Delhi and Agra

It was only a whistle stop tour in India for six days, but it felt like six years. The only redeeming feature of Delhi was that we did not get sick (for once). Apart from this, well.... we didn't like it. We don't want to tar the whole country with the same brush, and Abi has been to Goa and loved it, but maybe the capital just ain't our thing. But let us tell you what we did not like:

1. Being run over by a cyclo

2. 20million people in 20square metres

3. EVERYONE is a tout, bar none (even your "friend"/ tuk tuk driver/ train "staff"... or those that cry )

4. Aggressive monkeys

5. Throwing stuff on your back to steal your bag

6. People spitting on your trousers

... and the list goes on.

But on the positive:

1. Taj Mahal

2. Cheap awesome Thalis
..um... struggling now, but these are two excellent points.

Go there if you are hard as nails, or well off enough to give away your cash without a bother (or a product in return). Don't if you are in any way gulible, you will never make it home!

Phnom Penh

This was actually our second visit to Phnom Penh because we spent a few days here when we first got to Cambodia, but here’s a run-down of what we did on both trips. We did the mandatory Khmer Rouge sites including the Killing Fields and the S21 Prison, both very sad and moving. We spent some time by the river(fending off beggars and legless book merchants), some time by the lake (fending off tuk tuk drivers and child book merchants) and some time by the sink, so all the water views. We also went to every market in town and drank some of the bargain cocktails available!

Kep and Kampot

Getting to Kep from Battambang was a bit of a mission after our first bus breakdown. Finally we reached Kep, which is the “upmarket” beach town of Cambodia. We hadn’t realised that they were trying to discourage backpackers here, but fortunately we found some accommodation that welcomed our scraggy selves into their establishment. We had the most amazing tree top bungalow which had gorgeous views of the sun setting over the sea. We then went on a day trip to Rabbit Island, where we spent the day in hammocks reading our books on the waters edge. However, although the island was relaxing, the 20minute boat trip too and from there was treacherous. There was quite a large swell and our little fishman boat was struggling to stay above the waves. Although we remained in the boat (unlike a guy on the one before us), we looked wetter then if we had ended up in the sea.
Since our money was not getting us very far, we went to Kampot nearby. Here we went to Bakor National Park. To get here we had to trek for an hour and a half through the jungle following the ranger who had a M16 swung across his back to protect us from tigers. Fortunately no tigers appeared which was lucky given that he walked at a million miles an hour with the rest of us struggling to keep up. Heath did manage to get a leech though, but it was just a baby. At the top of Bakor, there is an old French colonial casino. Apparently a lot of people killed themselves after losing money here by throwing themselves off the mountain. We didn’t stay long enough to find out if the stories about the ghosts were true. The second day we were here, we went on a random trip with another couple and a tuk tuk driver. We saw a pepper plantation, some more caves (where we nearly got biten by bats and monkeys…) and ended the day with a swim in the local river. Our tuk tuk driver came too, in only his little underpants. He had a great time.

Battambang

We only stayed two days in the lovely Battambang, but it was the most we have ever packed into such a brief visit. With lack of a better plan we agreed for our tuk tuk driver to take us all around the nearby villages as soon as we got off the bus, and learnt how to make rice paper, rice noodles, bean sprouts and roasted water snakes. We also visited a temple and the infamous bamboo railway, which is a local method of getting stuff around. Basically its some train tracks, where you put on some wheels, a bit of bamboo to sit on and an engine and off you go. It goes pretty fast, and is slightly scary when you encounter something coming the other way. On the second day we took a Khmer cookery class. We were the only ones so it was a one-to-one session where we made three dishes from scratch. We are now awesome at making SE Asia dishes, so make the most of our skills when you next see us! In the afternoon we visited the killing caves and another temple, and in the evening we watched a circus performance at the local art school.

Siem Reap

Our first port of call in Cambodia was to visit the unofficial eighth man-made wonder of the world – the jungle temples of Siem Reap. Our first attempt to visit the temples was scuppered by Heath having another bout of food poisoning (turns out street food isn’t just as safe as the restaurants). But on our second attempt we left the guesthouse at 5am to watch the sun rise behind Angkor Wat. You can’t actually go inside the temple before 8am unless you slip a “construction worker” some dollars, so we opted to watch from afar. We then climbed around all the other temples, our favourites being Bayon Wat with all the faces and ….. where they filmed Tomb Raider. Of course, Asia never misses a trick to earn a buck where there are tourists, so the town of Siem Reap was an explosion of bars and restaurants at not such a cheap price (hence the street eat disaster). We skedaddled pretty quick after we had seen the sights to find somewhere a bit less touristy. But not before we had a fish foot massages (suckers… literally!).