Angkor: What?

Awful titleI know. I just couldn't help myself.

Left Bangkok on a bit of a low - a 15 minute taxi ride ended up taking 2 hours due to the protests. We were at a standstill in traffic for ages and we all began to melt in the taxi. Army helicopters kept flying above and there were riot police and red shirts everywhere. Apparently we were lucky to leave Khao San road when we did - met people who tried leaving a couple of hours after us and apparently everyone just refused to take them. Also, the violence soon spread to there and they had to evacuate everyone in the street.

However, met the group and am now safely in Cambodia. It took us about 5 hours in total to get to Siem Reap, which is a far cry from the 15 hours it once use to take. Cambodia only opened its borders to tourists in 1999, and it doesn't feel overrun by foreigners or anyone, yet. It has a very sleepy chilled out feel and the people aren't so pushy.

Went to Angkor Wat and the surrounding cities yesterday, which was amazing. I had no idea how big the entire thing was. However, at 42 degrees I just about passed out. Got severe heat rash and there was just nowhere to go to cool down. A couple of people in our group suffered from heat stroke.

When we arrived at Angkor our bus was instantly surrounded by locals trying to sell us stuff. Once the doors opened and we tried to hop out we were like lambs to the slaughter. This girl about 6 years old kept beating what I can only imagine was her brother of about 3 years when we walked past. When we told her to stop she started beating him harder. Our tour guide advised though that they do this to try and get you to feel sorry for him, and give her money to stop. Also, one of the police officers tried selling off his badge to us to try make a bit of money on the side.

After all that and narrating the trip like David Attenborough half the time, we decided to go out and try local cuisine and a fish massage (pronounced fiss masaaars, very big over here). It is the oddest sensation ever, as these little chinchin fish eat the dead skin off your feet. Really ticklish and uncontrollable twitching ensues.

Off to Phnom Peng today by public transport. Today is meant to be another scorcher, and I'm unsure whether they will have a/c or not on the 6 hour journey. Rest assured though, they do have windows I've been told.

We've also developed a bad habit of speaking broken english to the locals - so much so that we start talking to each other in it as well. The joys of Asia.