Cambodia: Siem Reap and Sihanoukville

Bangkok to Siem Reap:

We landed in Bangkok with only 45 minutes to get our bags, go through immigration, get some baht and find the bus to the cambodian border. In a bit of a flap, we made it...only to have to wait half an hour more for the bus. Aboard the bus something very strange happened: Kat fell straight to sleep (after already having a solid 2 hour snooze on the plane) and Imy failed to get a wink of sleep in the 24 hours that we had been travelling. My, my, my how the tables have turned.

Making the most of the freebies

We'd heard from numerous sources that the border crossing is a bit of a nightmare due to a big transport scam and immigration officers charging extortionate fees, so cautiously made our way over. For once, New Year festivities worked in our favour as it seemed that the scammers were taking a break from their day jobs, and we were able to find a driver who took us and a French couple straight to Siem Reap for very little money. Kat and Imy 1, scammers 0.

Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor:

When we finally arrived we found that the guesthouse we wanted to stay at was full, so the man next door took us in for half the price and a lovely clean room. Result! After arranging a tuk tuk to take us around the temples the next day, filling our bellies with Big Mama noodles (Big Mama did good) and a quick foot massage for Imy, we headed to bed astonished that nothing had gone wrong!

Big Mama

$1

At 5.30am we woke up our tuk tuk driver, who was asleep on a bench, and headed to Angkor Wat, racing against the rapidly rising sun. We got there just in time to watch the sun rise behind Angkor Wat. The group of Chinese people applauding the sunrise really made the moment. We wandered around and marvelled at the beauty of the place before stumblng upon a preggo monkey!! Out of the eight temples that we bashed, our top three were the three bigguns: Angkor Wat, Ta Phrom and Bayon, but we also really enjoyed some of the smaller, quieter ones. We didn't want to overdo it, so after a solid eight hours of exploration we made our way back to Siem Reap.

Angkor Wat!

Sunrise

Up duff

Wheeere's Kat

One for the mums

Beautiful Bayon

Have my baby.

It's Tomb Raider not James Bond you donut

Feeling adventurous, we tucked into a feast of barbecued crocodile, snake and frog's legs. Imy triumphed and managed to swallow the lot. Kat didn't do quite so well, she managed the croc and frog but dramatically gagged on the snake before spitting it back onto the plate. By the time we had finished, our plates were like reptilian graveyards and we were glad that we had got the cultural experience over with early on. That night we had a bit of a mad one, hitting up Angkor What(?!) with a couple from Scunthorpe and a gaggle of Chinese! The night ended with us being pelted with water and talcum powder to celebrate Songkran (Thai New Year).

Mmmmmm snake

Fweeeends

The next day isn't worth commenting on, but our movie knowledge increased ten fold. 

We mucked up bus tickets a bit so ended up spending another day in Siem Reap and decided to make the most of it by hitting up the culture scene. We went on a lovely walk along the river, which took us to the National Angkor Museum. We were both buzzing for the history on offer, only to have our dreams shattered at the $12 entry fee! Needless to say we turned around and walked back to town, as we'd already spent our week's budget in 3 days. On the walk back, a croc shop caught our attention and on closer inspection it transpired that Angelina Jolie had been there only a few months before - she bought a $2000 Mulberry lookalike.

Rip off merchants

Croc shop

Sihanoukville: 

That evening we got the night bus to Sihanoukville and yet again Kat fell straight to sleep, leaving Imy to enjoy the noises coming from the couple to our right, while she clung on for dear life. We arrived at around 5.30am and demanded that the tuk tuk driver took us to Monkey Republic hostel, despite his warning that "it had got too hot'' and we shouldn't go there. Reluctantly, he took us, only for us to realise on arrival that by ''too hot'' he meant ''it had burnt to ashes''. We let him take us to another hostel, which was hooker-central, so ended up across the road at a pay-by-the-night establishment, rather than a pay-by-the-hour.

After a quick nap we were absolutely on it, in two hours we sorted out our Vietnamese visa, booked Imy's PADI and ate a burger, before heading to Otres 1 for a day on the beach. It turns out, we should have gone to Otres 2 because the beach of Otres 1 was derived more from used syringes, empty bottles and dead animals than sand. Imy bought a bracelet off a little boy, thinking she'd done a good deed, only to get shouted at by some radgey banshee because she had supposedly promised to by it off her...it was actually Kat that had pinky promised. She told Imy that she would get what's coming to her and that she was now her enemy.

 

Imy nailing a kid at rock, paper, scissors

Getting ripped off...yet again

There was a massive swing though, which looked easy to master but in reality we just flailed about like drunk seals. We ate loads of food and went to bed early, as we were heading off to Koh Rong the next morning so Imy could start her PADI and Kat could sit doing nothing on the beach.

Weeeeeeeeee

Plop

 

Shout out to T2..x

Sri Lanka: Week 2

A six hour taxi ride or snoozing off our Adam's Peak trauma, we arrived in beautiful Mirissa. We pulled up at a fancy hotel and managed to wangle a great deal for the three of us. We washed off any remaining evidence of the trek up Adam's Peak and went down to the beach for dinner. Loz and Imy played it safe with veg noodles but Kat went all our with a three-course fresh fish supper. She didn't anticipate that all three courses would come out at the same time, which made it a bit of a juggling act!! Good old Imy helped her out by eating her pudding - what are friends for?!

classy_kat999

Selfie!

As soon as the sun rose there was no time to waste and we wandered down the beach to start the sun worshiping. The waves were pretty strong and the surfers were making the most of it. We ventured out for a little play, but when Lauren's breast flopped out we decided to leave the waves to the pros.

It's gonna get ya

"Guys, do something"

All looking rather rouge, we headed out for dinner on the beach again. The amount of fresh fish on offer got Kat pretty giddy and she opted for a sizable mullet, which she sucked the bones dry on. For Imy it was a fillet steak which came our looking like a dog had already had a go on it...apparently it tasted OK though.

Eyeball Paul

The next day we explored the beach a bit more and found a turtle conservation with lots of baby green turtles and we were lucky enough to hold some of the babas. We climbed a mount, which our calves didn't enjoy, but it gave a beautiful view of the beach.

So feeble

Mirissa

We jumped onto a local bus to get to Galle and encountered our first sad story of the Tsunami - our rickshaw driver told us about how he had lost family and his home. He was over the moon when we told him we were English because it was an Englishman that had come over to help him rebuild his home after the disaster. We can't get over how jolly everyone is despite their sad stories.

"You wanna sit...on my lap"

We stayed in Galle Fort and fell in love with a restaurant called Crepe-ology where we unashamedly returned for breakfast lunch and dinner!! A walking tour of the fort not only opened our eyes to the colonial heritage but we also stumbled upon a Sri Lankan movie being filmed and some tuk tuk drivers getting into a game of cricket.

Movie set

Tuk tuk cricket

So colonial

In need of some more beach time, we made our way to Hikkaduwa. We decided to live the high life for a day, so paid to use a pool at a fancy pants hotel. It was everything we hoped it would be and more,as included in our ticket was an all you can eat buffet! We helped ourselves to five different mains, fresh bread and cheese, and a couple of platefuls of mini deserts. We were in stomach-cramping heaven by the time we had finished. The pool wasn't too shabby either and afternoon tea topped off the day nicely! Lauren treated us to a "safe sex on the beach". Feeling rather smug with ourselves already, we couldn't believe it when we noticed turtles making their way down to the sea! They looked so feeble, fingers crossed they make it.

Sister love

Safe sex on the beach

Beach babe

We had a wicked night out at Funky de Bar, where we met a frenchy and a dutchy, who entertained us for the night! 

Jack Sparrow

Lover lover

Byeeee Lauren!!

It was a sad day when Lauren had to say goodbye, and in a moment of màdness Kat and Imy decided to go to Colombo for a night. As always, things weren't exactly plain sailing, as it was Sri Lànkan new year, meaning everything in the capital had shut down for the weekend. With our good intentions to visit museums shot to shit, we ended up hanging out in the air-conditioned bliss of McDonald's once again! We've decided to send evidence of Imy in every McDonald's to Mr McDonald in the hope that they'll give us some freebies.

Big Maclovin'

Sri Lanka rocked our socks off! Devvoed to leave and will definitely be back.

Next stop: Cambodia!!

Sri Lanka: Week 1

Arriving in Sri Lanka at 4am meant that our only concern was to get to a bed ASAP. Unfortunately, we were given a taxi driver who spoke about 4 words of English and who didn't have the faintest idea of how to get us to the hostel that Lauren was already checked into.

After a while of aimlessly driving around, Imy's screeches of "stop" were finally rewarded and we were able to ask for directions. This is when we experienced our first bout of Sri Lanken hospitality, as the guy hopped on his motorbike and led our driver to the guesthouse - what a star!

After a quick kip, we were back on the road and heading to Kandy. We set off on our 5 hour bus journey...only to Arrive in Kandy 6 and a half hours later. That just seems to be the Sri Lanken way. With only 10 minutes to spare, we headed straight out to a local Kandy dance show. We were a little dubious when we arrived at a run-down school hall but the plate spinning and backflips, in addition to their vajazzled outfits, impressed immensely.

Plate perfection

The golden oldie

With such a short amount of time and so much to see, we hired a rickshaw to take us around. We stopped off at a tea factory and had a guided tour of the tea process that takes it from leaf to cup..the free cup of tea at the end was a result! 

Tea glorious tea

Ooohh fancy

Then we headed to a spice garden and swotted up on our natural remedies. We weren't expecting the back massage, head massage and cup of tea (a special dazzarea treatment for Kat) to be thrown in for free. Thank God Lauren splashed out on some ointments otherwise we'd have felt well guilty! 

Tut

Impromptu head massage

Finally, we got to the elephant orphanage just in time for the baby ellies to be bottle fed. They absolutely guzzled it down. We also saw bathing time and were in the perfect spot to see the herd of elephants making their way down to the river. We grabbed a bite to eat beside the river, with our eyes transfixed on the elephants frolicking in the water. What made the day even better was the fact that Kat and Imy had their first serving of beef in 6 weeks! It was a meaty heaven in a burger bun.

Stroking ellie

Baby bath

View from the restaurant

BEEF

To finish off one of our favourite days, we checked out the giant Buddha, which we climbed for a fantastic view over kandy.

Big Buddha

The next day we headed to Ella and experienced one of the most beautiful train journeys we have ever been on. There were rolling hills of tea plantations, huge waterfalls and adorable kids playing and waving as we passed. Ella in no way disappointed. It's a quaint little town surrouded by mountains, with a really relaxed atmosphere. We went to see the Ella Rawena falls - a big waterfall surrounded by monkies. We didn't do the hike up Little Adam's Peak because we knew that soon enough we would be doing the whopper itself.

Tea plantations

Ella Rawena

Adam's Peak was our next destination. It is an infamous "mountain" and home to the rock on which Buddha/Adam/Shiva (depending on your faith) first stepped down from heave. Hundreds of Sri Lankens make the pilgrimage around this time of year, with the aim of getting to the top in time to see the sun rise. With this in mind, we set off from Ella in the evening with the moronic idea of doing the hike that night. By the time we got to Hatton though, we realised this was a stupid idea and after a bit of a kafuffle locating a room, we checked into the biggest dive imaginable. We're talking a cockroach infested, pube-ridden hell hole!

We checked out pronto the next morning and caught the bus to delhouse - a tourist pitstop at the base of Adam's peak. Again, the bus ride was absolutely stunning, as we made our way around a beautiful turquoise lake. 

Not too shabby

An early night was in order, so we could start the hike at 1am. So after about 2 hours of sleep we found ourselves hiking up a mountain. A 7km hike might not sound too bad but when it is going up about 6000 steep steps, you can really feel the burn. We didn't have to look too far for motivation though, as hiking alongside us were 80 year old women and dads carrying their children. Most inspirational of all was the old lady we saw hobbling up on just one leg and a crutch!! It didn't make the climb any easier though, and it was a massive relief when we made it to the top, where we huddled in an attempt to keep warm. 

Bit nippy at the top

Ding dong

The sunrise was an absolute beaut and made it all worthwhile. However, what goes up must come down! So with absolute jelly legs we started the descent. It took a while for us to get back down because our legs were on the verge of seizing up and we seemed to have lost a lot of our coordination. 

Peekaboo

Finally the sun makes an appearance

Struggling

The peak that almost defeated us

After the hike, we had some brekki and grabbed our stuff so we could head south to the beaches, feeling like we well and truly deserved a bit of a beach break after our physical exertion. It's a tough life!