sues dei!

[insert Khmer word for hello]

It’s been a pretty excellent week despite having had an annoying head cold!

We stuck around Phnom Penh for 2 days I think – worked around the city and wasted away in the heat.

The city sort of reminded me a little of some Indian city i had been in, but then I realised I was just generalising asian cities as run down and full of beggars and people trying to get you ont heir motorbike/tuktuk. 🙂 Unfortunately I didn’t make the effort to check out the killing fields, something I wish I done! I blame the head cold. Oh yeah, we were paying $5USD for a room next to the lake Baang Kok (somethjing like that) – which doesnt end up being a great deal between 3 people. It gives u plenty of money to spend on $.5 beers!

We departed Phnom Penh for Siem Reap (a city i still can’t spell properly or pronounce). We took a bus which ended up being a pretty decent ride despite the slow speed we kept. I think it ended up taking 8 hours or so to get there. Errrrrrr.

Siam Reap was great – lots of cool little bars, little restaurants, and a little place called Angkor Wat! I got out to the temples for a day and walked around it as much as I could, getting some very average photos. I’ll get them up soon. The place is definitely worth the trip to Cambodia.

Some observations so far:

1. Most Cambodian girls I’ve checked out have VERY good teeth – white and straight. Once I noticed that I started to see it everywhere

2. 2 currencies is quite annoying – the USD and the Cambodian ‘real’. Converting currencies for every transaction is a bit annoying

3. There are a lot of very poor people here, or at least some people doing a very convincing job pretending to be.

4. Cambodian’s in Phnom Penh like their mobile phone ringtones, and they like ’em LOUD!

5. Beer is cheap, actually everything is very cheap.

After the big chill in Siam Reap we got up at 6am to get a boat to Battambang – a journey that can take from between 3-8 hours. What an estimate! It ended up taking 7 🙂 . The long boat took us through the marshlands next to Siam Reap out to the Tonle Sab lake (Lachlan said it’s the 2nd biggest lake in SE Asia) – a contributory to the Mekong river – then some how made it’s way up river to Batdambang, avoiding all the coke bottle floating fishing nets along the way. The boat ride, whilst passing some very beautiful scenery, was pretty bad – the seat were pretty uncomfortable, all my stuff including me got soaked (even my mac book! – luckily it’s ok it seems), and it dragged on & on. Anyway, don’t want to sound like a pom!

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