Siem Reap, Cambodia – Day 32

Howdy,

So went for a couple of pitchers last night, the town is pretty cool with some good bars. On the way out of our bar I met a fella I used to work with, Ken from the airport. Had a good chat and he told us that he did Angkor Wat by bicycle and recommended it…right says us, we’ll do it that way!

Got up this morning and went and got bikes, 2 dollars for the day. Sweet. It was 6 km to the first temple, which hada very steep 20 dollar entrance fee. That was the biggest one and pretty cool looking…

Did that for a while then cycled 3 km to next temple…bums were getting a bit sore at this stage…

Then 3 km to the next one….we got kinda bored at that stage. We may regret that but its tough climbing temples and cycling in 35 degree heat. Also the girls had to dress respectibly so they were ROASTING.

Decided to head home after that, then we found the 12 km sign. We were nearly crying. My ass was near failure. Aoife couldn’t handle being covered in sweat. Cats didn’t moan but i could see the pain in her eyes. So we cycled 24 km in soaring temps to look at some stones. The filth of us when we got back was unreal. Covered in dirt. Twas a tough day but we’re delighted coz thats our sight seeing DONE. Well apart from Phi Phi island but thats way too cool to consider as sight seeing.

Walking back from the bike place there we met Marshall who was a canadian we hung out with in Phnom Penh, we’re meeting him and an Aussie guy he met for dinner in a while. The girls hope the Aussie is hot coz they’re getting a bit desperate at this stage. They did fancy the pants off one of the Scotsmen we met (Cats just corrected me there “They fell in love with”) in Phnom Penh. His name was Ian and he was “tight”apparently….

Getting up early for the flight to Bangkok but then its plain sailing from there on in. You’s might think its easy doing what we do, but we rarely get to just relax without having to worry bout what natural wonder or what bus we have to get up early for….its a tough life!

Tans rose a few levels today with the 6 hrs of cycling.

Talk to you’s in Thailand! PAAAAAAARTY!!!!

Ronan

ps I think Paul misses us, he constantly emails wondering when we’re meeting him. We know his wee heart is empty without us…

Siem Riep, Cambodia – Day 31

Happy Mothers Day to Angela, Liz, Geraldine and Helen!!!

Alright, just arrived in Siem Reap. 6 hour journey again to be welcomed by the swarm of shouting tuktuk drivers. I roared at one of them to leave me alone and stop shouting at me! Got a grand hotel, 3 dollars each a night.

Right Friday night in Phnom Penh we just flaked out in our communal area with a few beers and watched a couple of DVDs! Great night.

Saturday morning we were up early for some sightseeing. Groggyness ensued! We ere talking to our hotel guy and he said he would get us a tuktuk to see the killing fields and the s21 detention centre for 24 dollars, 8 each. Eh….No. Cats swiftly went out on the street and found a bloke who would do it for 10! Cats is good at the oul bargaining.

Went to the killing fields first, thats where the cambodians were executed and buried in mass graves because of many reasons which I just cant think of right now. Pol Pot was behind it all. So he’s a bit of a knob. 8985 people have been excavated so far. We were allowed into a building called the bone temple, its 7 storeys of shelves filled with human skulls. PRETTY CREEPY. Then the rest of the fields were just signs saying what buildings used to be there and what purpose they had in the executions. There were a load of big holes which were the mass graves. Walking around there were just old clothes everywhere, some of them were still half buried. Pretty freaky stuff.

After that we headed to the S21 detention centre which is now a genocidal museum. Basically its where the people were held and tortured for any information they might have about stuff (google it). After that they were brought to the killing fields. It was an old school split into different blocks, you got seperated depending on your qualifications and how important you were in society. We saw pretty graphic photos of how they were tortured and saw photos of eall the people held there and they even took pics of them when they were dead. You can still see blood on the floor in some of the torture rooms and splashes of blood on the ceiling. Not nice at all.

After the sightseeing we came back and book our bus to…well here…and our flights to Bangkok on Tuesday 4th. Then we headed to the communal area and hung out with some scotsmen and canadians for the evening. Headed for dinner with them and hada  few beers.

So all in all we like Phnom Penh a lot. Still cheapest place going…

Heading to Angkor Wat tomorrow to look at temples. We’re sick of temples. But apparentely these are the best temples EVER.

I’ll lob up photo’s later on of me and some skeletons.

Ronan

 p.s. Paul is still on Koh Tao, he can’t do his diving coz he’s so sunburnt. Photo’s of him are HILARIOUS!

Phnom Penh, Cambodia – Day 29

So Cambodia is a mad laugh, cheapest place in the world and whats even a better laugh is the border crossing in!

We got on the bus at 8 this morning, our bus dude got us to fill out our visa things for Cambodia and took 25 dollars off us for the pleasure. Got to the Vietnamese side of the border soon enough. We were ordered off the bus, had to get our bags and go thru immigration. Our bus dude took our passports, and brought them up to the officer, he stamped them 1 by 1 and then the bus dude attempted to call our names1 by 1. Definitely would have been quicker doing it ourselves! Aoife is now Maria and Cats is Bin Catrin. Then we had to put our bags back on the bus and sit there til everyone was done (15 mins) then it drove 100 meters down the road to Cambodian immigration. They took our passports and we were left in limbo in between 2 countries. Eventually the bus dude told us to get back on and we drove to a restaurant 3km from the border. We sat there until some bloke turned up on a moped with a load of passports, dodgy as f*ck is all I can say. We were merrily on our way then until they decided to dig every road in Cambodia up. It was like being on a space hopper for 2 hours and we were sweating buckets coz the air condition was pants. So our 6 hour journey took 8 and a half hours – HELL.

Pulled in to Phomn Penh  and the tuk tuk drivers were banging on the windows trying to get people in their tuktuks. They grabbed and harrassed us once we got off, it was the worst we’ve seen so far. And after that journey it wasn’t that easy to say “No Thanks”. I got royally pissed off. Got a tuk tuk anyway to the lakeside and found a hilarious hotel. We half to walk down a slightly dodgy alley to get to it. Its grand apart from the toilet in the room, its pretty much like having a portaloo with no roof in a bedroom – HILARIOUS. Sp for poo time we have to crank up the music during. Also there’s no AC (this place is roasting) and there’s no TV so Aoife might just crack up. But for 3 dollars each a night who can complain! The hotelier guy openly offered us weed and a dvd to watch in the communal area! So we reckon anything goes in the ‘bodia. There were people there half baked…

Just went for dindins there and found out the double vodka a red bull is $0.75 cents, thats 50 euro cents!! Happy days! I know where I’m going tonight! For 6 dollars you can get an elephant bucket, thats 1 bottle of whiskey or vodka, your choice, with 2 cokes and 2 red bulls!! Like to see how much that would cost in Dublin.

We’re booking into the Killing Fields and some detention centre for tomorrow and gonna try get a flight from Siem Reap to Bangkok on Tuesday. From there we’re gonna get a boat to Koh Tao and meet Paul on the 5/6th. Also Ciaran is gonna be in Bangkok too so we’re gonna try get the boat with him!

So we might just go get a bit tipsy tonight for 3 dollars!

Later,

Ronan

ps – ATM’s here give out dollars – SWEET

pps – Cats had 2 jokes today, she was on a roll