Chum riep leah to Cambodia

My blog updates might not be as frequent as promised while in South East Asia.  Getting some time online has proved to be quite a challenge in the last week.  After the power outage earlier in the week, I braved the Vietnam roads yesterday to get myself to another internet cafe, to be refused entry becasue I am English.  Logging on today, I have also discovered that Facebook is not permitted here, so you may not hear much from me over the next couple of weeks!  :o(  More about Vietnam later though, I need to tell you about the rest of Cambodia first!

You can't visit Cambodia without visiting the Temples of Angkor.  Myself and one of the other girls from the group took a tuk tuk for the 6km journey to Angkor and 'Mr Chuumley' was our driver for the day.  The Temples of Angkor are amazing structures with Angkor Wat being the most spectacular with a grand moat surrounding it.  Mr Chuumley dropped us off at the entrance to the temple and pointed to where he will wait for us, in the direction of about another 1000 tuk tuks, I thought we'll never find him!  Oh well, I'll worry about that once we have looked around.  We take a couple of hours walking around the temple, taking the the desgin and atmosphere.  It was really hot and we had to be fully covered up to go into the temples, some not so respectful westerners were being turned away.  When we left the temple, we were lucky enough to see a wedding party arrive, in tradtional Cambodian dress, which was very colourful and elaborate.  I think I've put a picture on face book.  On leaving the temple, we headed in the direction of the tuk tuk gathering to start the search for Mr Chuumly, and within seconds of us approaching, he sped out of the crowd and headed straight towards us having spotted us amoungst 100's of other tourists!  A true pro, and well worth the $7 we paid for the day.  We continued our tour around the other temples in the park, all equally impressive as Angkor Wat itself, but most of the others are not as well maintained.

Angkor Wat is close to the town of Siem Reap, which now having completed Cambodia, I can say is my favourite town in this country.  In the town of Siem Reap, I've also experienced a fish massage, a head massage and several pints of Angkor beer, which costs just 50c!

On leaving Siem Reap, we travelled on a public bus to the capital city of Phnom Penh.  I think maybe I just don't like capital cities, first Bangkok, and now Phnom Penh.  I can take it or leave it.  We had just one day and one night here which was more than enough, although some of the best food I have had so far was in this city.  We used our time in Phom Penh to visit the building were the S21 touture prison was and the killing fields.  We had a guide for this trip and I'm pleased we did, as it enabled us to really understand Cambodia's history.  At the old site of the S21 prision, we were lucky enough to meet one of the 7 survivors from the torture prision.  He is now about 80 and makes his living by visiting the prison every day to meet tourists and have thier picture taken with him. 

On departing Phnom Penh we headed for the coastal town of Shioukeville, which was much appreciated after the hectic city.  We stayed at an Austraillian hostel which was very appropriate as it was 'Australlia Day'.  With one Aussie in our group, we all became 'aussies' for the day and celebrated in true aussie fashion, BBQ, beers and dancing.  There were several sore heads the next day, pictures to follow.

Keeping track of how much money I am spending is quite complex.  In Cambodia the loal currency is Real, however US Dollars are also accepted.  When paying in dollars, you get change in real.  There are 4,000 real to one dollar.  This was enough to tax my brain, but we have now arrived in Vietnam where we are using the Dong, and there are about 22,000 of these to one US dollar.  Trying to work out how many english pounds something costs is near on impossible with my mathamatical abilities.

Well, thats about all I have time to write about for now as there are people hovering waiting to use the computer.  As much as I am loving seeing these different countries, the last few days have been tough and I've been missing you all lots!  So if I'm not in touch its because the powers that control cyber space are stopping me, but I am thinking of you all.

Mum, I hope you had a lovely birthday and Dad doesn't mind the garden looking like an airport runway with the solar lights :o)

Adams, there is one thing everywhere in South East Asia has is common, an inability to make a smooth join between the road and a bridge.  With the number of rivers we've crossed, I reckon I am about 2 bridges away from joining you in the 'bulging disc' club  :o)

Lots of love

Katrina  x  x x x  x x x x x x