Siem Reap

This bus was advertised as a sleeper bus; super comfy with a toilet, air-con and DVD player. And all for $18. Sounds nice doesn’t it? It wasn’t.

Let me set the mood…I had my first dose of the Cambodian Craps, there was no toilet on board and the air-con was set to sub zero. All I can say is THANK YOU to who ever invented Immodium!!

The beds were clearly made for South East Asians..which makes sense as we are in S.E Asia! However, these buses were predominantly used by backpackers. At first we viewed the super compact pods as cosy but, within the hour they were claustrophobic and my idea of hell! The two beds together were smaller then a single bed and had no partition. This wasn’t a problem for Dave and I, as we knew each other. However, that would be a really strange experience if you were squashed up with a stranger!!

We set off and within 10 minutes ALL of the lights were turned off. There were no personal lights above the beds, so fumbling around in the dark for your torch (which you didn’t think you’d be needing) just added to the experience. After all that’s what this was…an experience.

Every time I attempted to nod off I’d be tossed towards the side of the bus. This journey was bumpy. Ridiculously bumpy. Dave’s description: “It’s like trying to fall asleep on a bouncy castle at peak time!”.

After 2 hours, a girl on the bus begged for a toilet stop. This ended up being on the side on the road. Taking advantage of the stop I decided to go for a wee. Mid flow, I looked up to realise that my white bum was glowing under the bus’ back lights and, I was being watched by a local lady and her daughter. They found it hilarious. My bladder didn’t find it as funny and decided to go shy. My wee stop was interrupted and ruined! Staying on topic…our next stop was scheduled at a makeshift service station with ‘proper toilets’. The little shacks at the bottom of the path looked ok from outside. However, the insides were grim. The floor was literally crawling and as I dropped my trousers to hover over the drop, something flew up and at me. I actually squealed. Pulling my trousers up as quickly as I could,I darted out of there. The other passengers who were stood outside, just looked at me as if to stay “man up!”. Eventually, I did man up and ventured back in to another stall where this time, I was joined by a cricket. We exchanged pleasantries and then I left for the next blissful 7 hours on the bus.

Looking back on it now, the journey was quite funny but at the time…not so much. The bus even left me with a huge bruise on my hip where I was knocked about so much. Thankfully, we haven’t got another long journey like that for a while. Anyway, that’s been and gone now – 11 hours of my life I’m not getting back! Nor do I want them back!

We arrived at Mad monkey hostel around 5pm after our 11 hour journey. The difference between this hostel and the one we stayed at in Bangkok was crazy! Its modern pool with beanbag loungers, bar and, super friendly staff were welcomed with a smile. We checked into a private room for 4 nights and it cost around £3.50 each a night. Not the cheapest but,we were recommended it and,the reviews online were pretty good.

As soon as we arrived, we showered, dumped our stuff and headed to the rooftop bar for our free beer. Absolute bliss. We spent the night wandering around and then got some food. The first thing we noticed was how much more expensive it was compared to Bangkok…some food was nearly double the price!

Our first day, we decided to lie in and catch up on sleep. We ended up going out for brunch and contemplating what to do with ourselves. We were planning on doing a full day at Angkor the following day so ruled that out originally. However an impromptu decision to visit the site in the afternoon came into action. We jumped into a tuk tuk with our driver Phat (as in Postman) and headed off to the temples of Angkor.

The first thing that we noticed about the site, was how HUGE it was! The winding roads were lined with trees and were decorated with vendors and cyclists. I wasn’t sure what to expect but, it wasn’t this! After handing over $40, we were given our 3 day passes to use.

Number one on our visit list was, Bayon. As we approached I actually muttered the word “wow”! It’s many faces look at you as you walk up through the temple’s entrance. The darkened limestone walls are crumbling all around yet, you can still see all of the details that have been carved into them.

After visiting Bayon we made our way to Tha Prohm via a few of the smaller temples. One of which was Elephant Terrace. Once again, the details within the walls were amazing! Row after row of stone elephants stood to attention along a 350m promenade.

Shortly after arriving at Ta Prohm (Tomb Raider temple) it was clear to see that nature was running wild.So far, this seemed to be the busiest temple we had visited. Wherever there was a tree, there was a Chinese tourist carefully arranging themselves around/on it, in order to take a ‘seductive’ photo!! Incredibly frustrating! After navigating our way through the ancient paths we made it to the other side where Phat was waiting for us.

Next, was the piece de resistance…watching the sunset from the top of Pre Rup. Sunset wasn’t due for another hour after we arrived so, we took our time exploring. After climbing the super steep steps to the summit, we found a spot to perch on. When we reached the top, there were probably only about 20 other people around- by the time the sun started to set, there were at least 100!! Watching the sun set over the lush forest below was somewhat surreal and, definitely a beautiful end to our first day in Siem Reap.

Our first evening was spent getting to know the area and grabbing a bite to eat. We ended up going to a pizza place just around the corner from our hostel. After we ordered our food,the (really young) waitress asked if we wanted our pizzas to be “happy”. We naively asked her what she meant and she just laughed and walked off. After we polished our non-happy pizzas off, we were talking to an American couple who informed us of what a Happy Pizza actually was. It’s basically a pizza that’s been Ganga-fied! They also told us that anything edible with the word “happy” or “magic” in front of it is laced with some sort of narcotic!

Day number two was an ultimate lazy day. However, we did manage to visit the old market. This market seemed to be where the locals did their shopping. It was pretty cool having a look around but the smells were horrific. Meat and offal was just lying around on trays in 32 degree heat. Need I say more?!

That evening we retreated to the roof top bar and ended up chatting to some other backpackers. Two words describe the next few hours: Beer Pong! Let’s just say the result didn’t work in Dave’s favour for the 4:30am alarm we’d set for the next day!

The reason for such an early wake up call was to watch the sunrise over the majestic Angkor Wat. For me personally, the sunrise was a bit over-hyped. Yes, it was beautiful but, the hundreds of people huddled along the waters edge in order to get a photo was a bit much. After watching the sun appear over the temple’s towers, we headed inside. As most people were still watching the sun, it felt like we had the whole temple to ourselves. It was such an overwhelming experience.

Other temples that were visited that morning included Preah Khan and Neak Poan. The latter temple was the strangest we had visited as it was surrounded by water. In order to get to the temple we had to walk along a raised walkway just above the man made lake. It was really pretty as you could see fish in the water and dragonflys hovering all around. After 4 hours in the morning sun, we were defeated and headed back to bed!

For our final evening in Siem Reap we went to a $1 night with our Beer Pong buddies. All of the drinks and tapas were $1 each…winner! The funniest part of the night was definitely the journey back to the hostel – seven people in a tuk tuk! Hilarious!

Overall, I really enjoyed Siem Reap. Yes, it was an expensive few days but it was well worth the money!

Next stop…Sihanoukville, Cambodia.