Goodbye Vietnam, Hello Cambodia; Sarah and James’ Travel Blog

Hello again,

We had such a fab time in Vietnam, but we felt like it was time to move on and see a new country and also our visa was starting to run out.

But, before we left Vietnam we thought we couldn’t leave without learning how to cook the food, so we enrolled on a cooking course at the Vietnam Cookery Centre. It was quite expensive, so we decided to use our wedding money to pay for it. It was a 15 min taxi ride out of the city in a stylish Vietnamese villa. We made Banana flower salad with pork and prawns as a starter. For main course we made chicken with lemongrass and chilli with steamed rice and sweet and sour clams soup. Hmmm yum!!

We realised it wasn’t that far to get to Phnom Penh in Cambodia from Ho Chi Minh City on the bus, so we booked our tickets and spent 7 hours on a bus. The border crossing was also completely painless and we also got a visa on arrival, no problem.

As soon as we crossed the border, we noticed straight away Cambodia was less developed than Vietnam. The country was only at Peace just over 10 years ago so it has a lot of catching up to with it’s neighbouring countries.

We stayed at a lovely hotel in Phnom Penh called the Anise Hotel, we tried to extend our 1 night stay, but unfortunately it was booked out so we got on the 7am boat to Siem Reap the next morning.

The boat was not quite what we expected, for $35 (Cambodian currency is US $) it took 7 hours and we were told we would be able to sit inside or wonder round the deck. Well, there was no deck, ok there was but it was just the roof of the boat. Inside was not much better as it was like sitting in an underground smelly tunnel and don’t even get me started on the toilet. But it was fun in the end as we bumped into a girl we met in Hanoi and we got talking to a retired Englsih couple who now live on Ko Samui in Thailand and have offered to rent out 1 of their villas on the island for a good price if we go there.

After the boat ride we were picked up by our hotel in a tuk tuk. Our hotel was called Tasom guesthouse and was going to be the cheapest place we have stayed so far on our travels just £5 per night each. But it has been fab (apart from the ants in the bathroom). The people are lovely and the beds are very comfy. The guesthouse also sorted us out with our 2 day trip to visit the temples of Angkor (which basically what Siem Reap is a destination for).

As we had 3 nights booked in, we spent the 1st night going to a place called Pub street. Yes as the name suggests, lots of pubs and restaurants. In fact, a great night scene. But there were also many places on this street to have a fish massage for your feet. For $2 and a free beer, James couldn’t resist trying it. He said it was very ticklish at 1st but then he got used to it, but after 20 mins he soon realised the fish was eating away at his mosquito bites and making 1 of them bleed (hmmm nice) so he quickly got his feet out.

The next day we met our guide and tuk tuk driver (who was the same driver who picked us up from the boat pier the previous day, whose name was Kuant and used to be a soldier in the war) and headed to the temples. The 2 main temples are Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom and they were very impressive. They were built by half a million people 1000 years ago and 1 million people used to live there. Today, the temples of Angkor are not lived in but merely a tourist attraction. The temples are spread over 21km, convenient distance for a half marathon they hold every year (errr….no thanks, not in that heat!).

As part of our tour on the 1st day, we watched the sunset over Angkor on a mountain called Phnom Bakheng. About 1000 other tourists were doing the same, which made it quite scary coming down the mountain as the steps coming off the top were extremely steep and as soon as the sun disappeared, there was a big stampede of people trying to get down. But we made it!!

The following day (yesterday) we had another day sightseeing the temples. We had the same guide and he was very helpful. In the morning, we got talking to our guide about what food he eats in Cambodia. We learnt that here, many people eat Spiders, Bees and dogs. So gross!!!

Last night we visited the night market in Siem Reap and after we had eaten, we couldn’t resist the $2 foot and neck and shoulder massage. It was amazing!!!

We are heading to Bangkok tonight on a late flight, so we plan to hire some bikes today and cycle around Siem Reap. We are very excited about Bangkok as we have booked a self catered studio (we are so desperate to cook our own food) AND it has a washing machine!!!!!! This place was recommended by the people we met on the boat so fingers crossed it is a decent place.

That’s all for now, you’ll hear from us in Thailand

Sarah (and James)