I left Phnom Penh at 6.30am the following morning, and caught the boat to Siem Reap. When I bought the ticket for the boat, the guesthouse advised me that the boat was oversold and I would have to sit on the roof. It sounded like fun so I though I would give it a go....
I loaded my luggage on the boat and jumped up on the roof. I read in a few places to secure my day pack and anything lose so it would not going flying off the boat, so I did that, put some suncream on, and away we went.
Apprently, according to other passengers, the inside of the boat stunk like deisel, so within an hour there was probably about 35 of us on the roof. It was definitely the best way to travel. However, the belting sun did get a bit hard to manage after a little while. It was great to go through all the little floating villages on the way to Siem Reap. All the kids come out on there little porches and wave at you and scream "Hello!" at the top of their lungs.
After nearly 7 hours of traveling up the Tonle Sap river & Lake, we finally arrived to Siem Reap. Except our boat got bogged due to low water levels and a little boat had to pull us the rest of the way.
While we were waiting to the little boat to pull us away, a bunch of paddle boats with children selling drinks came up along aside us and jumped on the boat. I'm telling you, nothing spells "You are not in Australia" more than a 4 year old girl trying to sell you cans of Anchor Beer for $1!
When we arrive at the boat dock, it is like nothing I have ever seen. There would have been over 200 tuk tuk and moto drivers waiting to greet us, all waving big sign saying "$1 to ANY hotel!". After selecting a driver, I jumped in his Tuk Tuk, where he proceeded to tell me in his best English "Please put leg on bag, road bumpy" and made some strange bumpy movements with his arms. I nooded and put my legs on my bags. He then started pointing above my head, where there were some hand rails. "Hold hold tight tight" he said with the same crazed bumping expression. So, with my legs on my bags, and holding on to the handrails, I gave the driver a quick thumbs up and off we went.
Within about 10 seconds I had nearly fallen out sideways. This exscuse for a road was the WORST exscuse for a road I had ever seen in my life. The pot holes were so big and so frequent, it was as if it had been hit by bombs. As we continued down this road, we drover through some cambodian villages, where the houses were made of Bamboo. There didn't appear to be much of a sewage system either judging by the smell that kept hitting me just as hard as each and every bump. At one point I wasn't sure if I was going to be sick because of the ride, the smell or a combination of the two!
As sick as I felt, I still couldn't help but smiling. The thought that kept crossing my mind was "This is Cambodia, this is what I travelled to see". I then started laughing as I tried to picture people like my parents and some of my friends coping with this ride. I'm guessing most of them couldn't!
After the longest 20 minute journey of my life, we arrived at the "Siem Reap Hostel", which had been reccomended by a few travellers I had come accross in Saigon and Phnom Penh. At $10 a night for a dorm room, it was quite expensive. However, the place was brand new, and quite possibly the cleanest place I have ever stayed in. And, just for bonus points, it had a pool! Exactly what I needed after that Tuk Tuk ride....
The next day I met up with two other backpackers, John and Anika (I hope I spelt that right!), and we headed to the Angkor Temples. By 8.30am, it was already about 30 degrees, so we knew it was going to be a hard day walking around.
Our first temple was Angkor Thom, where we spent around 2 hours walking around that and temples around it. We climbed as many temples as we could, as the views were amazing. However, the steps to get up the temples were just as steep as the walls around it. As I got around half way up one, the only thing I could think of was "if I fall backwards now, I am going to crack my skull and die...". With that in mind, I stopped looking down or up and just clibed as quick as I could to flat ground again!
We looked at a few other temples, one that was completely in ruins which was quite interesting. You will have to forgive me but I can't remember any of the other temples names!
Finally we got to the big one - Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat is the most preserved out of all the temples, and took around an hour to walk around what were allowed to see. I was looking forward to climbing the inside tower, but it was closed for some reason. (We later found out that the previous week a french lady had got to the top, lost her balance and fell down the stairs, smashing her head open. No one actually knows if she survived or not....but thats why we weren't allowed!)
On our way out we were accosted by kids selling bracelets. After saying a repeated no, one girl turned around and said "Hey, you Australia!" and I nodded. She then took a deep breath and said "Australia has population of 22 million, Sydney 5 million, Melbourne 4 million. Capital City is Canberra and the Prime Ministers name is Kevin Rudd......but he's new the old one was John Howard"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so shell shocked that I just handed her a dollar and bought ten braclets off of her. These kids must get taught in school exactly how to win an Aussie tourist over!
The next day I spent in the Pool just about all day, until a whole group us decided to celebrate St Patricks day. I find it amusing that no matter what corner of the globe you are in, you can always find a group of Irish lads to celebrate St Pats with - and thats exactly what we did....until about 3am! Suffice to say, the following day was pretty similar to the previous. I sat by the pool all day.....
I did head out in the afternoon for a walk through the town. Siem Reap is a tiny city in comparison to what I had already seen. Very laid back, not to many people trying to sell you stuff in the streets, and its safe.
Between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, I would probably pick Siem Reap anyday. However, I do believe you have to experience both to get a bettwe understanding of Cambodia.
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