In the day we went to a floating village which was massive and literally everything; houses, schools, shops etc. were floating on the river and villagers would get from place to place by boat.
We visited an orphanage there but were first taken to a shop and asked to buy food for the children. It was completely over priced and the whole situation felt very strange. Having learnt the amount of corruption that went on in the orphanage in Sri Lanka, I had my doubts. So we settled on just a bag of lolly pops which I ripped open as it wouldn't surprise me If they take the food straight back to the shop after we leave it at the orphanage.
It was sad to hear that a big reason for the number of orphans is because the parents sometimes go out fishing and then a storm hits, resulting in the them never coming back. As was the case for my tour guide.
After another night out, the following day we went to Angkor Wat. Being the history expert I am and having done no research, I was actually quite surprised to find out that the temples were only ruins! (Oops). One of them had been where part of Indiana Jones was filmed and was my favourite of them all. After 4 temples (which were all really interesting but extremely similar), by the time we got to Angkor Wat itself, I felt rather templed out! From the front though it did look extremely impressive and it's hard to imagine how they managed to build something like that so many years ago!
After Siem Reap, we moved on to Sihanoukville which is very much a beach town. It was really nice to just relax on the beach, although we were incessantly pestered by people selling bracelets, massages and promoting clubs. There was also an oddly large number of beggars with missing limbs, which was quite upsetting to see.
In the evening, all of the beach restaurants put their tables on the beach with candles and put on beach barbecues. There's also lots of fireworks going off towards the sea as tonnes of children run round selling the fireworks all night (strange combination I know). The kids were so sweet and I ended up arm wrestling one (he was probably about 8) for a free bracelet. Of course I won (after a surprisingly difficult wrestle) but couldn't bare to take one off him!
Later on, all of the bars put on fire performances. They would never ever pass English health and safety! They would drop the batons of fire here there and everywhere and light up the floor in flames just inches from people. I feared for my life! The night life was really good though, there were so many beach bars, most of which offered free drink deals. We made friends with 3 guys from Manchester Uni and spent our nights with them, so I became one of the lads with 5 guys and just me!
After 3 nights there, we returned to Phnom Pen as the Danish guys had a flight the day before me. We returned to everything being closed as it was Election Day and it's illegal to not vote so all the workers have to go back to their home towns. After I bid fairwell to Christian and Oliver, I was left all alone and after hearing about a couple of shootings and being advised not to leave the hostel, I made use of the lounge once again in White Rabbit and hid out until my flight the next day!
Overall I really enjoyed Cambodia and liked that it was a little more of mix of culture and nightlife than Vietnam as there were lots of things to see and do, with there still being the social side. But by now, I could hardly contain my excitement to jump on a plane to Singapore to see my long lost boyfriend after 11 weeks of travelling!
Adios x
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