The Cave

From Siem Reap, we took a tour bus to the border, swiftly abandoned the rest of the group, and took a very comfortable local (Thai) bus back into Bangkok.

We stayed another three nights in Bangkok - just enough time to potter round some shops, have another suit fitting and enjoy some more fab Thai food! We then took an overnight train down to Chum Porn (yes, that really IS its name!) on the coast, and caught a ferry across to the little island of Ko Tao, just north of Ko Samui.

Ko Tao wasn’t exactly what we’d been hoping for: too many of the Martini Brigade (you know the type - just too “beautiful”, with too few clothes on, posing all over the place). It’s not exactly that I have a problem with bikinis, but when they are being sported round town, it does get a bit much. There’s only so much tit and thigh I can cope with. And that’s from the men.

Unfortunately, The Martini Brigade were not as beautiful as they seemed to think they were, and seeing virtually naked, lobsteresque tourists with very odd sunburn was not uncommon. As was seeing topless old women…

Resisting the urge to show up the other tourists and strip naked, Tom and I stuck to chilling out in the shade, enjoying evening swims and doing a bit of snorkling. The beach-hut-on-stilts accommodation was lovely, and we managed to find a place with a small beach that was only shared by two guest houses, so wasn’t too busy.

Thrill-seakers as we are, we hired scooters for the day, and at a massive 15 km per hour we explored the island. (The scooters did actually go much faster than that, but…well…I was hanging on for dear life at 10 km per hour!!!) Actually, we had a really fab time zotting about in the glorious sunshine and avoiding the masses!

All in all we had a good few days in Ko Tao, but I wish we could have seen it before it became over-touristed…

If anyone ever tells you that the staggering array of temples and sacred buildings around the ancient Khmer capital of Angkor are “amazing” or “wonderful” or “splenfumferously spangwobbly astoundingous”, they are understating in a big way.

Upon arrival in Siem Reap, the modern town just south of the sites, it didn’t take us long to decide on the 7 day pass to the temples rather than the shorter 3 or quite frankly criminal 1 day passes.

Armed with this handy laminated ticket and our trusty Tuk-Tuk driver Som (who luckily also had a tuk tuk) - we set off along the jungle lined route to the temples.

Day 1: Mini Tour Loop (Transport: Tuk Tuk)
Som is a delightful chap, and he has obviously been doing tours for long enough to know the routes of the larger tour groups pretty well. He was able to get us to sites before the masses reached them, and we didn’t feel rushed at any point - allowing us to explore almost deserted temple complexes at our leisure!

Our first day was the inner loop of temples, including Phnom Bakeng (perched on the top of a hill), the huge walled city of Angkor Thom (containing the Bayon, and numerous other temples), Ta Prohm (still overgrown with mysterious shaped trees, and the site where parts of the Tomb Raider film were shot) and finally Angkor Wat itself for sunset.

Day 2: Mini Tour Remix (Transport: Granny bike)
After our success at the valley of the kings, we decided to hire bikes for the day to explore some of the temples we’d visited the previous day in a little more detail and at different times of day.

Angkor Wat itself is reputed to be the world’s largest religious structure, and I can believe it! The entire structure is magnificent from a distance and the intricate carvings that cover the walls reveal themselves as you get closer. We huffed and puffed through the heat to reach the top of the main tower with a magnificent view of the surrounding jungle and the temple grounds.

We then looped around the southern moat of Angkor Wat, visiting some smaller temples en-route, to reach Ta Prohm just before sunset. This impressive temple is slowly being torn apart by the various trees and bushes that are entwined around the walls. The stones may not be so happy, but it does afford anyone with a camera a golden photo opportunity! In the future the jungle may be allowed to re-claim this site, but I hope the authorities resist the urge to cut the trees back as the atmosphere of the temple in the twilight is simply amazing! Once more we were almost alone at the temple, scrambling over blocks to find deserted courtyards and crumbling walls. An unforgettable experience!

Day 3: Sunrise and Grand Tour Loop (Transport: Tuk Tuk)
We forced poor Som to get up extra early to take us up to Angkor Wat for sunrise. He left us there and headed off to his English lesson, while we found ourselves a spot to watch the show. It turned out to be a little disappointing as sunrises go, but we still enjoyed the experience and watched some cheeky monkeys stealing toothpicks as we ate breakfast nearby.

When our faithful dude rolled back in, we headed back through Angkor Thom to the outer loop of temples. These included Preah Kahn, the watery Neak Pean, Ta Som, East Mebon and Pre Rup. By this point you would think we would be templed out, but the truth is that each temple had unique features and it was wonderful to reach a doorway only to find a new network of passages or another fascinating building just around the corner.

Day 4: Day Off in Siem Reap (Transport: our own little feet)
Tiring a little of the “Three for one dollar” hawkers around the temples and needing a little time to gather our thoughts, we decided to give Som a day off and spend a day in Siem Reap chilling out and writing postcards. We also visited a lovely little bar with a large net covering the grounds. The reason for the netting was to keep the hundreds of butterflies of all shapes and sizes from escaping. There were also many informative signs about the different fruits available in that part of the world.

We really enjoyed relaxing in Siem Reap in the evenings, as good food and drinks are widely available, and the temperature was just about right (as long as a fan was strategically placed somewhere in the vicinity)!

Day 5: Biking Again (Transport: Granny bike)
Once more we pedalled off into the distance on our trusty bikes, visiting Banteay Kdei at the eastern edge of the main temple area. As the day went on, Adele started to feel ill, so we returned to Siem Reap to recharge our batteries and chill out on the balcony of our guesthouse.

Day 6: North, South, East, West, um… UP! (Transport: Balloon and Tuk Tuk)
Having explored almost all of the main temple groups on the ground, we took to the skies in a tethered balloon near Angkor Wat. We timed it to perfection and were ushered on board past a waiting tour group. The views over the temples and the surrounding landscape were magnificent. Of particular interest were the huge Baray (man-made reservoirs) that played a part in the disasters of the Pol Pot regieme because of the mistaken theory that they were the key to the wealth of the Khmer Empire.

We decided to return to the Bayon in Angkor Thom for sunset, as we thought the oblique light on the hundreds of huge carved faces would give our cameras a healthy dinner. Som duely chased the sunset down the dirt paths leading to the temple, and we were certainly not disappointed!

Day 7: The Roluos Group (Transport: Tuk Tuk)
Our final day began with a dash along a highway filled with the most random vehicles known to man. After dodging trucks with no cab (some drivers do pop motorcycle helmets on), “motorised mules” towing trailers filled with various goods, motorbikes of all shapes and sizes and the ubiquitos pickup trucks with about three million Khmers piled in the back, we arrived at the Eastern Roluos group of temples that pre-date those at Angkor.

Both Preah Ko and Bakong were impressive temples, and the smaller Lolei, surrounded by a functioning Buddhist monestary was a nice surprise too!

It was then time to say goodbye to our trusty Som, the lovely Millennium Guesthouse,the remarkable Angkor region and the unforgettable Cambodia.

Methinks we’ll be back!

Click here for loads more photos!

Never ones to do things the easy way, we planned our escape from Thailand to Cambodia the…well…more interesting route.

Still, it wouldn’t have been half as interesting if we hadn’t…

It all started off with a five hour train journey (third class) from Bangkok to the border town of Aranya Phrathet. No aircon, just open windows… and lots and lots of dust and straw blowing about. Happily we did manage to get seats, and the view was very interesting. The knots in my hair after being blown about for 5 hours were not so interesting!

Aranya Phrathet is a small town, not exactly hip and happening. A bit dirty, a bit dodgy. But on the whole, not bad. We found a place to stay which was basic but decent, and had dinner at a street stall in the market area.

The next day, about mid-morning, we caught a “bus” (a large, brightly coloured pick-up truck with a roof and benches down the sides) to the border: a crazy hustly bustly place. People, chickens, fruit, veg, funiture, more people, vehicles of all shapes and sizes, everywhere!

We crossed the border on foot, which just involved avoiding the pick-pockets (this was a real threat here - I litertarlly had to bat the groping, wandering hands of these kids away and scare them off), and standing in a long queue.

Once we were in no-man’s land it was a short walk to the Cambodia Visa desk, then on into Cambodia.

There’s a “scam” that’s run which involves tour buses, and we were well aware of it: the tour bus takes you from the border (Poipet) to Siem Reap, takes AGES to get there, then drops you directly at the hotel they want you to stay at.

We went along with the scam, but said we wanted to get off in Sisiphon. Just as well really. The bus was seriously cramped, and there was no aircon - just open windows and lots of dust. We were unceremoniously dumped at the side of the road!

In Sisphon, getting our priorities straight, we stopped off for a beer…then headed to the bus station. We got a pickup truck (a small pickup this time) to Batambong - the second largest city in Cambodia. We managed to get seats inside (not fancying our chances clinging on to the back with some of the locals, and some more chickens). Also squeezed into the back with us was an English-speaking tour guide. We got to Batambong quite late, but our new-found friend sorted out accommodation for us, which turned out to be very cheap and pretty decent!

We managed to find some dinner - at a restaurant I’m sure was run by gangsters.

The next morning, bright and early, we got the boat to Siem Reap: a journey we were expecting to take around 5 hours.

10 hours and two boats later we arrived…

The first boat was a tiny river boat, just about big enough for eight people but with around 20 squeezed on. After 5 hours, we met up with a larger boat and we all swapped over.

The trip up the river was actually really good - it was so interesting to see the river communities. But 10 hours is a long time!

Happily, our friend from Batambong had hooked us up with a tuk-tuk driver relative of his in Siem Reap: Som. Som was a really nice guy, and we got to know him quite well over the next week or so.

Well, it was more interesting than flying, at any rate!

After all that travelling, were we supposed to find a dingy place on the Khao San Road and spend the next few days running from bedbugs?

That sounds like fun!

Such a shame we had already booked a place in a lovely four star hotel in the Chinatown area…

After the crazy taxi drivers of Cairo and Amman, Bangkok’s tuk-tuk and moto bonanza seemed rather sedate by comparison. They actually leave more than half an inch between vehicles here, and I’m sure the car horns were not exercised nearly enough.

We spent the first few days of our time here eating gorgeous Thai food (and as usual, way too much of it), getting the finest Egyptian dirt out of our clothes (they had to wash everything twice!), planning our next steps in Asia and getting measured up for some tailor made suits!

Now then… where is the train station?

For some reason our tickets were cheaper if we took this weird route. The question bothering both of us the night before while we packed for this mammoth 48 hours of sitting on flights and waiting in airports, was:

WILL WE EVER SEE OUR BELOVED, WELL-PACKED, RATHER BATTERED BACKPACKS EVER AGAIN???

With this in mind, we made sure we had a spare pair of underwear and our washbags in handluggage.

And off we set.

PART 1: Luxor to Cairo
Apart from being shouted at by the security guard for turning up too early (?!!), the trip was uneventful, and we arrived on time.

PART 2: Cairo to Barcelona to Madrid
Iberia Airways. Couldn’t organise a piss-up in a brewery. Talk about unimpressed. If I could be bothered (and thought it would make a difference) I’d write and complain.

But I’ll start at the beginning. We landed in Cairo - terminal 1 - at about 5.30pm. Our flight out (from terminal 2) was due to leave at 1.25am. Having loads of time to kill, we decided to walk between the two terminals. Not the nicest walk, but it was good to get some exercise. Any hopes we’d had of chilling out at Terminal 2 were well and truly dashed: there’s really not much there, and…to exacerbate matters…we weren’t allowed to check in and go through to departures until 11pm. Despite waiting since 7.15pm, we still managed to be the last ones through.

The flight was, predictably, delayed. No one told us this, so most people (not our lazy selves) were waiting in a queue for about 2 hours!

Luckily we had enough time before our connecting flight in Madrid that we weren’t too concerned.

That was until it became apparent in Barcelona that the cabin crew had managed to lose one of the passengers. (After being fed dinner at 3.30am, we couldn’t give a damn either way). A mass-hunt ensued in which we all had to identify ourselves no less than FOUR times to three different people, and have our names checked off a list. In an amazing demonstration of incompetence, they STILL couldn’t work out who was missing (though we suspect it was the guy who had his passport taken off him and who was escorted away from the gate at Cairo airport).

PART 3: Madrid to Stockholm to Helsinki
Against all the odds we made it to Madrid in time for our connecting flight, and happily, we didn’t have much time to wait.

Also, happily, this flight was not run by Iberia, but by the wonderful Finnair (complete with gormet food…yes…MORE free food…). (And yes, we did have a bit of a laugh about “flying on fin air”…ahah-ha-ha-hum…but by now we’d been going for over 24 hours, so might be forgiven?)

This flight was completely uneventful, and quite comfortable.

One thing we hadn’t counted on. We’d come from a desert climate, and were heading to the steamy climes of Thailand. In Helsinki it was snowing. A lot. So much so that the planes were being sprayed with anti-freeze.

PART 4: Helsinki Airport
We liked Helsinki Airport. So much so that we want to visit Finland (properly attired) now! We had a 7 hour stopover here - enough time to wash our hair in a sink, scrub up a bit, have a good dinner and an even better bottle of wine, finish a book each, AND get drunk. Quite a busy 7 hours.

PART 5: Helsinki to Bangkok
Again, uneventful. Finnair again (but this time with some horrible food). And (as Tom notices) the cabin attendents weren’t quite so pretty…the films were rubbish, too. But, as we neared the 48 hour mark, I think our tolerance levels had dropped somewhat…!

PART 6: Bangkok
And an hour-long taxi ride later we made it to our hotel. Locked the door. Sorted out all the washing. Went to bed.

Not that I’m a fan of the Tomb Raider games or anything, but our trip is beginning to sound like one of the Walkthroughs…

With hair duly platted, backpack in situe (ok, ok, so my daypack isn’t actually a backpack…), sunglasses funkily perched on the end of my nose, we set off to Karnak.

The temple was situated about 4km from where we were staying, so we decided to walk - something which the locals just couldn’t believe. Presumably because most tourists take the tour bus option, or opt for the novelty of the horse-drawn caliche, it is quite uncommon to see travellers pounding the pot-holed pavements.

Once at Karnak, we hired a guide who taught us things like “hypostyle hall” and the reason why only part of Hatshepsut’s obelisk had been hidden behind a high wall by her jealous step-son.

Karnak is one of the most impressive temples we’ve visited in Egypt. There were many, many people there, but somehow it still managed to maintain it’s atmosphere. The feeling of awe as you walk through the immense hypostyle hall…

As we were engaged in tramping anti-clockwise seven times round a scarab statue, we noticed we were being watched…by Karen and Cheryl, who just happened to turn up at the same time as us! (We didn’t even know they were in Luxor. Actually, I suspect that they’re stalking us. If they turn up in Cambodia, I’m going to get very suspicious).

I didn’t manage to swing from any ropes, jump over any large cavernous pits, and most of the dogs there were fast asleep. I also didn’t find any hidden medi-kits or ammo… Other than that, I wasn’t too disappointed!!!

Hat? Check
Sunglasses? Check
Suncream? Check
Granny Bike? Um…Check

Yes, having had our fill of tour buses we decided to tackle the west bank of Luxor by bike. Of course having rented a couple of clanking granny bikes from by our hotel, the first problem was how to get them across the Nile. I for one didn’t fancy our chances of an Evil Kineevle stle jump over the river, so we used the local ferry (once Adele had wrestled her bike off a one-armed man looking for a tip).

Once we’d clanked our way to the ticket office, we were on the edge of a huge area of tombs cut into the hills around. We started by taking a peek in some of the Tombs Of The Nobles, with lovely carved walls (helpfully illuminated by a nice chap with a bit of tin foil) and a deep pit that I was stopped from falling into - spoilsports!

A brief drink stop later and we were ready for the Temple of Hatshepsut. Unfortunately by the time we had located the ticket office, the heat of the day was upon us. Instead of our usual “Mad dogs and English-people” routine, we sat in the shadow of the causeway to this impressive structure and people-watched until it was cool enough to explore.

It was then time to head to the Valley of the Kings itself, along a winding valley road. Due to the heat, it was pretty hard going as we clanked along the flat roud - so much so that it felt like we were going uphill…it was only on our return along the valley that we realised it really HAD been uphill! Bah! (A journey that had taken us 45 minutes there took a mere 5 coming back!!!)

The tombs we saw were fascinating, and even though the ones we planned to see were closed we saw many awe-inspiring (and head-banging) frescos and carvings, and left suitable impressed (if a little bruised).

We’d decided to save money (and room in the pack) on a guide book. I mean, who needs a great big hefty guide book anyway? It’s not like we were going to be in Egypt for THAT long… We had purchased a small, brief and fairly decent book, but it didn’t give much practical information.

What did we know about Edfu, then? Well, that it’s quite small, and home of the incredible Temple of Horus. We were taking the train up to Luxor from Aswan and it went through Edfu. Our plan was to get off in Edfu, leave our packs in a nearby hotel, and trundle off to the temple. Simple.

Yeah. Right.

It soon became apparent that none of the stations names were written in English, and since neither of us can read Arabic we began to realise this might turn into a bit of an adventure… We did manage to fall off the train at the right station (thanks to some thoughtful person writing “EdFu” in marker pen on the station sign). There were two exits. We tried both of them, and found that neither of them led anywhere at all. There were no hotels…nothing, really. A few approximations of shops…

There weren’t really any people around to ask, either… and we didn’t know what time the next (and possibly last) train for Luxor was due to leave. Oh…and by now it was 3pm, and the guide book said the temple was due to shut at 4pm… but where was the temple…?

After standing on a street corner, and exchanging a few short words with each other (”Well it was your bloody idea!”, “I thought you said you knew where you were going!!!”), a local dude came over and bundled us - packs and all - into his truck. (A novel way to hitch-hike.) We negotiated a price, and off we set.

We managed to get there before closing, and pretty much had the place to ourselves. The sun was low in the sky, the light beautiful, and the temple itself absolutely stunning! It was well worth the hassle of getting there! We took our time to properly explore (still with our packs - thank god we travel light!) and soak up the atmosphere.

Next problem: how to get back to the station…

Horse and carriage of course!

After waving off the crowd at Giza station, we tried to get our grubby paws on some overnight train tickets to Aswan… No more organised tour, this time it was personal! Unfortunately the ticket office for sleeper trains was shut, so we trundled back to the hotel on the very clean and efficient Cairo underground.

The next day we repeated our trek to the station and found the office open. The guy inside obviously had absolutely nothing to do most of the day, so made sure to look very, very busy. He shuffled bits of paper, picked up the phone, replaced the handset, opened a drawer, twiddled a pen, closed the drawer, opened another one, fiddled around and finally looked up as if he’d just seen us and said “OK”. After a brief conversation, we handed over the exact cash for the tickets, which set off another 15 minutes of completely irrelevant shuffling and poking around in his desk. Eventually he made a 10 second phone call, picked up a bit of paper that was on his desk all the time, stamped it three times and handed our reservation over. The whole experience was quite surreal and as we were not in any hurry, was rather amusing!

The train itself was lovely - comparing favourably with the Russian and Chinese ones. We popped in to say hello to Cheryl and Karen (who also left the tour group in Cairo) who happened to be in the same carriage as us, but other than that and a very friendly chap as our attendant, the journey was pretty uneventful.

Our first day in Aswan was spent relaxing after the hectic schedule of the tour, but in the evening we pottered around the city and headed to the Old Cataract Hotel, the swankiest hotel in Aswan. Karen and Cheryl, having visited Egypt before, had promised themselves that when they returned they would splash out and stay at the hotel for a few nights. When we left them at the station they invited us to meet them in the renowned bar there for a drink, so we rolled up at the reception with the smartest clothes we could muster and asked where the bar was. It seems that unless you are meeting a guest you are not allowed to go to the bar, and even if your host escorts you from the reception to the bar you are not allowed to sit on the balcony overlooking the Nile. When we were finally allowed into the premises we had a delightful evening with Cheryl and Karen, and made up for the lack of balcony by eating in the fabulous restaurant.

The next morning we bumbled out of bed at yet another crazy hour in the morning for a lovely bus journey (nearly four hours of bouncy cramped joy) to Abu Simbel. One of the busiest attractions in Egypt, these two temples were moved a few hundred meters after the construction of the High Dam in Aswan threatened to submerge them beneath Lake Nasser. It was an amazing feat of engineering, however for me it felt like something was lost by the very act of shifting them. There were just too many people and it all felt a little bit Disney-esque… Somehow a little fake.

The rest of our time in Aswan was spent having a pleasent potter around the city, enjoying a relaxed and very entertaining Felucca cruise down the Nile and confusing the lovely Nubian maid in our hotel.