Bangkok & Siem Reap, Cambodia

Hello!
Day 5 and we're having a fab, if tiring time, haven't stopped as trying to fit as much in as possible - if we carry on at this pace we'll need a holiday after the end of the year!.
Bangkok was good - started well and took the budget option of an airport bus to the city, which unfortunately would only drop us off at the Kaoh San Rd - a good km from where we'd booked to stay. So off we marched with our rucksacks to get there, stopping every 50 yards to consult the map and keeling over from heat and humidity when it started to rain. Let it pass we thought as we took shelter rapidly - erm it didn't stop all night! Made it eventually - wet through but still smiling!
How to describe Bangkok? A great experience but wouldn't want want to go back! We stayed in the old town which was tightly packed pavement markets (most of which sell food) and loads of character so we spent the next day walking through it to get to the Grand Palace and temples on the other side. Magnificent buildings, but very OTT in the amount of decoration and colours in them - more bling than P Diddy! Also did a river tour - put us off eating fish for a while as it was a filthy yellow colour-suddenly river prawns no longer sounded so nice!.That night we walked 4 miles down a lying planet recommended road looking for somewhere for dinner - didn't even find a bar! Turned out we'd walked the wrong way and we wanted the other end of the street - a few hundred yards from our hotel ;-) However, the road did take us passed the kings palace so saved a bit of sight-seeing time the next day!
Day 3 and we ventured further afield and walked through Chinatown - even busier with the pavement markets and food (whole nation's more obsessed with food than mum!!!), but to be honest none of it looked that great and mixed with the drain aromas we were never tempted to try any. We also caught a skytrain - handy to get about and sight-see at the same time!, Took us by PatPong - the red-light area - which was seedy and full of wierdos.
Glad we went to Bangkok, but not in a rush to go back - although it is a shopper's paradise - so hard for Ali not to buy anything!
So on to Cambodia - we thought we'd try the bus as was 'all part of the experience'... and experience it certainly was! They said it would take 12 hours and it would be on a 'luxury vip air-conditioned bus'.... All started well when the bus turned up and hour and a half late and it turned out luxury and vip had a very different meaning in Bangkok - Cliff had a better bus in summer holiday and at 250Tb each (about £3) we expected better!
The bus was further delayed when we needed to stop at the driver's brother's cousin's friend's restaurant for an hour to wait for another (non-existant it turned out) bus - convenient because they could take care of our visas and lunch - for a small fee obviously!
Eventually got through the border at Poipet (grimmest place known to man) and first intro to the Cambodians was street kids trying to pickpocket everyone and pester for money. Needless to say we were stuck waiting for our next bus for a couple of hours, but it was ok cause you could change your money here plus get some more lunch! When it did turn up at about 5pm (still another 6 hours to go at this stage), we were surprised to see that luxury VIP had reached an even lower status. No longer an air conditioned coach, but a 16 seat minibus welded together out of spare parts with no space for luggage so bags had to be kept on floor between seats or on laps and the air conditioning was now an open window!
We had been told that the road to Siem Reap (where we are now) wasn't very good but nothing could prepare you for the bumpy ride that was ahead - massive pot-holes on a dirt track squashed into a tin wreck with no suspension - am never complaining about the British public transport system and roads again!!! We eventually got here 4 hours late at nearly midnight after yet another hour long pit-stop -turns out they do this deliberately so you arrive so late that the out of town guest house they drop you off at seems like a great option to stay the night! Anyway, Ali said she wanted a free lift to the guest house we'd booked (nice place over an Irish bar called Molly Malone's!) 'NOW', so we got one - lad who took us there in his tuk-tuk (moped towing a sofa on wheels) has been working for us today too - paid him $8 for the day to drive us around the Angkor temples and ruins - they stretch over 30 kms (8km).
So last night was a few well derserved drinks to celebrate reaching our destination in tact and today was spent visiting old temple ruins that are about 1200 to 800 yrs old, but were lost to the jungle until about 100 years ago. Bit like Pompeii only not a city as such, just Buddhist temples and ancient palaces. Tomorrow we visit the biggest one at Angkor Wat (largest religious building in the world apparently) then we have to sort out our next stage which is a visit to the coast via another 12 hour bus trip, although from here on the roads are sealed tarmac (or so we are told).'
Off out to dinner now for Ali's birthday - a tough life but hey!
Steve & Ali
ps Thanks for the birthday messages ;-)