Somewhat of a lazy post, but underwater it is difficult to talk or write. However, one can take pictures! So I did and I put them in a slideshow below, plus of course the compulsory sunset and white beach.On Koh Chang, I found a great dive shop, BB Divers with whom I dived to a couple of local sites. If you ever go, ask for Kay, she's the best!
Arriving in Kampot we found the most beautifull place called Rikitikitavi, only to find out that it was fully booked :-(. However, that didn't stop us from having breakfast, lunch, dinner and great cocktails on the 1st floor terrace!The place is owned by and English guy and his Dutch lady who turned out to come from our lovely hometown Leiden!
Kampot is old colonial style, and just plain old colonial. Most buildings look like they have been build by the French and that .
the last maintanance was done by the French, French style ;-). Probably, the romantic touch and old city will be gone in a few years when 'development' (sounds too positive doens't it?) has taken over
From Kampot, we took a motorcycle for a 25km ride to Kep, the old sea resort, turned into ruins during the Khmer Rouge period. Here we had a coconut on the beach and met a group of young munks, with their photographer friend. I was invited for the photoshoot (girls and munks is not a really good combination) and Anna took some pictures of us as well. No swim, but it was good seeing the sea again after being in a hot country for a couple of weeks without a sea breeze.
Phnom Penh is not a big city, nor a great city. A lot of low rise buildings. After a six hour bus drive from Siem Reap, we were dropped in the centre of town. All the places on the quay that the lonely planet advised were full, so we decided to pick one of the not advertised simpler hotels overlooking the river. However, the room was cheap ($23) with a balcony overlooking the river and no (visible) bugs! While having dinner, we were (again) confronted with the poverty of Cambodia. Although we knew the children selling stuff on the streets of Bangkok and Saigon, the selling is different in Phnom Penh. In Bangkok a lot of kids go to school and sell stuff to foreigners. Here, the kids looked poor and were really pushing for each sell. It is not easy to explain, actually I don't know how to explain it, but this was 'real' poverty, the kids were really, really poor and needed to sell stuff. This is poverty and this is feeling guilt. The next day it got worse when we visited a temple and were stormed by kids poiting at their (empty) bellies to explain they were hungry. 
The touts and pimps were waitinga couple of meters away to take way the money...What to do? You know that if the kids don't make enough money, they may be beaten or not given food. But by giving them money and buying stuff from kids, you reenforce their function as an economic means, something to make money on. The rational thing is not to give anything and to deprive the pimps of income from the kids. 
When the kids don't make money, there is no use in using kids and the kids could go to school etc etc. However, this also means depriving the kids of food and who will send them to school? At first we didn't know, we then we gave some kids a little. Finally we decided to go for the rational way and not give anything to the kids. However, by going to places like the friends restaurant, an initiative to teach street kids how to work in a restaurant (they have other projects as well), we tried to at least help them a little. It remains a difficult issue though, especially if you walk past the Phnom Penh Cars shop, with all luxury cars including Landrovers, Hummers and Jaguars.
A visit to Phnom Penh just isn't complete without visiting the XXX prison and the killing fields memorial. The memorial is at the place where they took the prisioners from Phnom Penh, to execute them. Man, women and children.
First things first, after arriving in Bangkok, Anna needed her nails done...Actually, I needed a massage and we ended up with a footmassage, followed by a pedicure.... However, Bangkok was just a start, the real trip was Cambodia!
The trip from Bangkok to Siem Reap is notorious. On Khoa Sang Road travel agencies sell tickets for the 'scam bus', for 500 Baht (11Euro) they'll transport you all the way from Bangok to a guesthouse of their choise in Siem Reap. However, cheap has a price. Instead of travelling for 6 to 8 hours, it takes 12 to 16 hours, and instead of paying 1000Baht or $20 for a Cambodian Visum, you'll pay double. So we decided to travel independent. We took the 'normal'/1st class airco Thai bus to Aranya Prathet for 420 Baht, where we changed into a tuk tuk to the border for 80Baht. Here, the troubles or complications or fun or whatever-uoi-call-it started. First the tuk tu drove us to a Visa Office, whose services we politely refused. After all, a visum at the border would cost $20 and they charged us 1200Baht which is roughly $35. >
When we tried to explain this to another couple, the gentlemen from the office started waving goodbye and told the tuk tuk driver to drive away. Which he promptly did. Then however, we faced a dilemma when he drove us to the Cambodian consulate. Here, they charged us 100Baht for the visum, still more than at the border, but it was the consulate......so we fell for it. We paid a little more and 5 minutes later we got our visa. We hopped bac into the tuktuk for....another stop at the visa office, "do you need taxi in Cambodia, very cheap only $30!" We thought no way, but if we had known....
At the consulate we met two Finnish guys and together we crossed the border, only to find out that a 'tourist bus' offered by the 'Ministry of Tourism' was waiting for us to take us to the bus station where we could take a taxi or bus. Anna checked with local law enforcement and it turned out to be ok. NOT! Yes we did board the bus, and got out 800 meters down the road to find out that we had fallen in the hands of the local transportation mafia. Another couple had refused the bus, and tried to board one of the 'normal'taxis, but a nice gentlemen told the taxi drivers not to take them, so they ended up with us at the station. 
Here we were told a taxi was $60 for 4 people. After a lot of haggling outside, we finally paid $40 for three (including a Swiss guy we had met) and headed in a Toyota Camry towards Siem Reap. AT the stop (the one a the picture) we heard from another couple that they had paid $100 for a taxi for 4! Instead of a scambus, we ran into a taxi scam :-). But in the end, we did make it to Siem Reap, as you can see on the pics below... oops, me in the fancy bed is actually me being ill and therefore we fled to the Meridien Hotel in Siem Reap, with the most kind and friendly hotel manager in the world. Graham Thank you again!
