The flight from Thailand was comfortable enough and on time. I used the low cost airline, Air Asia, costing only £45 with luggage. I had already arranged an eVisa on line for Cambodia but I was still apprehensive about the border crossing. I needn’t have been as it was one of the easiest border crossings I have done. As an added bonus, the immigration officer gave me an eVisa baseball cap. I think Cambodia is wanting to encourage tourists to visit to help boost the economy.

I changed my leftover Thai Baht into Cambodian Riels at the airport. I didn’t know at the time but in Cambodia they use the US dollar. Waiting for me outside the airport was the transfer to the Saem Siem Reap hotel. To my surprise it was a Lexus limousine and I felt very overindulged at this hotel. Once again I managed to get an upgraded room through Expedia and it was lovely.

The first day after breakfast I had a very lazy day relaxing by the pool not doing very much. It was too hot to do anything, except nip in and out of the water every 20 mins for so to cool off. I gather that around this time most of Europe was covered in snow, you lucky lot.

I used the time to plan a few activities and tours in Siem Reap. For $15 I had a tuk tuk for the day – it was more of a motorcycle with a trailer carriage than the tuk tuks I was used to in India or Thailand. I actually thought these were better, certainly more comfortable, roomy and the big plus is when it moves the air flow is so refreshing.

First I had to get a ticket from the one office that issues them. I paid $62 for a 3 day pass to be used on consecutive days within a 10 day period. They take your photo which is scanned onto the ticket to prevent people selling them on. At every temple and monument, the tickets are checked. You can get a one day pass for $32 but it one day is not enough time to see everything.

The tuk tuk would drive me to a temple, park up and wait for me while I explored. It was very relaxed day without any rush. He also had a cooler with bottled water which was included in the $15 and I got through a good few of them, including the bottles I had taken from the hotel minibar.

There are over 300 temples around Siem Reap, the most famous being Ankor Wat and Bayon (which was used in the Tomb Raider film). They did not disappoint. It would be near impossible to visit all of them in such a short amount of time. Some of the temples are overcrowded with tourists and tour groups jostling for position to take photos in front of various spots. I think the Cambodians could do a little more to improve the tourist experience here as there is no decorum or order which it comes to getting a photo.

It is amazing how nature is taking over some of these once deserted temples with trees growing in, through, and over the stoneworks. It is a sight to behold but after seeing about 100 trees growing through temples, the novelty began to wear off but still very impressive nonetheless.

One of the evening hotspots in Siem Reap is a place called ‘Pub Street’. It’s basically a set of cross roads closed off to traffic in the evening with plenty of restaurants offering every type of food imaginable and many have draught beer for as little as a $1 or $0.50, or buy one get one free offers all night long. Most of the food is reasonably priced and good quality. I had a beef lok lak which was really nice for $6.50.

There are also street entertainers (young children with tarantulas crawling on their faces and musicians etc.) Imagine a grown up, quieter version of Khaosan Road but with a New Orleans vibe instead. At the Chivas bar they have live jazz on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and it was actually good.

The thing that impressed me most though, was that they understand volume and that it’s not necessary to play at deafening levels like all the bars do in Bangkok. The night market was also a pleasure to explore as the traders were not harassing you to come in, look or buy. They left you to it which was a nice change and as a result I purchased a souvenir T-shirt for a few dollars.

One of the bars does the ‘Tomb Raider’ cocktail, obviously inspired by the film. Every 10th one sold is complimentary but every 500th one not only is complimentary, but also wins a T-shirt and $100. I figured I would order one just to see what it was like. I can’t remember what the full list of ingredients were, but it had Cointreau, lime and soda for sure. I was amazed to hear the bell ringing and claxon on going a few minutes after I ordered it. Sure enough, I was the 500th person to order one 🙂

Next day I did the second circuit of the temples which was really enjoyable and seemed a lot quieter than the previous day, certainly fewer Chinese tourists getting in the way. At some of the temples, I was the only person and it was a pleasure to have them to myself.

By the afternoon I was beginning to flag. At the ancient hospital temple there was a young girl selling drinks and with the temperature being so hot, I bought a can of sprite from her. It was in a cool box with lots of melting ice. Now am not sure where the ice was made but doing my bit for the environment and refusing a plastic straw, I drank straight from the can. It had a bizarre dirty flavour to it, like brackish lake water, but as it was so hot, I downed it before I realised what I had just done. Later that day back at the hotel I began to feel a little peculiar. At first I thought it was a little heat stroke and dehydration, but it was more than that. I began with a migraine headache, I couldn’t see much and my eyes felt bruised as if my glasses were completely the wrong prescription. My hair hurt so much I couldn’t even wash it and I had an upset stomach the likes of which I have never experienced before. Needless to say this knocked me out of action for more than a few days. I had to cancel the tuk tuk driver I had arranged for some other tours, including the war museum.

I was meant to head down to Phnom Penh around 4th February but I was in no position to travel. Thankfully I was able to extend my time at Saem Siem Reap hotel and re-arrange my accommodation in Phnom Penh to a few days later. The medication I had been carrying with me since the beginning of this Walkabout was now pretty much depleted including the antibiotics. I have hardly been ill on my travels and gave most of my pills and potions away to fellow travellers in need along the way, but I was needing them now more than ever. I finished off all that I had in a ‘one last hurrah’ attempt to cure me and it seemed to do the trick. Over the previous 5 days or so, I had only eaten about one slice of watermelon.

Feeling a little perkier, I made my way to the bus station and got the Giant Ibis Bus to Phnom Penh.

It was a pleasant enough journey but the landscape was pretty boring. Cambodia is about as flat as the Netherlands and there were some dried up fields as far as the eye could see to look at for 6 hours. The point of heading to Phnom Penh was to visit the notorious killing fields and the S21 prison camp where many Cambodians were tortured and executed in mass genocide in the late 1970’s, often beaten to death as bullets were deemed too expensive to use. Unfortunately once checked in to the hotel down by the Mekong River, my symptoms returned. There was nothing much in vicinity of my hotel in the way of shops or restaurants so once again I ended up just staying in the hotel room for most of the time. I did venture out a couple of times to try and find some food and supplies but the area wasn’t all that nice. There was a mini market where I found some drinks and instant noodles which I brought back to the hotel room.

I was there for about 5 days and all in all it was essentially a wasted trip as I didn’t get to see the things I went there for. However, I received an email from an ex-colleague who was made redundant around the same time as me, saying that he was also in Phnom Penh and by sheer coincidence we were booked on the same bus heading back to Siem Reap the next day. Martin and I met at the Phnom Penh bus station but sadly our seats were at opposite ends of the bus.

We agreed to meet up in Pub Street and have dinner over a couple of nights which was nice.

I had a few days spare and enjoyed the tranquil surroundings by the swimming pool at the hotel. As much as I wanted to revisit the temples or museums, I didn’t want to chance it, just in case.

I had booked an onward flight to Canada but it was £300 cheaper to fly from Bangkok than it was to fly from Cambodia, even using the same connection in Hong Kong. So I arranged another Giant Ibis Bus to Bangkok for $30 but it took 7 hours including just under two hours at the border.

I fly to Canada tomorrow morning which will be a bit of a shock to the system for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I have not really experience temperatures below 30 degrees centigrade since before I left England back in July. So getting off the plane wearing shorts, t-shirt and sandals in -5 will be a shock to the system. Secondly, I have travelled to some of the most polluted cities on earth, Marrakech, Cairo, Hong Kong, Beijing, Delhi, Mumbai, Kathmandu and Bangkok to name a few. The cool, clean crisp air of the Canadian Rockies will literally be a breath of fresh air, like drinking water compared to a McDonald’s milkshake.