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Cambodia
This is an edited version of our travel log. This seventh page is about Cambodia.
November 13, 2005, Kampot, Cambodia
Hi all
We ended up staying a week on Ko Chang, doing absolutely nothing. We got a nice room with a balcony overlooking the sea, which had a stack of books in the room, so all very nice. Fish barbecues on the beach were also very good.
We spent the lst couple of days getting here, via a huge array of transport.
After some fierce haggling by Si we managed to save 75p on the journey to the Cambodian border
We spent a night in a fairly nice hotel room in Koh Kong before getting a 8am boat to Siahoukville, which was an experience in itself. We didn't have any sunscreen, so had to sit inside with all the Cambodians, while they played bad Chinese films over the TV at full volume for 4 hours.
We arrived with headaches and Sihanoukville didn’t seem too nice so we left almost straight away, hiring a taxi to take us about 100km to a place called Kampot.
Finally got to Kampot, which seems a nice town on a river. Watched the sunset over the mountains with a beer, all very relaxing. We are going to be here for a few days, but want to make it up to Phnom Penh soon to see the water festival there.
So far I like Cambodia more than Thailand. The people are friendlier and there are a lot of little villages that still seem really traditional. Hopefully see some more tomorrow.
Si says: Cambodia scares me 
November 15, 2005, Kampot
We took a trip from here to see a French hill station on the back of pick-up. The hill station was pretty spooky, mist came over the cliffs that the hill station was built on and drifted though the derelict buildings. It was even more weird when the guide told us this was one of the places the Khmer Rouge fought the Vietnamese only 26 years ago.
We then went back to Kampot on a river boat and saw the sunset.
November 17, 2005, Siem Riep
We have just arrived at "Angkor village". We only spent one day in Phnom Penn, capital. We did get to sample a bit of the water festival, which is a bit like new years eve, BRMB party in the park and Hull fair all rolled into one. There were loads and loads of people filling the streets, boat racing (30+ rowers per boat) ,
with boats from virtually every village in Cambodia, fair rides, market stalls, a concert of sorts, a Cambodian version of the Daz doorstep challenge; all sorts. It was kind of cool, because there weren't that many tourists around and there was a real party atmosphere (although it was a bit scary). We watched some of the boat races and understood nothing, they seemed to be heats, but they we so close together that sometimes the boats would catch stragglers from the previous heat, meaning it just looked like loads of people frantically and randomly rowing boats down the river, which I guess it kind of was.
It all got a bit much though and as a lot of things were closed (like the tourist attractions!) we left for the Angkor temples.
Our highlight of the capital was being stared at for ages by a group of villagers, out for the day in the big city, who had obviously never seen a white person before. They goggled at us for about 5 minutes while we read our guidebook, with genuine yokel slack jaws. They obviously came from the Cambodia equivalent to Rugby or Driffield.
We are going to relax tomorrow and then go and see the temples for 3 days. Before we head back to Phnom Penn and then go to Vietnam to join the hunt for Gary Glitter, he's allegedly holed up somewhere there.
November 20, 2005, Siem Reap
Yesterday we were picked up by our tuk-tuk driver at 5am!!! Because of the bad weather we couldn’t go the temple we wanted to for sunrise, so instead he took us to Angkor Wat. Even in the dark the outline of the temple from the gatehouse was impressive. There were loads of people there, so we decided to explore the gate and outer walls first. The sunrise was not very spectacular, it just sort of got light, rather than a proper sunrise. After we’d had a bit of look round here we went round the grand circuit tour,
taking in about half of the 20-odd main sites. We saw a variety of temples, sprawling monastic sites (my favorite as they were all very peaceful and relaxing), mountain temples (which are built in pyramid shapes), which involved lots of climbing up steps, and 1 tiny temple set in a pond/lake. There were big contrasts in the settings as well, from Ta Prohm in the jungle, to East Mebon in the middle of modern rice paddies.
Slept in today. Decided to rent some bikes and see the two closest, and apparently most impressive temples; the Angkor Thom complex and Angkor Wat. Bayon, the main temple in Angkor Thom was a huge temple, with lots of towers with 4 faces carved in the top, at each facing a compass point.
The carving was very impressive, but the temple seemed a bit jumbled when you were inside it; still prefer the spread out ones! At the moment we are sitting on the terrace of the elephants, overlooking big landscaped gardens which kind of make the whole place feel like and English country house. Only when you catch a glimpse of the temples, or see monkeys, do you remember where you are.
We went to see the jungle temple again (where they filmed parts of Tomb Raider) and Angkor Wat again. Angkor Wat was even more impressive after seeing all the other temples. The size, carving etc are all so much better.
One thing we found really bizarre yesterday- we were following a tour party entirely made up of Buddhist monks. They fitted in pretty well in photos of tumbled down temples in their orange robes, so loads of people wanted pictures, some even paying the monks. So we were pretty puzzled when one came up to us and indicated he wanted us to pose in his picture. So we posed for a couple of pictures with the monks, and they went away happy. Guess we seemed just as exotic as they did to us. I considered asking them for a dollar per picture as the old ladies here do, especially as I had seen other tourist pay them for pictures. Decided against it though.
November 23, 2005, Siem Reap
21st - Another day of temples! In the afternoon we took the tuk-tuk again and went to the women’s temple (about an hour outside the town). This temple I think was my favorite of all the places we went in the three days. The temple was like a mini-Angkor, built out of really nice pink stone. It was really peaceful away from the main sites.
Yesterday & Today – spent a couple of days resting from seeing temples, and just hung around in Siem Reap, as it is quite touristy you can get some nice stuff here.
We bought Christmas presents and souvenirs in the market – lots of silk here. Ate in some nice restaurants, one with good cakes and breakfast, another with excellent Cambodian curries.
They are playing all sorts of bad music in this Internet cafe, boyzone, westlife, even The Dion with her French Canadian brand of rubbish. I'm going to flip out and do some damage in a minute. I've loaded loads of new pictures up and I've been here over an hour listening to it. Gemma's in a bar drinking beer. You see my position.
So; more picture, take a look. Heard today that the Vietnamese have captured Gary Glitter, so we'll have to find something else to do in Vietnam.
We've got one more day here in Siem Reap before we head back to Phnom Penh to see some of the sites. Its in the mid-twenties Celsius here and all the Cambodians are moaning about how cold it is and are wearing jumpers. 
November 25, 2005, Phnom Penh
Arrived back here yesterday and it is a lot quieter without the water festival; around 1.5m people visited the city for the festival and it only has a population of 1m. The locals seemed to be a bit rabid though. We got off the bus yesterday and were literally mobbed by moto and tuk-tuk drivers, and touts for various guest-houses. I have never seen anything like it during our travels, or anywhere else for that matter. I was manhandled, pushed, pulled, had my sunglasses stolen off the top of my head, while about 20 people shouted, "you want room? Very cheap" at us, it was crazy. Needless to say we did not take any of them up on any of their offers of accommodation! It didn't really seem like the way to do business. The only time they backed off a bit was when I imagined they were a particularly inept back-four who had dwelled on the ball too long in the final minute of an important game and resulted in me conceding a goal and losing the game. I gave them all the resulting stare and they backed off like a tribe of cavemen who have been shown fire for the first time. Didn't even see who took the sunglasses though.
We are not really liking Phnom Penh at the moment. We are leaving tomorrow for Vietnam, which is meant to be just as bad. 
Oh and we recently realised that we had coffee and frozen-brownies in Cambodia's suicide hotspot;
Blue Mountain Cafe