Siem Reap

A less eventful day today. We started off by getting a bus from Battambang to Siem Reap. We thought we'd got a great deal as Mekong Express (the best bus company in Cambodia) had a sale on so their bus was the same price as the other companies. We were promised VIP. We got on the bus (it was actually a minibus) and were happily sat with a nice soft pillow beneath our bottoms (they didn't give us any free bottled water though). This was all before the bus set off. It turned into the worst bus journey ever. Thankfully it was only 3 and a half hours long but it felt like the minibus had no suspension. It was vile. Luckily we hadn't had time for any breakfast. If I'd eaten I would have vommed it all over myself. My stomach actually hurt from all of the jumping up and down. I think the road was in need of some repair. At least we got to Siem Reap in one piece. 

When we finally arrived, I had arranged a pick up with our hostel for free so we waited. And we waited. I was so hungry by this point that I was getting hangry. In the end we only waited 45 minutes but that was time when I could have been eating. A tuk tuk driver (who explained how he had gotten lost) took us to our hostel and we sat and ate food (I'll admit I went for a bacon and egg sandwich which just wasn't English therefore it wasn't amazing in any way) before dumping our bags and setting out to explore Siem Reap on foot. 

We were out for maybe just over an hour before we went back to the hostel. We'd looked round the old market in the centre which was far too hot (I was melting) so we decided to walk quite far to go to the Angkor national museum. When we got there we discovered it cost $12! Sacked that right off and ended up back at the hostel so we could use the wifi and plan what we wanted to see in Angkor. We also booked a tuk tuk for tomorrow morning so we can get to each place. I do love a tuk tuk. 

As we had a bit more time to kill we started looking into flights to the Philippines from Bangkok. We've priced it all up so it looks like it's happening! Exciting times. The smells of food coming from our hostel kitchen got us up and out though as we wanted our own food (but didn't want to pay lots). We'd seen some nice looking places in the centre so plodded back there in the rain, raincoats on and looking fly. 

It was pretty lively in the centre, lots of lights and stalls and people. We finally found a nice place to eat, reasonably priced and nice looking food. I chose grilled ribs and then noodles with veg as well as a passion fruit shake (check out the picture). It was all so good. The noodles had been cooked in a sauce thing, maybe thrown in flour before being cooked in meat juices, so they tasted super good. And the ribs were nicely seasoned and tasted like good proper ribs. Obviously the passion fruit shake was amazing as anything with passion fruit is. 

On our way back to the hostel we strolled through some of the various night markets, finding lots of cute little souvenirs that we can't fit in our bags to bring home. I do actually have a lot of room in my bag so some people might be getting a little gift. If I have enough money.