were dumped at a little restaurant to wait for a minibus to take us to Bangkok - a four hour trip from where we were. It was packed. We were stuff in and as I was little I was at the back next to the bags (which looked as if they'd fall on me at any moment) and a sleeping Japanese man who kept nodding off onto my shoulder. The air con really didn't work and we had to yell at the driver to turn it up. He finally did - and then tried to turn it back down ten minutes later. Finally we arrived in Bangkok hot, sweaty and tired (and possibly ready to kill the driver).

I found a cheap hotel on Khaosan Road with some of the people off the bus and I was glad to have people around for my first introduction to the madness that was the backpacker district. Khaosan Road was just crazy! From people doing dreadlocks on the street to selling all those cheesy backpacker t-shirts to people selling all kinds of fake id to bars walking around with signs saying "Really Strong Cocktails - we never check id" (which kind of makes all the fake id's pointless...)!!! Had my first Pad Thai that evening which was lovely; tofu, egg and noodles.

I had almost a full day in Bangkok the next day as my bus to Chiang Mai (booked last minute) wasn't until 6pm. I spent it with two English girls I'd met on the bus the day before and we went to the Royal Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha (which is actually jade but shh!). It was nice, but really really ornate, all covered with gold and shiny bits so you couldn't look at it in the sunlight without it blinding you. The sun was also super-bright so that really didn't help. From there we got a tuk tuk to the Wat Pho temple, though one of the tuk tuk drivers told us it was closed as it was 'Buddha Day'. We turned up any way and surprise surprise - it was open. It was a nice temple and very interesting to see the diagrams of pressure points painted on the walls (it was and still is a massage school). Feeling very tired we tried to get a tuk tuk back to Khaosan Road which proved impossible. I really really dislike the tuk tuk drivers here. No where else in Asia have I met such a nasty, lying, unhelpful, rude group of men. Apart from the guy that tried to tell us the temple was shut (because he wanted to take us somewhere else), every time we asked a man to take us to Khaosan Road the instant response was "why you want to go there?" Well honestly, it's none of your business and no, it's not for the shopping it's because we want to go back to our hotel. We knew the price should be around 30-40 baht but were willing to pay 50b just to get back but no, they'd only agree to that price if: "one stop first, yes? factory". No. No, we don't want to go to a factory where your mates'll try and rip us off. We just want to go back to our hotel. "Fine, 150 baht". What? Seriously? We gave up and got a taxi in the end which cost 60 baht and was air conditioned and less likely to kill us in the traffic. I refused to get a tuk tuk in Bangkok after than because I was so thoroughly disgusted by them.

I caught my bus to Chiang Mai that evening and met two lovely people: an English guy called Rob and an Australian girl called Tash. When we arrived in Chaing Mai it was 6am and still dark. The three of us got a songtaew to a hostel I'd found on the internet - Green Tulip House - and were given a bed and just told we could sleep and sort everything out (money etc.) when we woke up. At 10am we went downstairs and met Stella, who runs the hostel. She is mad! Actually mad, but wonderful. So enthusiastic about everything. She turned to Rob and said "I like you, you brought beautiful women to my hotel" while at the same time giving us a huge pile of leaflets of things to do in Chiang Mai. Rob decided to hire a bike while Tash and I went for a walk around the city, mostly from temple to temple. The first two were beautiful - Wat Phan and Wat Chedi Luang. At Wat Chedi Luang we had a lovely chat with a monk just about Buddhism and his life etc. He was originally from Laos and had been in a monastery since he was nine years old. He'd joined for a week because he thought it would be cool to shave his hair and wear funny clothes, and fourteen years later he's still a monk! He was studying English at the Buddhist University at the temple and wants to be an English teacher when he stops being a monk. He told us lots of interesting stories, such as the time he'd accidentally eaten dog because it had been donated to him and you can't refuse a donation. I thought monks were vegetarians but apparently not, though there is three types of meat they cannot eat: 1) if they've heard the animal being killed; 2) if they've seen the animal being killed; 3) if they suspect the animal was killed especially for them. He also told us about the only time he'd eaten Western food. He'd been out at 5am in the morning collecting donations when he met a group of Westerners who hadn't been to bed yet and were still drunk. They took him and bought him breakfast and he said it was the best food he'd ever had. What was it? A McDonalds. Oh dear!

We talked to him for about an hour and then went for a coffee. I had an iced cappucino... yes, an iced frothed milk. I didn't ask how they managed it. After the coffee we walked to the Tha Phae Gate and out of the old city to the Wat Bupparam temple where there's lots of plastic animals outside, including a statue of Donald Duck! So random! We then went back into the old city to look for the Women's Prison (all will be explained!). After following directions from a policeman and getting lost we found a coffee shop and asked the lady in there if she knew where it was. She didn't speak English but phoned her sister and had Tash try and explain over the phone to her where we wanted to go. Forty minutes later (no joke!) understanding was reached and then her and her friend took us there on their motorbikes. It was five minutes around the corner, and the part we wanted was closed! So they took us back to our hostel. We couldn't believe how nice they'd been. Just amazing and lovely. When we got back to our hostel Stella yelled at us to run up to the roof and see the sunset (in fact, she practically chased us up there while waving a huge almost empty glass of red wine). That evening we went to the Night Market with a Welsh man called Brian for food and a look around. It got late and we decided we had to leave because we all felt we were going mad. I was convinced a lobster was still alive and had winked at me despite being pink and cooked on a BBQ, while Tash had bought an (awesome) dolphin watch that had one of those snap bands as a strap.

The next morning Tash and I had breakfast opposite the Wat Phra Sing temple and were served by a really moody ladyboy. After a banana pancake we had a look around the temple and I was confused by a meditating monk who, despite being assured was real and alive, I was still convinced was a statue. From there we walked to the Women's Prison for... a massage! Yes, that was the reason for going. It's part of the rehabilitation program of the prisoners. In their last three months they get trained up and are allowed to practice in a special facility until they're released, at which point they have a guaranteed three month job in another shop. The massage was lovely and also good for us to get as we'd signed up for a massage class for the following day, so it only seemed fair we knew what it felt like first (a good excuse for some relaxation anyway!). That evening Tash, Rob and I played jenga on the roof while watching the sunset, before heading out of the old city to the riverside for food. Found a lovely Thai curry restaurant and then walked back to our hostel via a bar with live music. The band were... good even if they did keep singing the wrong lyrics to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Kings of Leon etc. We also got very confused by the barmaids, as most of them were ladyboys but it wasn't always easy to tell which was which. Rob came up with a perfect tester: "The shorter the skirt the longer the..." (I think you can guess the last word in that :P ) After an strange old Thai man bought me a rose we made a quick escape and headed for bed.

The Thai massage class Tash and I did on the Friday was amazing! We started with some chanting, followed by meditation and then some yoga-like stretching to warm up, before spending the morning working on the legs. There was only Tash and I in the class so it was real, one-on-one teaching with us practicing on each other after being demonstrated on by the lady teaching us. Pretty intense but good. We had an hours break for lunch where Tash and I had burritos at a lovely Mexican, before continuing the afternoon's classes with the side (back), head and sitting positions. We were also given an illustrated book with all the positions in. We were back at the hostel at 4.30pm feeling tired but quite relaxed! That evening we went out with Rob and some of his friends. Found a tiny little street full of bars and didn't end up getting into bed until 5am. Ooops. Even bigger oops was Tash and mine's bus to Pai was leaving at 10am so we only had four hours sleep before attempting the infamous road to Pai...

To be continued!!!!

ABC's + Rice

Well the last post was about all the touristy stuff I got up to in Siem Reap, while this one is about a different side to not only the city but to Cambodia in general. A couple of the photography students I met up in Halong Bay had given me contact details of a charity organisation - a school - they had visited while in Siem Reap so I decided to see if I could spend a couple of days also volunteering while I was here. I dropped the guy, Matt, an email and he got back to me saying that while I couldn't become a volunteer for their school (as they require a minimum of two weeks so as not to mess the children around) he would be more than happy to have a chat with me about their program and show me around.

I met up with him on the Sunday night and found out about the projects he is involved with. One of the main ones was the school and rice program "ABC's + Rice", which was set up by a Canadian woman called Tammy. It's quite simple: the parents of incredibly poor children sign a contract to say they will not send their child out to work and in exchange their child gets free education (in both Khmer and English) at their school and also get rice to take home on a regular basis to feed their family. Matt also teaches at another NGO school in the afternoons while Tammy teaches English in the mornings at a private school so she can earn enough money to keep the project running. Matt introduced me to Mr. Lao that evening and agreed to take me to visit the schools after a morning going around the temples.

So that's what happened! After my tiring day at the temples I visited first the school where Matt teaches in the afternoon and had some of the staff there show me around. They were particularly proud of their library, in particular the children's favourite books which were story books written in both Khmer and English. They only had about three or four of these and when I asked why I was told because they were too expensive - $1 each! From there I went to ABC's + Rice which has only been open fully a month and already has about one hundred children - fifty in the morning classes and fifty in the afternoons. At the moment the classrooms are just bamboo huts but there's a pump in the yard where they can have fresh, clean water and the children are in a safe environment. Almost as soon as I arrived (at playtime!) I was swamped by children. They were just lovely, very friendly and happy to show me their work and try out their English on me. Matt said he would be happy for me to visit again the next morning so Mr. Lao agreed to pick me up bright and early.

Before heading out to the school the next morning I visited one of the local bookshops and picked up three of the Khmer/English storybooks. They were $1 which doesn't seem like much to us but is a lot over here. I gave the books to Matt for ABC's + Rice and he said their library had been increased by 300% (yep, they'd only had one book up 'til then)! I spent the morning sitting in on the littlest kids class with them learning their vowels and numbers. A couple of girls attached themselves to me and kept trying to sit on the chair with me and show me their work. So cute! At the end of the morning they have assembly and this time the teachers turned to me and said "What would you like to do with them?"!!! Do? With fifty children? They wanted me to sing a song (ha ha, no!) so in the end I did a few minutes of star jumps and stuff. Got them very confused with trying to circle their arms different ways! I had lunch with Matt and Tammy and met the men that the two of them tutor in their lunchbreaks. After lunch Matt went to his afternoon classes while I stayed to chat to Tammy.

She is an incredible person! Having saved up for a couple of years to do a trip through Asia she lasted all of a few days on the tour before deciding to stay in Cambodia. She went home briefly to sell all her stuff - furniture, jewellery etc. - in order to move out here permently. She set up ABC's + Rice from scratch and is working almost every moment of the day to make sure it keeps running. She also runs a breakfast club for another school, for those children who are too poor to afford food. She took me for a look around the local village and then back to the school that afternoon so we could sing some songs for the children. Yes, I joined in. No, I wasn't laughed at! We also did the macarana! I spent that evening with Tammy and sat in with her on a meeting she had about the running of her NGO and about setting up a website. It was fascinating to see the behind-the-scenes as it were on just what's needed to work out here.

It was also an eye-opener into the much sadder, shady world of some of the projects out here. Especially in terms of volunteering and I'm very glad I never signed up to any of these 'pay-to-volunteer' companies. I won't go into the details but if you are thinking of doing something like volunteering make sure you sign up with a registered charity, as they are held accountable for any money they recieve so it does go to where it's meant to. A lot (not all) of gap year companies often do not pass the money they recieve from volunteers onto the organisations you volunteer at. But then again, this is Cambodia and corruption is so widespread here it shouldn't have come as much of a surprise.

Tammy offered to show me around another school she worked for the following afternoon and I agreed to meet her at her house. Found a moto driver to take me there, only we got lost! Luckily I found a nice lady who lent me her phone so I could let them know where I was and Matt met me at the market. Phew! I borrowed a bicycle off Tammy and we cycled back through the local market to the other school that she knows and arrived at break time - so complete madness. I got 'kidnapped' by a group of about five little girls who dragged me around the different classrooms and played some spinning game in the playground that left me very dizzy! I also met the loveliest twelve year old girl who sadly was only rescued two years ago from the sex trade. Looking at her it's hard to believe it but it's so sad. The children had to go back to their lessons so Tammy and I cycled back to Siem Reap for dinner.

We all met up again on the Saturday night and said our goodbyes. Tammy and Matt have said I can come back and volunteer whenever I want and Mr. Lao told me 'when' I do come back, he'll take me around and find me a paid job teaching English so I can afford to stay longer!

Sunday lunchtime was interesting. Charlie (boy), Charlie (girl) and me were sitting at one of the cafes on Pub Street when I recognised one of the street kids that came up trying to sell us stuff. His name is Phy and he attends one of the schools I visited. We got chatting and found that he works from 6am - 11pm on the weekends and, as he only takes home 25 cents from every dollar he makes he often doesn't eat. The rest of the money goes to his 'boss'. Well, we all felt exactly the same so we took him and one of his friends to a restaurant by the Old Market to buy them lunch. He ordered some chicken wings and I can honestly say I have never seen a plate cleared so thoroughly in my life. I even gave him the rest of my rice because he was absolutely starving. I wanted to feed all the kids that were hanging around but sadly I couldn't afford to :( There were quite a few I wanted to take home too but I didn't think I'd get them through customs.

I loved Siem Reap, both sides of it and though there's a lot of bad stuff happening there, there are also some really good people trying to make a difference. So just a word of warning - I am already considering raising money for ABC's + Rice when I return so I may be bugging you guys to donate/do stuff! :D

Siem Reap

I've split my time in Siem Reap into two blogs because I saw two very different sides to the area. One was the normal, touristy stuff and the other was the charity and volunteering aspects. But first the tourist stuff!!

The hostel I was staying at cost me $1 a night for a bed, though that is a slight exaggeration. What I got was a matteress out the back on a wooden platform with a mozzie net. The locals also lived out there so I was woken every morning around 5-6am by either people leaving to get to the temples or by the locals waking up and getting on with their day, especially by the children playing around in my 'room'. There was also a lake out the back full of frogs that would hop out at me as I walked to the bathrooms each night. I thought I was going to have a heart attack the first few times but I did get used to them. There were many lovely people staying there, and a couple of nuts. One French-Iranian guy came up to me and, without an introduction, asked if I knew malaria. When I said yes, he asked "you have it?". Urm... no... He thought he had it but after sitting with him and going through the symptoms and where he'd been I told him it was very unlikely. Later on he said it wasn't malaria but dengue... His 'rash' was the fact his pores were open on his arms as it was so hot! That evening when I was in my mozzie net and him in the one next to me I hear, "hey you, you know any bedtime stories?"... I replied (grumpily as I wanted to sleep) that no I didn't... "shame, I know many beautiful ones". I can't remember exactly what I said to him but I think it was something along the lines of 'good for you, leave me alone, I'm asleep'. Bizzare.

Siem Reap isn't a large town but has two markets which are mad. I loved wandering around just looking at all the tourist rubbish on sale, but sadly everywhere I went I had people going "hey lade, buy something, lady, something?" It did get quite irriating. Especially the tuk tuks. By the end of the week I thought if I heard a guy say "lady, tuk tuk?" to me one more time I'd have hit someone! However, I did manage to pick up some Khmer so knowing how to say 'no thank you' (otay akhun) came in handy.

My first day in Siem Reap I met a girl called Jo from England so that evening we had a tuk tuk driver from the hostel take us to the temples for sunset. I wanted to be in Angkor Wat for the sunset but he insisted we walk up the hill to Phomn Bakheng instead. It was absoultely packed! People were sitting all over the temple and the sunset was nice until it hit the clouds, then it vanished. But we stayed up there for about an hour and the light went really wierd, all sort of red so quite pretty. Our tuk tuk driver seemed determined to take us around the temples the next day also, but I wasn't too happy about it as he wouldn't give us a price that evening. I got back to Siem Reap in time to meet Matt the Australian (will explain about him later) and he introduced me to a tuk tuk driver he gives English lessons to, Mr. Lao. He said he's take us around the temples for $15, which I knew was the average price, so I agreed to meet him outside our hostel at 5am(!) the next morning.

Had to be woken up by Jo at 5.15am as somehow I slept through my alarm - the only time I've ever done that! Oh dear. Had a slight hassle with the hostel's tuk tuk driver as he was still wanting to take us but we went with Mr. Lao. Arrived at the temples just before 6am and stood just inside Angkor Wat for sunrise. Despite the hundreds of people, it was still absolutely amazing. The sunrise over the towers was breath-taking and you hardly noticed anyone else. Most people disappeared for breakfast straight after sunrise anyway, so the temple itself was practically deserted. Walking around I was grabbed by an old man who tied a red bracelet onto my wrist. He was muttering and blowing over it and later I found it's meant to be a blessing and I'm to keep it on until it falls off. Angkor Wat is amazing; I cannot describe it properly in words but it is one of the most beautiful places I've been. We spent about an hour walking around it before finding Mr. Lao and going for breakfast.

We spent a total of seven hours around the temples. They were gorgeous but by the end I was feeling slightly 'templed out'. We visited: Bayon (the temple with all the heads - I got talking to some Japanese archaeologists that were working on it so very interesting), Baphuon, Terrace of the Elephants, Terrace of the Leper King, Chau Say Thevada, Thommanom, Ta Keo (so so many steps!), Ta Promh (Tomb Raider temple, the one with all the trees and almost definitely my favourite. I happily strayed off the path and went exploring but I didn't find any secret passages), Banteay Kdei and finally Pre Rup. So yes, just a few. But even after visiting all those we hadn't seen a fraction of the Angkor complex. There were lots of street kids hanging around trying to sell stuff and they are so hard to say no to. I did quite well until Banteay Kdei when a little girl just tried to give me a bracelet. I said no but she was adament I was to take it as a gift. I felt so bad I ended up buying another bracelet off her but it was only a dollar so...

Another day that week I was just sitting at the computer in the hostel fairly early in the morning when I was approached by a Dutch couple who asked if I wanted to join them on a trip to Kompong Phhluk - a village on the Tonle Sap lake. They needed four people to hire the boat so I agreed and the next thing I know I'm off on a 30km journey in a tuk tuk with the Dutch couple and an Italian girl. It was actually a really good day. Kompong Phhluk is, in the wet season, one of the 'floating villages'. In the dry season, the houses stand on stilts 10m or so above the ground. Our tuk tuk driver grew up there and his family run a small tourist restaurant where we had drinks. The road we took to the boat is normally 3m underwater and the lake itself is huge. Even in the dry season you couldn't see the other shore. It's pretty much an inland sea. We ended up sitting on a bamboo fish farm for a while just floating around, which was lovely. That evening the four of us went for dinner at the 'Raja Yoga Peace Cafe'. I looked into how much their yoga classes were but at $40 a session I decided to skip it. The food was good though!

On the Friday I met an English girl also called Charlie who was volunteering at a school so we had a walk around the markets and had a tradition Khmer massage which was just wonderful! And before anyone asks, they give you clothes to wear so it's not dodgy like some of the stories I heard about Bangkok! They also gave you free tea afterwards :D That evening we both went to a free hour-long introduction to meditation which was really good. Though at the start we wondered what we'd got ourselves into as it was taught by a really stereotypical American hippie and when he started taking about 'peace and love' Charlie and I couldn't look at each other in fear of laughing. I was actully biting my lip to stop myself giggling, but once we got into the mental exercises it was quite interesting.

Tammy (from ABC's+Rice - to be explained!) had lent me her bicycle so I thought I'd cycle to the West Baray lake for a swim on the Saturday morning. Bad idea. I almost died. It was about 40+ degrees and 70% humitiy at least. I passed the airport and stopped to see how far away I was as I'd been cycling for 40mins. I wasn't even halfway there! I confess I gave in and turned around to cycle the 40mins back, with a vague idea of finding a swimming pool. But by the time I got back to the hostel I was bright red, drenched and my legs had turned to jelly. I crashed out on my bed and woke up a good three hours later feeling shamefully unfit. Spent that afternoon drinking iced coffees (so so good - they do them with condensed milk over here and I think I'm becoming addicted) and watching Scrubs. But that evening a group of us decided we wanted to see Angkor Wat in the moonlight as it was a full moon so we cycled up there at around 6pm. Took us half an hour and when we got there police were everywhere. We'd had vague ideas of getting into Ta Phromh in the dark but the police soon put an end to those plans, basically not allowing us to get any further down the road than Angkok Wat. We tried! But they growled at us so we went and sat with the locals overlooking Angkor Wat until the police found us and told us to get lost. There wasn't even any moonlight >< Stupid clouds. We did see lightening in the distance though!

I'd thought of going to Bangkok the next morning but that evening I got an email from the boys I'd travelled through Vietnam with saying they were in Siem Reap. I'd just missed them in Saigon and Phomn Penh so we got to meet up that evening which was awesome! So nice to see them again and exchange misadventures. The next day was my last day in Siem Reap so Charlie girl and I met up with Charlie boy for lunch (yes, three Charlie's - it was confusing!) before Tom, Danny and Jimmy caught up with us. Had another lovely day hanging out with them before saying our proper goodbyes as they're heading into Laos (possibly with a chicken!) and I'm going to have left Asia before they get to Thailand.

I left Siem Reap at 6am the next morning, on a bus bound for Bangkok. But that journey's another story :D