Journey from PP to Siem Reap

Hello and welcome again but this time Siem Reap which is north west of Cambodia. We haven’t looked around yet so I will describe the beautiful journey here. (Of which I can remember because I spent most the time sleeping on a South African’s shoulder, I’ll explain later.) We set off around 11 O’clock in our a/c Merc minibus. The drive took around 5 hours straight through beautiful villages, countryside, and miles of rice fields. Er… I can’t really describe it because I was asleep, oh but the story of the South Africans right ok!! Just over halfway the driver saw a broken down car and realised it was some people from the same hotel we were staying in so we stopped to take a look. Its was an old Toyota on which the radiator had rusted and cracked, luckily for dad they had stopped out side a Buddhist temple so dad took a few snap shots of it. We had decided to take the travellers to Siem Reap, which was fortunate because they were heading that way. (We left weirdly the other driver to stay and sleep in the car which I don’t understand) on the main journey I had fallen a sleep and I tried to keep next to the window as the two travellers were sitting next to me. When we arrived at the hotel in Siem Reap and were in our room dad mentioned that I had actually fallen asleep on the women’s shoulder which of course I was seriously embarrassed about.

Sorry about the short blog

See you soon

Joe


Joe didn’t sleep for that long and he did not dribble on the South African woman!
The drive was seriously impressive. This part of Cambodia is flatter than a steamrollered Norfolk. The difference between this and Norfolk however could not be greater. This is a lush green country with bright blue skies. The long route 6 was lined with wooden shacks, mainly on stilts. Most shacks had a front garden consisting of a pleasant bog filled with bright green and probably highly edible plants. Surrounding the homes were hundreds of acres of paddy fields in a variety of bright greens and yellows. These were interspersed, at times, with smaller, deeper ponds full of water lilies with leaves the size of dustbin lids and incredible white and mauve flowers. A few Yak wandered around the fields occasionally munching on unsuspecting greenery. Every now and then I spotted a yak that had found a deeper bit of water and had chosen to wallow lazily up to it’s horns. Every now and then we came upon a small village with a few shacks selling a variety of noodles with noodles or noodles and noodles with a side portion of rice; all delicious and reasonably priced. My travelling companions (apart from Joe) still prefer to eat in a restaurant rather than by the side of the road but they are getting more adventurous. This is especially so since our last restaurant offered delights such as: Brain and crab salad, stir fried bowel (chicken pork or beef) and more stir fried frog!

Unlike India, the journey felt safe, hectic yes, but the driver did at least show some respect for oncoming bikes/Tuk Tuks/donkeys/mules/cars/pedestrians. Despite the dodgy gearbox in an otherwise pleasant van, the driver managed to keep us going miraculously using 5th gear only! Only at one occasion did we require a push to get started and that was directly after lunch…I only had soup but I cannot vouch for the increased weight of the other passengers.

A quiet afternoon here in SR before hitting the tourist trail and the temples tomorrow.

Simon