Siem Reap, Angkor Wat and Battembang

Dan: "But does this bus go to the airport?"
Thai man: "200 Baht"
Dan: "Yes, but where is the bus going?"
Thai man: "200, 200, train station"
Dan: "So I'm on the wrong bus? I need a bus to the airport"
Thai man: "Yes, train station, bus station, airport"
Dan: "Ok thanks" (gets on bus)
(3 mins later)
Thai man: "This bus no go to airport"
Dan: ... 😒 "Ok"
Thai man: "This bus go train station, for airport, wait there"
Dan: "Right"
2nd Thai man: (pulls in new bus) "Airport"
Dan... (rushes of current bus, just makes it)

This was the farce that greeted me to get from Koh Samui to Surat Thani airport so I could make my connection to go to Siem Reap, Cambodia. On arrival to Siem Reap there was another delay as we went through immigration, it took ages. They couldn't have gone much slower if they'd tried - chatting between each other while the passengers quietly seethed.

Anyway Siem Reap, the gateway to Angkor Wat. The world's largest temple. I got up in the morning at 4.00 AM to catch the sunrise over it and persuaded my roomie to join me. There was some slight cloud cover, but it gave it an eery atmosphere, it was very beautiful and the temple coming into view in the morning light is amazing. We then walked around the grounds while a guide explained all about the history and relevance.

Angkor is a massive old city full of temples with Angkor Wat being the biggest and most significant. We also visited Bayan, a temple that's covered in lots of carved stone faces which was great except the hoards of Chinese tourists making the same pose next to almost all the faces.

We went to more temples in the city until we were a bit 'templed out', before heading to the last well known one - Ta Pho (also known as the Tomb Raider temple) as it's in the film with Angelina Jolie running through it. It's got a gigantic tree growing out of it for no apparent reason but it looks really cool. Unfortunately it's destroying the temple slowly so the locals keep having to restore it to ensure it doesn't completely collapse.

Back at the hostel me and a couple of guys went to Pub Street, a slightly tamer version of Khaosan Road where I had a fish foot massage - weird sensation; you put your feet in the water and the fish nibble at them and remove any dead skin - nice image! The small ones were fine and just ticklish but the larger ones nip quite a bit. We then had a few beers and a couple of the notorious bucket beverages. Dancing in the street with locals and tourists alike ensued until the early hours.

Went to Battembang the following day, it's Cambodia's second largest city but you wouldn't think it. It's a pretty small and relaxed place, not too many tourists. The hostel ran a day trip of the main sights so I opted for that. There was the bamboo train, which may as well been called the sales train! You sit on bamboo cane along a rickety track to a village where they attempt to sell you stuff and annoyingly the train doesn't come back for 20 mins so you're stuck there in a kind of pester purgatory - I bought a cheap bracelet to please one of the kids.

The tour also stopped at a place where they sold organic rat which they catch in the fields - apparently popular in this part of the country - yummy! They looked revolting but I tried a tiny bit and to be honest it tasted of nothing special, bit like chicken but dry - not a delicacy I'll seek out at home.

The best thing about Battembang was definitely the bat cave - every evening about six million bats swarm out of this cave to go hunting and feeding. It was quite a sight to see them all fly out at once and snake off into the distance. It was still going after 15 mins with no sign of slowing down.

In the evening I went to see the Cambodian kids circus, a charitable organisation that helps children gain an education through performance - it was like a mini cirque du soleil - really impressive. There were acrobats, dance, fire, juggling etc, they were very talented.

I now have a 12 hour night bus down to Sinoukville, so let's see how that goes! 😴Read more