Cambodian Heat wave

On the way to Cambodia the Intrepid 8 became the Secret 7 as An had to go home to Belgium. The journey was tough, we had to go back to Bangkok first meaning we were in 3 different countries in the space of 2 days! On top of that our bus crashed leaving Bangkok, nothing serious as we were going really slow, but the driver just drove straight into another bus, I have no idea how he didn't see it, it was bright yellow. We also met some corrupt Cambodian policemen at the border who demanded $5 from each of us to cross. I know its not much money but over here $5 goes a long way and it was more the principal. We refused and were promptly told “ no pay, go back to Thailand” so we realized we’d have to play their game. If they do that to every tourist that crosses the border they must be the richest men in Cambodia! Our hostel more than made up for the journey though and was so luxurious compared to what we’d been used to. We had a balcony, air con and a pool!

Unsurprisingly most of our time in Siem Reap was spent at Ankor Wat which is hard to describe in words. Immense, magnificent, epic, the scale of it is completely indescribable. This paragraph cant really do it justice but hopefully some of the photos on Facebook will.

As we’d been making our way south from Chiang Mai through Laos it had been getting slowly hotter and hotter and by now the heat was ridiculous. Seeking refuge in our air conditioned dorm became an increasingly popular activity and Dan bought a rather fetching local hat to make trekking around the temples more bearable.

Dan trying to disguise himself as a rice farmer

St Paddy’s day was just as big in Cambodia as it is at home. We came down to the hostel bar that evening to be surrounded by Irish men dressed head to toe in green, drinking green beer. We headed out to the famous “Ankor what?” bar where 2 jugs of cocktails gets you a free t shirt. Our aim was to furnish all 7 of us with a t shirt but unfortunately we only got as far as number five before we had to give up for our own good. Then for some strange reason we decided to go to a local Cambodian club. At first we thought they were all really drunk as everyone in there was going crazy on the dance floor, but then we realsied they couldn't afford the extortionate drinks prices, we were the only ones drinking in the entire club. We tried to join in the dancing and got up on the stage but I don't think they were very impressed with our moves and spent most of the night laughing at us.

Dan got so drunk on St Paddy's night he lost his beard

On the day we left for Phomh Penn the heavens opened and there was a proper monsoon rain. Like the locals we were so happy, but slightly worried the rainy season had come a month early. We only spent two days there, mainly to visit The Killing Fields and S21, the Khmer Rouge prison. Both were horrifying. We were expecting S21 to be a bit like Auschwitz but somehow it was worse, it was much less like a museum, and a lot more real. You could walk into the cells, the torture chambers and it made it a lot easier to imagine what went on there. The setting is also very surreal, it used to be a school so its in the middle of a suburban neighborhood right in the centre of the city, and you can still see the childrens writing on the walls.

Detention cell in S-21

Other major things to note was the fact that it was getting even hotter, which we didn't feel was possible, and the traffic. We thought Bangkok was bad but Phomn Penh was something else. The complete lack of rules of any sort made going anywhere by tuk tuk a memorable experience, I had my eyes shut on numerous occasions.

A near miss with a truck

To escape the heat we headed for Sikhanoukville on the Cambodian coast. As our bus arrived into the bus station we saw all the tuk tuk drivers running to meet us which we were quite used to by now. However these ones were a bit pushier than normal, within a few minutes we’d been completely surrounded by about 30 of them, all shouting different prices at us. At one point, and this is no joke, one of them got a megaphone out and started bellowing “TAXI $6, TAXI $6” to try and beat his rivals. Hilarious.

We treated ourselves to beautiful bungalows right on the beachfront and spent a very lazy 4 days chilling out. Being able to jump in the sea again was amazing, although it was more like getting into a warm bath so not very refreshing, but I know we shouldn't complain! We also managed to get into the $1000 dollar a room mega resort down the road, we’d heard they had a pool and were desperately in search of a way to cool down. We spent a day lounging by the pool pretending to be rich, but getting a bit hungry as we couldn't afford any of the food there!

Flashpacking at the beach bungalows

And then somehow it was the last night before the 7 of us went our separate ways. 1 month, 2 fractured ribs, 3 countries and 100 beers later it was all over. It was very sad but a 25c a beer happy hour meant the evening finished on a high with us all in the sea sans our clothes singing to Aretha Franklin. Dan and I were the only ones who hadn't decided where we were off to next (see, we haven't changed!) but a quick look on Air Asia for the cheapest flights meant we were headed for Ho Chi Minh City, with the worst hangovers we’ve had for a long time.