Thursday 3rd April 2008

After waking absolutely boiling again this morning, it was a relief to check out of the 'shoe-box'. We paid our bill and then sat in the restaurant next door while we waited for our mini-bus to arrive. Nikki had a full English breakfast and I had beans on toast, so we were well set for our journey to Siem Reap. The bus was awful - it was old and cramped and seemed to have very little air conditioning. We soon discovered that we were also sat in the worst seats... for some reason, the floor was absolutely boiling - so hot in fact that we couldn't take off our flip-flops without burning our feet!

The bus made a couple of stops - more than we usually make on these journeys, and we soon found out why the floor was so hot. Every time we stopped, the driver would fill up a huge bucket of water and spend about fifteen minutes emptying it over the radiator... which was directly under our feet. On one of the stops we saw some really revolting food. One of the women was walking round with a tray on her head - that was covered in deep fried TARANTULAS! Worst of all, she was also carrying a bucket of live ones too. For some reason, she thought we were mad when we turned her down.

After a pretty painful journey, we eventually made it to Siem Reap. When we stepped off the bus, the tuk-tuk drivers went CRAZY! We were mobbed and there must've been about 30 men fighting for our attention. Every time we tried to walk away to make a plan or to read the Lonely Planet, they were all over us - it was mental. We eventually picked one of the quieter men and he agreed to help us find a guest house. He drove us around for ages before we found a really nice one - called Mitri Guest House. This evening we went for a little walk around town. Siem Reap is really small and dusty compared to the madness of Phnom Penh and was actually quite relaxed. The main centre was quite nice - with loads of nice cafés, bars and restaurants. We were pretty hungry so, after using the internet, we went into a cool little place called 'Behind Bars' (which was like a prison cell) and had some noodle soup.

THAT IS IT... I am not getting on another bus in this country!