Nov 12, 2007 - Siem Reap

We woke up and saw on the news that one of the leaders of the Khmer Rouge had been arrested! This man had lived in luxury for over 30 years after he ordered mass murder on thousands of people.....however! he is now 87 years old! We caught a flight to Siem Reap. We were in a fab hotel WITH A POOL! so we just chilled in the afternoon. That evening we went to 'bar street!' (which speaks for itself!)then went to the night market. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day 2 The temples of Angkor...

Nov 9, 2007 - More From Angkor Wat

Hello Again! Sorry to drop and run on the last entry but our group was gathering in the lobby for our next tour and I had to join them. To continue from where I left off...Upon arrival in Seim Reap, we were taken to our hotel and were given an update about what we would be doing while visiting Angkor Wat. We had about one hour in our room to rest and then met back in the lobby to go on a bus ride to a shrine and to get oriented in the city of Seim Reap. Back to the room to rest for about 1 1/2 hours and then off to dinner and a Cultural...

Nov 6, 2007 - Day 42 - Angkor Awaits!

A 4am (aaaargh!) start to catch a 6am flight to Cambodia. We were all working on auto-pilot (except the pilot I hope) but came right after lots of coffee and doughnuts on the flight. After a transit stop in Pakse (southern Laos) we arrived at a beautiful airport at Siam Reap at about 9am. Everyone had to line up to purchase their visas on arrival and then stand around and wait for their names to be called out once the visa had been processed. We were all in complete hysterics as a beaming, jovial little Cambodian man in a military uniform...

Nov 6, 2007 - Update... We are in Cambodia!

Today is our second day in Cambodia. We arrived last night and are staying at the Prince D Ankgor. Nice Hotel yet it seems like everytime we check into a hotel we have to change rooms or get something fixed and this was no different. This time the lights shut off every three min. and last time in Bangkok the air cond fan rattled. With that one they sent in the "thai engineers" It was entertaining to a point until they brought in a shop vac to try and fix the rattle. Thats when I had enough and got a new room. The time before in Phuket I had...

Oct 26, 2007 - Angkor Wat

So at 9am this morning I was aboard an elephant marching through the ancient gates to Angkor Thom. Once inside we were clamoring all over the temple with about a million South Koreans! We spent the majority of the morning at Angkor Thom which is one of the biggest 3 temples at Angkor. The rest of the morning and afternoon were spent visiting 4 other smaller temples which were all unique and very interesting. We had lunch at a local restaurant that was in the shadow of Angkor Wat. At one of the last temples, I met a Johnnie! This world is...

Oct 25, 2007 - Siem Reap

This morning we flew from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap (because of bandits on the ground route.) We got our 3-days passes for the Angkor temple complex and then headed into town. We got a quick walking tour of town before having the coolest lunch in an awesome bakery/restaurant/lounge! After lunch a bunch of us hired tuk-tuks to take us about 26 miles out of town to a temple we're not going to get to and the landmine museum. The temple was beautiful, the detail that remains is out of this world! Cambodia is one of the most mined countries in the...

Oct 5, 2007 - cambodia arrival

Ha HA you are back to me again. Well. we took the bus from Banhkok to Siem Reap it is about 300 miles or so. To be fair we hade been warned that it was "The Journey from Hell." This was not the case however. Was it long? Yes. Was it Bunpy? God yes. Did it take longer by bus then walking? ......Probably. It infact took Just over 14 Hours with only 1:30 in breaks. This is on the equivelent of the M1. It is roumered that an unnamed Thai Airline is paying an unnamed Cambodian Minister to make sure the road in has more Humps then Casanova. Well...

Sep 18, 2007 - Siem Reap-Day 1

8:20pm in Siem Reap, former capital of Cambodia and now the launching point for all visitors who come to see the Angkor temples. I had read it was very touristy, very backpacker-y...but I have to say, after only being here a couple of hours, I think I really like it. Phnom Penh seems much more serious with an undertone of not being safe. That's probably because it isn't so safe, but I can verify that from personal experience now, not just from reading. Guns seem to be fairly common...I kept seeing guns (machine and otherwise). Sometimes the...

Sep 14, 2007 - CAMBODIA - Siem Reap & Angkor Wat

Left Phnom Penh with Finn & Elin (all quite pleased to be leaving!) and headed to Siem Reap - famous for the temples of Angkor Wat! The bus ride was definitely an experience. Not so much the bumpy road, heat and dust that got to you - more the filthiness of the bus and the air conditioning unit that (obviously didn't work) and was infested with cockroaches!! Every now and then a few would drop out of the vents and land on your face or lap - totally disgusting! If that wasn't bad enough, the driver then proceeds to put on a crap karaoke dvd...

Sep 5, 2007 - Angkor Wat!

As documented, it is definitely one of the wonders of the world! We woke up at the crack of dawn (or just before), and rode in a tuk tuk about 20 minutes to angkor wat where we watched the incredible sunrise over the picture worthy monstrosity! We had decided the day before to pay for a guide to take us around for the day, as we knew there was a LOT of history throughout the wats and a guidebook could only tell us so much. Our guide (name was Phin) spent about two hours with us inside angkor wat telling us about every single detail...

Sep 3, 2007 - The Plan- Siem Reap to Laos

I plan to leave Siem Reap on 7th Sept going by shared taxi to Anlong Veng and cross the border into Thailand. I will be taking the bus to Ubon Rachathani in Thailand; where I plan to meet up with Mick Larkin. Mick came to Peace Of Angkor Villa for a few days in 2006 and ended up 2-3 weeks. He is teaching in Ubon now so look forward to having a few beers. I then plan to go to Paxse in South Laos for a few days I will try to continue north along the Mekong by boat where possible via the colonial town of Savannakhet on Mekong At Vientiane I...

Sep 1, 2007 - Bangkok, Cambodia

Took us a day to be able to access our Visa card. British Airways had put a stop on it. Why and how, we are yet to find out but it is something we will follow up - luckily no real damage done! We are in Cambodia. We had 2 weeks of good weather with a few thunderstorms but the last week has been non stop rain and it looks like it will continue. Trip to Cambodia was good until we reached the border. Got scammed into changing money at a really poor rate - thought we were smarter than that but they were so convincing. Trip from border to Siem...