Planes, buses, tuktuks, temples and other debacles

One more day and we'll be on the way home, since we finally sorted out our lost ticket debacle. Well, not really sorted out at all, but more about that later.

After our last report post-Angkor Wat, we headed back to 'Pub Street' and landed at the Angkor What...? bar, a cool little pub type bar with the slogan 'promoting irresponsible drinking for xx years', and this was certainly the case, with happy hour including pitchers (yes, whole jugs) of cocktails for only $6. We promptly ordered a pitcher of Angkor Sunset, which was something like a Tequila Sunrise, but had different stuff. Can't remember now, for obvious reasons. After consuming all 6 glasses from the pitcher, we went for dinner at the Red Piano, which was bloody tasty, then a post-dinner drink before getting a tuk tuk back to our hotel to crash out.

Yesterday began bright and early with our trusty tuk tuk driver/guide picking us up at 7.30 and taking us on the very long and bumpy drive to the River of 1000 Lingas, visiting a couple of temples on the way. The river is famous for the 1000s of years old carvings in the stone along the riverbed, most of them depicting a linga (phallic symbol of the power of the Hindu god Shiva), but also some other more intricate people and animals. It was truly cool, especially considering that the carvings are still there after however many years of rushing water passing over them. The whole experience was enhanced by the 1.5km walk to get there through the jungle, clambering over giant rocks and tree roots (typical Cambodian OH&S observed at all times, of course).

After returning to the tuk tuk we needed to put some more fuel in our tanks, so we had a quick lunch there before heading to Bantay Srei, a sandstone temple that had a slightly pink hue caused by moss (apparently). That was quite cool too, and a bit different from most of the others we'd seen.

I think we saw another two or three on the way back, but they're all starting to blur into one now. One stood out for the two giant trees that were growing together over the entrance to the temple, simultaneously knocking it down and holding it up at the same time.

The last, Preah Khan, was an absolutely huge sprawling temple with many different chambers, with one side built for the Buddha and one for the Hindu gods. Over the years Cambodia has switched between being a Hindu and a Buddhist country, and this temple was built during the time that both religions existed alongside one another. Later, when Hinduism was predominant, the king of the time had all images of the Buddha removed from this temple, but then when Buddhism returned, they thought they'd set a good example and leave the Hindu images intact - thus they were the bigger people in the end. When we first walked into this temple a tourist police guy asked us if he could tell us the story of the temple, and he took us through the whole thing and told us plenty of tales about its history, which was pretty cool. At the end he asked for a 'donation' since he was paying for English lessons and trying to get better. After his efforts this was understandable, although it was a bit much when he asked for more than what we gave him! Nevertheless, we handed it over for a service well rendered, and finally made it back to our hotel after about 10 hours of touring.

After a shower and a bit of a rest we headed back to Pub Street (again) and returned to the Angkor What...? for yet another pitcher of Angkor Sunset. Here we shared a table with a couple of French guys who've been living here for five months and were indulging in their own happy hour excess - pots of rum and coke. They were literally served in plant pots, and only cost $5. I imagine we will probably be trying those tonight - same price for a pot of G&T too!

We chatted to these very affable blokes for a while before making our escape before George was tempted to buy his own pot of rum and coke, and went to the night markets to do a bit of last minute souvenir shopping. The markets in themselves were very cool, and very different from most of the crowded, claustrophobic messes of markets you usually find in Asia. They were roomy, and looked more like a mall than a market, and each main wing had a bar with a happy hour if you needed a break amid shopping (and probably, the influence of alcohol to cause you to buy more). The shop owners don't hassle you much at all (unlike Benh Than markets in Ho Chi Minh, where you can't walk three steps without people grabbing your arm and saying 'What you looking for, miss?'), and while the prices are a bit higher, you can still bargain for discounts. We had one drink at a bar and watched a couple of enthusiastic bar tenders giving non stop Cocktail-style demonstrations with glasses and bottles, then bought the requisite stuff we'd decided on.

After this we returned to Pub Street and indulged in that staple that we can never do without for longer than a couple of weeks - Indian food. And it was bloody good too.

After dinner we were full and buggered, so we went back to the hotel for a nice long sleep.

We've decided that we're a bit templed out now, so we had the first relaxed morning for several days. We probably won't be making use of the third day of our temple tickets (same price for 2 or 3 days, so we've talked ourselves into it being value for money anyway), but we'd like our last day here to be a bit more laid back.

We began after breakfast by trying once again to solve the problem of our lost flight tickets. Let me explain the whole story - we booked the flight from Siem Reap to HCMC, to connect with our flight back to Australia, online using a travel website called expedia.com. They sent us paper tickets (first bad thing), and the flight was with Vietnam Airlines (which should have been enough of a warning after our experience with them last year).

Somewhere along the way (no idea where), we lost the pouch of important shit (which contained our passports and tickets, but luckily we'd taken the passports out of it to get through customs). We didn't realise we'd lost it until we were about to cross the border into Cambodia and were looking for the departure card we'd got in the Vietnam airport. One calamity after another got in the way of us sorting out the problem - the first being the two day holiday for the water festival (Khmer translation - one week) meaning that the Vietnam Airlines office was closed when we were in Phnom Penh and we couldn't contact them by phone for the whole week either.

When we finally arrived in Siem Reap, we went to the Vietnam Airlines office here, only to find out that although it was a Vietnam Airlines flight, and booked through the Expedia website, we somehow needed to 'report' the lost tickets to China Air. When we did this they said they'd call us at the hotel, which they did yesterday, but of course we were out until 6pm and couldn't call back. This morning the hotel owners kindly called them for us (this was after they'd lost the number and had to go through the bin to find it), and the outcome was that we had to go to Phnom Penh TODAY in order to pick up the reissued tickets to fly from here to HCMC. (look on a map - Siem Reap is at the top of the country, Phnom Penh at the bottom, closer in fact to HCMC. We would have had to get a bus to Phnom Penh (6 hours), pick up the tickets (except that the office would be closed by the time we got there), then get a bus all the way back up here in order to fly back over Phnom Penh to HCMC. Cambodian logic). The only other option would be to delay our flight another day, which was impossible since we're flying back to Australia tomorrow night.

So our only option was to buy the tickets again and hope that our travel insurance will reimburse us the money once we get home. We know it's our fault, but really, how bloody ridiculous is this system?! It's very frustrating, but at this point we're happy to have spent another $260 just to know we're going home tomorrow. And on a positive note, the people at our hotel are so helpful - if we'd had to try to discuss this over the phone in English it would have been even more of a debacle.

This sorted, we're now going into town to look at shit and generally have a relaxed day. Very much looking forward to being on the way home, and even more to actually getting home to our own bed and animals and cooking our own food.

Will probably report again tomorrow before we leave. Cheers.