You want cold drink! You want cold drink!

I'm back in Siem Reap, Cambodia, visiting the Angkor temples again. The first few entries on this blog back in 2006 were about Angkor... I should reread them to get a sense of what that trip was like! I definitely remember the hawkers, and they are still out in force... I have 20 postcards... And the cold drink was nice!

I'm here again because I'm travelling with a Erin, a friend from Groote, and she hasn't been here before. Not sure I would have come back otherwise, but I definitely don't mind. I was a solo traveller last time and it is always better travelling with someone else. Will see more of the town, no doubt, as restaurants and the like are always better when you're not alone. We're here for three more nights before legging it to Tokyo to meet up with Brandon for a slightly larger Groote reunion, so it will be a far more social experience for the next two weeks before we all return back to Australia.

This time I came overland from Bangkok, rather than by air from Singapore. It was a long trip, but stressfree and not uninteresting. It was about a 5 hour bus ride from Bangkok to the border, then some time navigating the craziness of immigration, before embracing the joys of the Cambodia transportation systems that get you from the border to Siem Reap in something that could be described as organised chaos. We started off opting for the bus, but that only leaves when full and it was pretty empty. So we borrowed a couple of Finnish tourists and shared a cab into town. It was about a 2 hour drive, and also uneventful and surprisingly not as much of a scam as I anticipated!

Had a trip to Angkor Thom this morning. It is obviously a busy time of year for tourists, but the temples are still awe inspiring. Will rest up for a bit before hitting the town and trying to bargain for some cheap DVDs!