April 09, 2004

The Journey to Siem Reap

Category : Vietnam

Our tuk tuk drivers brother arrived early in the morning to take us to the boat station, where we were told you buy food and water, as there was none on the boat. Gavin at this point has now picked up my really bad habbit of speaking pidgeon english to everyone, even him now!

We sit on the roof of the boat and eat our french bread and dairylea triangles. I have to say at this point "I HATE CREAM CHEESE AND I REALLY REALLY HATE DAIRYLEA TRIANGLES, IF I GET ANYMORE OF THESE THINGS FOR BREAKFAST I AM GOING TO HOLD MY BREATH UNTIL I TURN BLUE!!!!!!!!!!"

The view is absolutely fantastic, as we travel along sitting on top of this wonderful speed boat, getting even more sunburnt than on the moto. Gavin, at this point, loses his outback aussie hat, after just one day.

Next, the boat stops after a 3 hour journey and we change to a smaller shallower boat, but at this point we can't sit on the top so we sit below, and I find I end up talking to this "know it all" french property seller/tourism guide, who was just as arogant as hell, and a canadian guy that was a few sticks short of a bundle. Gavin escapes this by reading his book... Damn, wish i thought of that.

After another few hours we have to get out of the boat. Our moto driver from yesterday has arranged for one of his friends to pick us up and sort out accomodation for us, which he does. We then have to change to yet another boat (I get straddled climbing over the boats, and narrowly miss falling in, as gavin grabs my arm). We get on the smaller speed boat which takes us to the pier. This consists of leap frogging through 20 odd boats to get to the peir. It should be set up as an olympic sport. The trick is 'not' to have 3 of you holding the roof and climbing along the side as the boat tips up. Instead you should counter balance it. After an equivalent of "it's a knockout" we get to the pier and then get a bus to Siem Reap centre. Well gavin has to then get on a moto and find the decent hotels, which he does. We stay in a really nice air conditioned place near the river.

Posted by alexd at April 9, 2004 11:57 AM
Comments