Bangkok and Siem Reap

It's Leanne and its my turn to post a blog, for those that know me you will know that I love my food so this will be very food centric. And Bangkok and Cambodia have been great for food.

We arrived in Bangkok, Thailand, early evening on 8th December after making our way to our Guest House (it was very basic, there wasn't even a toilet paper!) as we were famished we started on our quest for food. Luckily we were staying near the infamous Khao San Road so we didn't need to walk far. The streets were bustling with loads of people and we chose one busy street stall that was full of Thais and Westerners.

Rob with our first Bangkok-ian meal, looking very tired

We don't know what our first meal was, we were kind of given it but it tasted good. It was rice noodles (vermecilli), chicken and chinese leaf, it was yum -even Rob liked it I mean it doesn't look that appealing does it! Afterwards we had some Pad Thai but just ate that walking through the streets- very classy! It is the nation's most popular dish so had to be tried! But don't have a picture to show you.

After much needed sleep (travelling makes you very tired) we decided to use our only day in Bangkok to see some sights. Our first stop was Wat Phra Keow which is home to The Grand Palace amongst other temples. This place was amazing, no words will do it justice, not even our pictures, but here are a few:

In front of the Grand Palace

Rob in front of one of the many temples

This place was so bling, P Diddy/Diddy/Puff Daddy/Sean Combs would have felt well at home here. We also got chatting to Estelle, a lovely French lady whom we walked around the site with (Bangkok friend!!).
After that we had more street food (Rob's new fave), two can dine for 2 pounds, beats M&S anyday!

Still haven't managed to rotate photos

With full bellies we went to Wat Pho, the reclining Buddha, it was massive, no seriously this baby was nearly 50m long and 20m high.

Reclining Buddha with 2 randoms

We then visited Wat Arun before watching the sunset across the River Chao Phraya:

More street food, with a magician followed. We enjoyed our short stay in Bangkok, and are looking forward to returning in a month or so. Even with the recent flooding it was much cleaner than India.

We woke the next day to travel to Siem Reap. We heard a lot of horror stories about this journey, but we got through no trouble, only a bit of waiting. Rob even had time to try his first Snickers bar on the journey!

The main reason we went to Siem Reap is to see the Temples of Angkor, however our first port of call was to satistfy our rumbling tummies.

Beef and noodles for me and beef and rice for Rob, you can tell we missed beef after India!

Still not satisfied with that we had some dessert of banana and chocolate pancakes on the walk back to the Guest House.

He pulled the dough like pizza, a little different but they  were so good though and we are definitely having these again!

The Angkor Temples were unbelievable. Built by the Khmers they were a series of temples which are now mainly ruins. There are in the middle of the countryside and have been there so long the trees and stone are as one. One of many examples below:

Rob says: Unbelievable Jeff

It took 2 days to explore the site. On the first we had a tuk tuk to take us around to the more further afield temples. One exit of the temple brought us to this:

Not bad, eh?

The second day we rented bicycles and woke up at 4am to see Angkor Wat (the biggest religious structure in the world) for sunrise.

After sunrise we got to explore Angkor Wat, Rob was allowed up to the top of the Temple, but didn't let me in because I was dressed too provacatively, I think she was just jealous of my legs.

That's me in the gateway below... for riel!

The only bad side of our experience was the frequent hassling of sellers trying to get us to buy books, bracelets and scarves. However some of the kids were so cute! Rob made friends with Sia who was selling bracelets. As they were 2 for a dollar I picked my favourite one and we asked her to pick her favourite one and gave that to her. She was really loud and confident when trying to get us to buy her stuff, then turned shy and seemed confused when we asking her favourite one but she was happy when we gave it to her.

Me and Sia

Whilst cycling to see a more remote temple we befriended some local Camobian school boys keen to practise their English, they took us to a viewing platform that gave a spectacular view of the surrounding scenery.

Me with my new friends

This is just an example of the kind nature of the Cambodian people we have experienced. Everyone is very friendly and happy which is surprising given their horrific recent history (if you don't know what this is, read up on the Pol Pot regime. I might have to read this myself  but  Rob told me they killed up to 5 million people, simply  being being deemed intellectual was deemed a reason to be killed. Some of the criteria for being 'intellectual' included wearing glasses or knowing another language. Frighteningly all this happened only 30 years ago!) The children also explained that Cambodia is still very corrupt, they told us that if they haven't got enough money to pay the teachers then they will fail their exams even if they get 100%. And even if they manage to do this and get good grades they will more than likely need to bribe someone to get a good job. Makes you realise how lucky we are.

That takes us to now, we leave for Phnom Penh tomorrow morning. Then plan to head south to Sihanoukville for some much needed beach time - It is soo hot here I can't wait for a refreshing dip in the sea!