Cambodia - Part 1

Sunday, March 5

To be honest, I was indifferent to the idea of travelling to Cambodia on the pretext of visiting a bunch of - to my mind - old ruins. However, a visit to Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples was high on Sharon's list of must-sees and so I put my preconceptions aside and agreed to go.

The road journey from Bangkok to the Cambodian border at Poipet is notoriously bad due to the unscrupulous behaviour of some of the bus operators who run this route; we had heard horror stories of the entire trip from Bangkok to Siem Reap in Cambodia taking up to 13 hours. Thus I persuaded Sharon that a flight, whilst considerably more expensive, was the best way to get there.

After a 55-minute flight with Bangkok Airways (during which brief time the crew miraculously provided a meal, drinks and a duty-free service!) we arrived in Siem Reap. The beauty of arriving by plane is that your entry visa (20 US dollars) is all taken care of - very efficiently - at the airport.

Outside, our free ride to our hostel (Two Dragons, Siem Reap) awaited; a tuk-tuk expertly driven in frankly scary traffic conditions by the genial Mr Han:

It turned out that Mr Han was to be our driver and guide around the temples for the next three days.

Already, my view of Cambodia was changing - it is considerably more 'westernised' than I'd imagined (I'd pictured endless paddy fields, grass huts and industrious folk in coolie hats), but even amongst the modernity of Siem Reap the ancient religious aspect is always evident:

Mr Han safely delivered us to our hostel, and we were pleased to see that our room was squeaky clean, air-conditioned and served good beer and food.

We agreed with Mr Han to set off early for the next three mornings to ensure we derived the most benefit from our 3-day tourist passes (40 US dollars each). Over dinner we shared experiences with a friendly couple from Scotland, Fiona and Archie, who are also touring the world. Finally we tumbled into bed, at least one of us eagerly anticipating the next three days...