Our first impressions of Cambodia were really good. It is a very flat beautiful country. Apparently we are here in the dry season when all of the crops have just been harvested. It usually looks really green everywhere but the fields look dark as they have just been ploughed. It still looks very pretty though.
Our coach journey to Siem Reap from the Thai border took just over two hours but we have been told it used to take over 10 due to the bad road. I think they have recently resurfaced quite a few roads out here, which is a good thing because the ones that aren't resurfaced can't even be classed as roads at all. They say that the roads are really bad here and they have a lot of road accidents. By being on the road for just 10 minutes you can see why. There is no right of way to anyone, they overtake even when cars or mopeds are coming in the other direction and there are very few people who actually bother to wear a helmet when on a moped. I think it is fair to say that it is even worse than Indonesia out here! Even on our first journey we saw the aftermath of a motorbike crash, it looked really bad and the guy was out cold. Luckily the guy had a helmet on so I can only hope that this saved his life.
We stayed in The Golden Taeko Guest house for three nights run by a guy called Brom. The guest house was spotless and he was obsessed with being clean so I was a happy bunny! He also couldn't do enough for us, for example, he kept apologising that we were in his 'small' room but it wasn't even small! He also had the most amazing lucky fish in a tank and it kept swimming up to the side and mouthing things at us- it looked like he was trying to communicate with me! No I haven't gone totally mad- it really did look like he was talking!
The first evening we walked along the river to the old town. We passed some men playing football with what looked like a shuttlecock. They kick it over their heads and volley it back to each other. It looks really impressive. We now know that it is called Jianzi- Take a look at it on youtube if you can! We went to a Mexican for dinner and James said they were the best fajitas that he had ever tasted!
The next day we had a look around the markets and the town. So far the Cambodians have easily been the nicest people we have met on our travels. They are so friendly and polite and the children just constantly shout hello at you and wave! I am a little bit in love with Cambodia at the moment and we have only been here a matter of hours!
That evening we went to a Cambodian cooking school. Now as you all know by now I am a bit of a clean freak so I was a little worried about how clean and hygienic it was all going to be but it turns out I had nothing to worry about. We had a lovely chef called Saraya who spoke brilliant English and was really helpful! We also had another couple cooking with us called Rose and Warren from Australia and they were hilarious! I have never known anyone to talk as much as he did and that is saying something coming from me! Before we started cooking they took you around the local market- well that was an experience. The locals were actually sat in the food they were selling, there were fish leaping out of the trays they were in as they were still alive and there were whole chickens with legs, feet and toes just sat there waiting to be sold. It was a bit lively that's for sure!
We ended up cooking pumpkin soup, spring rolls, chicken khemer curry and chicken with pak choy. It was all really nice- especially the spring rolls and khemer curry but they use a lot of fish sauce in their cooking and it is the pongiest thing I have ever smelt in my life- it literally makes me gag! In the end the four of us were having a laugh and a joke with Saraya and telling her we did not want any 'smelly fish sauce' in the rest of our cooking so she left it out. Looking back, I hope we did not offend her! She seemed to find it quite funny anyway!
I only did one thing wrong while at the cooking school and that was peeling my sweet potato instead of dicing it. I felt really bad though as the assistant had to walk to the market to buy another one! Woopsie! In my defence though she had just told me to peel my whole carrot and so I naturally got carried away and peeled my sweet potato too- thinking I was really clever - only to get told off like a naughty school girl for doing it wrong. We then had a few drinks after we had finished to celebrate our accomplishments. There was so much food left over though that we ended up giving it to the table next to us to sample our talents!
The next day we went to Angkor to see the temples. I had a yellow hand the whole day though as the tumeric from the night before had stained my hand and nails!
We hired a tuk tuk driver for the day and he took us to the main attractions including Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and The Bayon. We also visited the one featured in the Tomb Raider film and a few more but we can't remember all of their names. The scenery around the temples was really pretty and well preserved. The area that the temples cover is huge and you cannot walk to them all in one day, especially in the heat. The temples were really amazing to look at and there were so many of them spread out all over the place. Although it was a tiring day, it was definitely worth a visit. There was also lots of elephants near the temples as you could ride one for $20. I love elephants they are my favourite animal so I spent about 20 minutes just sitting there with one of them! They are so amazing!
We then caught a coach to our next destination and it was the best coach journey as it was just full of Cambodian children and their parents. One of the children kept singing the whole way there and one really young baby was smiling and laughing at me so I asked the parents if I could hold her for a while. Well that was a mistake, the baby screamed the whole coach down and then they couldn't get her to settle down afterwards! Needless to say I felt very bad and kept apologising to them!
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