City Tourists ... Seeing The Sights ...

Day 103 ... After a flight from Koh Samui to Bangkok and then to Siem Reap, we arrived in Cambodia. As soon as we landed and disembarked we noticed a difference in temperature, but it wasn't the way I thought it would be! It felt cooler than Thailand, even though we landed at 7pm, the evening air was cooler. Which surprised me after we'd had day time temperatures of 28 degrees in Thailand and the forecasts said up to 34 degrees in Siem Reap! We walked from the plane into arrivals and got in the queue for immigration with our e-visa and customs form along with our passports in hand. After queueing up for about 15 minutes, the immigration guy said 'I need your arrival card' and looked at me. Seeing as I asked the air hostess if all we needed was our visas and customs forms when we arrive and she said yes, I presumed there was nothing else we needed to do. Which is a fair presumption seeing as there was nothing what-so-ever to tell you what to do once you get into arrivals. Just a guy at a table with a box of papers. No signs, at least not in English anyway! So a reasonable question to ask him would be 'where do I get the arrival form from'? Well, this was obviously not the question to ask him!! The only way I can describe the look on his face was as though I had stepped on his toes with high heels and then spat in his cup of tea! He scrunched his face up and looked away as if to say, what are you asking me that for you idiot! Which obviously really annoyed me and got my back up straight away...wooosaaa! But not a great first impression from the Cambodian arrivals. Who knew you would need 3 blimin' forms just to get in the country! Anywayyy...we we're greeted by a friendly guy in arrivals who was waiting for us which made me feel better. He then led the way across the carpark and that's when we realised we would be experiencing our first ever tuktuk ride! It was a little breezy, a little chilly and a little slow but it was fun and we got to see what looked like the main area on Siem Reap where the restaurants and night life is on the way to our hotel which was nicely just off a side street so nice and quite but only a 5 minute walk to the hustle and bustle. We got a nice upgrade to the honeymoon suite too which was nice as we're here for 6 nights! Popped out for a quick bite to eat at a restaurant 30 seconds walk from the hotel. Adam had his first beef Lok Lak which is a Cambodian stir fry with pepper. It was delicious. Now for an early night!

Day 104 ... I knew our 'honeymoon suite free upgrade' was too good to be true...it was probably due to the fact that just outside our door, there were building works which started at 8am where they are extending the hotel! Drilling, sawing, hammering and shouting. Along with the school play ground across the street and the teacher using what sounded like a megaphone to speak to the kids with. So at least we'll be up and out at a reasonable time! As I type, the noise in the room is almost deafening! We hired Mr Sany who was our tuktuk driver from the airport last night. He took us to see the local sights including the ware museum, killing fields, Artisan Angkor which is where all the stone and wood carvings are done along with silk and jewellery being made. I spotted a little stone mother and baby elephant carving in the shop at the end and really wanted to get it as a souvenir but it felt pretty heavy to carry for another 2 months so I decided against it. But when we got back I decided it would be a lovely

keep sake for our SE Asia travels as we've seen how they're made and who by which is better than buying some mass produced tat in a tacky tourist shop, so I'm going back for one before we leave as it's only a 12 minute walk from the hotel. I'll just carry it in my hand luggage when we're travelling from place to place. The heat here is a lot nicer than anywhere we've been so far as there is barely any humidity so it's just like a really hot 28 degree summer day at home (if that's ever happened!). After Mr Sany dropped us off at the hotel, we went to find Vibe Cafe, a nice healthy food place I wanted to try and although it was vegan, it was so tasty. We both had a variation on a bean burger and I loved it. So nice to have some fresh, healthy food!

Day 105 ... Another early morning wake up call from the builders, looks like they're definitely here to stay for the duration! We're having a lazy morning and then out for a bit of lunch, gelato and shopping to get our SE Asia trip souvenir from Artisans Angkor. We've just got to dodge Mr Sany at the front door who is always ready to pounce on us to take us anywhere we are going but we prefer to walk, like last night when we were going to Pub Street to have a look around it's only a 10 minute walk but he was trying to get us in the tuktuk to take us...no thanks! He'll be pestering us for the Angkor Wat tour next but we've booked a small group tour through TripAdvisor instead, opps! Back to the first place we ate at on our first night after the super slow service and the worst mango shake of my life so far!

Day 106 ... Angkor Wat Tour Day ... Our 6.50am wakeup call went off and once we were ready we went down for breaki before being picked up by our tour guide at 7.45am. We picked up 2 other couples, one was an older couple, about my parents age, Dennis and Pauline, who were from Altrincham but live in Cyprus who were lovely. Once we had bought our Angkor Wat tickets we were taken to the temple and Phearom, our tour guide took us around the temple. We had lunch and another 2 temples after lunch, Ta Prohm and Bayan temples. It was a hot day but not too humid again so it was bearable, just, for walking around. I'm just so glad we

booked the tour guide and aircon minivan! The temples are enormous and the grounds are immense in size. So we were just taken to the main 3 temples but there are over 20 in within the grounds. We drove past a few so got to see some of them, but I can see why some people buy 2/3 day tickets. If you're in to looking around temples, there is enough to keep you busy for 3 days at least! After a long day of sight seeing we were dropped off at our hotel at around 3pm. What an amazing day and something to tick off the list! We got some great photos too...!

Day 107 ... Lazy day today after a action packed day yesterday. We went to The Hive for lunch which we spotted after we went to Vibe for our vegan lunch the other day (I think Adams still secretly cursing me for taking him there, I loved it!) and had a lovely chicken and mango wrap, then to find the gelato place for an ice cream treat and then I went to buy a baggy vert top for tomorrows excursion. I spent all of $2 on my Cambodian elephant vest top, bartered her down fro $5, I'll be a pro by the time we get home. I'll just have to remember, bartering in the UK is probably not seen as an acceptable thing to do while shopping! We'll go to our local for dinner and a lazy night watching more Netflix. How we haven't run out of series to watch I don't know! Then off on the quad bikes for a couple of hours at lunch time tomorrow!

Day 108 ... Quad Biking Day ... After we went back to Hive for a mango and chicken wrap for lunch, we were picked up from our hotel and taken for our two hours of quad biking around the local countryside and villages. Once we passed our quad bike driving test (a trial run up the street) which we both passed with flying colours, we got kitted out with dust masks and a helmet and set off. It was a great couple of hours. I only crashed into the tour guide on his motorbike once and just the one thumb blister. We stopped off part way round to see the crocodile farm, I wasn't keen on going but Adam said yes, so we went and paid the $5 per person entry fee which they use to buy money to feed the crocs. There were around 3000 crocodiles in the enclosures and they just went on and on. It was pretty awful condition, they were pretty . much piled up on top of each other. There were 4 men putting smaller crocs into a bag once they'd been stood on and tied up which was the last straw for me, a little bit upsetting to see so we left. Its there way of life though and how the make their money. They are bred for their meat. But when you're not used to seeing it, it can be quite upsetting to see how they are treated. Anyway, off we went on the rest of our tour and then back to the hotel afterwards. We were covered in the orange dust, Adam more than me. But a great afternoon seeing what we wouldn't have seen otherwise. So many children waving as we drove through the 'poor village' as the guide described it. Seeing all the farming and how the people in the countryside live and work.