Phnom Penh is smaller than expected, but the traffic is great to watch. We saw trucks and people carriers so full of passengers and piled so high with goods on top that only 2 of the wheels touched the floor. We stayed for a couple of nights before heading south to the coastal town of Sihanoukville.
We spent a whole week enjoying the long beach, good food and calm sea. We ate from tables on the sand with the sea lapping at our feet. We were joined by 2 friends from South America and it was nice to catch up and see some familiar faces. It was such a lovely spot, we really didn’t want to leave.
The locals spend their day wandering up and down the beach offering massages, manicures, fruit and books. We purchased a book that told us of Cambodia’s recent history, horrific. It also gave us an insight into the country’s poverty. The kids all wander around trying to sell you a bracelet. They were all very friendly and we felt as if we wanted to help them. It is evident by just looking at the streets and people that they are not supported by a structured society, so we tried to do our bit.
We moved on to Siem Reap and the home of the temples of Angkor Wat. Now, these are not your classic brightly painted temples, but are all around 800 years old. They are sandstone structures and all have intricate carvings in various states of decay. The area has over 1000 temples and used to be the centre of the ancient Khmer (Cambodian)empire. The main temple is called Angkor Wat, it is gigantic. In its heyday it used to house 30,000 people. We had 2 days of sightseeing. Day 1 started off at 5 in the morning to watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat. We were driven there by our tuk tuk driver, it was a cold start to the day. We spent 2 hours exploring the sight which seemed deserted despite the number of people there. This is where we ate our breakfast, arguably the best view we have had at breakfast time.
We managed to last out until 11 o’clock, exploring 4 other temples but soon after we started to feel tired. We headed back to Siem Reap for an afternoon’s nap. The next day we saw some more, these were each of a different design and we enjoyed finding our favourite bits about them. One of the temples had been reclaimed by the jungle, trees grew out of the walls, causing some of it to collapse. We finished at one temple that was brilliant. It had 50 towers all of which bearing a stone face on each of its 4 sides. It was great fun to explore and get lost in.
Getting across the border to Bangkok was a beast. The 200 km road to the Thai border is not a road, more like a construction site. It is bumpy, dusty, has large rocks scattered on and huge divets. Not a piece of tarmac in sight. Instead of taking the 6 hour coach we paid more for a 3 hour taxi (good decision). But the taxi driver did have us a little concerned, he went a little too fast at times and did some blind overtaking. Having a right hand drive didn’t help much when driving on the right hand side of the road, but we made it in one piece.
Back in Bangkok it happened to be the King’s birthday. The King of Thailand is highly respected and loved. All of the Thai people wore a yellow shirt with the royal coat of arms and enjoyed the holiday by lining the streets waiting to wave as the royal car drove past. There were fireworks in the evening and we watched from the roof of our hotel. They were some of the biggest and loudest we’ve ever seen.
So 297 days later we are about to board a flight home. More adventures to come…
