Cambodia

Here we go again..

After a long flight from Norway, Halvor finally arrived in Bangkok early Monday morning. Mahta and I picked him up around 9 o'clock, and gave him absolutely no time to settle down before we started what would prove to be a busy monday.

First of all, we had to pick up our passports from the Vietnamese embassy. Besides having a maniac Tuk-Tuk driver (think we spent the majority of our time on the wrong side of the street) the trip was fairly uneventful, and we received our visas without any hassle. The mission after this was to buy Haakon a new camera. I figured that this would be once in a lifetime chance to snap some killer pictures from Asia, so I opted for a brand new D-SLR camera. (And I'm super happy with it so far). The evening was spent mostly relaxing and getting ready for our 5:55 train to Cambodia next morning...

The train dropped us off in Poipet, which is described in the Lonely Planet guide as being the "cesspool of Cambodia". This can't be far from the truth - not much else here than mosquitos, mud and poverty. After being ripped off by the government officials on the border (seems government officials love to charge you 5 bucks extra for allowing you to enter the country... unless of course you want to wait at the border for 3 hours), we stuffed 5 people plus driver (met a couple of Brits) in a Toyota Camry and braced ourselves for the 6 hour drive to Siem Reap. Roads are not good and 6 hours with Mahta on top of Halvor in a camry was not so pleasant... It did save us at least $1 per person, so it was definitely worth it.

In Sieam Reap we ran into Bill (see second entry) who greeted us with a pleasant "Yo Yo Yo!". This made Haakon and Mahta all teary eyed, who thought for sure they would never see Bill again. The four of us ventured to Angkor Wat the following two days, which was an experience that should not be missed. Amazing temples made great exercise for Haakon's new camera! The face temple and the jungle temple (where they filmed Tomb Raider... wow!) where amongst the favourites. Other than Angkor Wat, Siem Reap was same same as what we've seen earlier, although Cambodia does seem a bit poorer than Thailand. Victims of landmines and begging children made a huge impression.

Another bus ride brought us to Phnom Pehn, a bigger city with even more tuk-tuks and action. We got scammed big time, ending up paying a total of $3 (US!!!!) per night for our room, which didn't come with a working toilet (we proved this... twice!). A wonderful terrace on the lake (literally... it's on stilts) makes up for the hugely expensive room so we have decided to stay, but switched rooms. Spent day 2 lazing in the sun and walking around Phnom Pehn to get a feel for the atmosphere. Turns out it is as expected - dirty, poor and hectic traffic. Spent about an hour teaching a kid English at the riverside (upper class area, way too expensive for our kind). Now we're off to dinner - blog you later.

H H M