So, I end up having about 3hrs kip – don’t feel too bad to be fair. We get our cab at 4am and head for the station – which is miles away actually! God, this city is big and still buzzing at that time of the morning! Mental – do they ever sleep??!
We queue up for our tickets and see a few groups of backpackers who are all getting same train as us – haha – we go grab our seats on the train 45mins before its due to leave. Plenty of time I hear you say….well, its actually filling up even that early! If we had turned up any later, I think we’d be standing!!!
The train is pretty old looking and all the windows are open as there is no air con. We manage to get seats together and chain up the backpacks to the railings above. I expected wooden seats, but these look alright!!
Ugh, 5hours later – my arse cheeks are not agreeing with me – man alive, that was hardcore…….we get off at Aranyprathet (?) which is the border town. I was bursting on the bog and I just couldn’t go at the station toilet – it was a squatty one – argh!! And covered in piss!! How is this more hygenic!?!??! Its so wrong!!! So I refused…..
We then have to get a tuk tuk to the border which is 5mins away. Well, you read about the scams at the border and that people take you to an office to get your visa stamped. This is total Bull and is just a way to get your money. So when the wee tuktuk man pulls up at some random travel agent, on the side of the road, we all know he’s taking the piss. These guys come up going ‘hey, you go to vietnam, we sort your visa out here’ and we all go ‘no thanks, border please NOW’. They give us a wry smile and they know that we know they are dodgy bams!!! Argh!!! I hate this!!! Stop taking the mick out of tourists!!!! We are helping your f’ing industry and all you want to do is rip us off – not amused…..
Anyhoo, we get to the border and the lads eat – I manage to find a western bog – yay!! Hayley happy!!! And then we trudge through the border and wait for ages at immigration….ages and ages. End up talking to a polish bloke who has amazing English and was dead friendly – they were doing this as a 2wk holiday – Thailand and Cambodia and then home – mental!! There are a group of youngish lasses from England in front of us who we seem to be following! Passports get stamped and we get on a free bus to the main bus/taxi terminal. This seems like where they herd all the tourists and then take them onto Siem Reap – 4hr bus or 3hr taxi ride.
We decide on quickness and opt for Taxi – its about £40 which we don’t mind as there is 3 of us. Haha – well when I see the taxi we’re about to get in, I’m thinking of changing my mind….its this clapped out toyota which has seen better days. The windscreen is all cracked to hell – seriously – and the car is donkeys old. Oh well, wish us luck.
The taxi ride is a right hoot!!!!! The roads are soooo bad and full of potholes, no wonder they don’t have new cars here. Mental!! We even pick up his 4yr old son who sits BEHIND him on the drivers seat – crazy I tell ya. However, I’m so fecking tired that I actually sleep in the car through all the potholes – its like a fairground ride!!
We get to Siem Reap where we get dropped off at a tuk tuk stand….again, I’m paranoid as hell and think they’re gonna rip us off. However, they don’t and say its included in the taxi ride we paid before. Coolio!! Aaron has to ride on the back of a moped to the hostel – hahahhahaha – with his backpack!!!!!!! We get a man riding with us who explains about the temples and how to go see them. We can get a tuk tuk for the whole day for $15 – nae bad!!
Hostel is really nice – we’re in a group dorm with 3 other people – Mia from Finland, Silvie from California and some woman from S.A. There is free wifi, a pool and a bar with cheap drink!
We go out for dinner and I have some beef cashew nuts dish. I haggle and buy some ethnic pants for about £3! And then its bedtime
Hayley
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment