Girl Sensible - Around The World

Bit of a hangover started the day........

We flew from Bangkok to Phnom Penh, pretty good flight but neither of us had realised to what an extent the Tonle Sap floods in rainy season, the pilot had the landing gear down, we were getting lower and lower and all there was was water....... just like media footage of Bangladesh after severe flooding.

We got a taxi direct into the "city" for $7 and Steve gave the guy $10 dollars and told him to keep the change. The guy's face lit up like a christmas tree and off he trotted to tell all his friends. I'm sure this is why we had what seemed like the entire population staked outside offering us tuk tuk's and taxi's for the 2 days we were there!

We seemed to be staying well out of the main backpacker area so just headed to a local restaurant 5 minutes walk from our hotel. Steve was starving so over ordered on the food and with the entire restaurant staff staring at us felt obliged to eat the lot. I felt like I was going to chunder and I really wanted to invite the beggar in off the street who was looking straight at me through the window, to help me out.

We visited the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda, the children sellers outside were really hard work :-( and we were glad to be in the solitute of a tourist sight.

The Royal Palace was very different to the Grand Palace in Bangkok, although just as bloody hot in the midday sun!

Randomly people started clapping while we were in the temple as the former King had just arrived in residence and was coming out to wave at everyone.

We went for a walk along the river, the poverty was pretty evident with people washing in the river and this little boy came up to me as we were walking along. All he wanted was some water so I gave him mine and some money I had in my pocket. His little sister and mother were so grateful, it made my day :-)

We went to visit central market, well worth a look around even though it was hard work getting there being hastled. Steve bought himself a t-shirt which didn't seem to impress some of the locals as it refered to Angkor beer being "My beer, my country"

In the afternoon we headed to the genocide museum Tuol Sleng S21. Soooooooo depressing, appropriately there was a thunder storm and heavy rain!

To cheer ourselves up we made it in time for happy hour and a really nice dinner.... off to Siem Reap tomorrow :-)

We got a bargain on a hotel on Asia rooms so checked into a hotel with a swimming pool :-)

We decided on a 3 day pass as temple fever kicks in well before lunch and I really wanted to do sunrise and sunset.
There were some random policemen selling fake police badges (not sure why they thought we might want one) instead of enforcing the rules

We went for a swim and headed off to Angkor just in time for the afternoon rain. Angkor is supposed to be at it's best in the lush rainy season and it was pouring. We were really prepared with our waterproof's so made the most of it and while everyone else waited inside for the rain to clear we wandered around on our own.

The food here was amazing, we took the advice of our tuk tuk driver and went to the Khymer Kitchen. For less than 3 quid we had two of the best curries I have ever had :-)

We managed to get a really good Tuk Tuk driver who we ended up using for the entire time we were there. He arranged to pick us up at 5am the next morning (ouch) to take us for the sunrise.

Being up early meant that there was no one else around at the other temples and it was a bearable temperature. We also got to avoid the coach loads of annoying Japanese/Korean scary sun visor crowd!
We visited quite a few temples and I have forgotten most of them by the time I have got round to updating this. Our favourite were Preah Khan

and Ta Prom which I think featured quite a bit in Tomb Raider so Steve paused for a few moments visioning Angelina Jolie running around in tight shorts

Back to the pool to cool off and laze on my arse..... hard life this travelling with no work.

We made it for sunset at Phnom Bakeng, everyone climbs to the top of the temple and watches the sunset over the river, it was pretty busy up there but Steve found us a little spot in the corner and the sunset was beautiful

Another gorgeous curry followed and a welcome massage, Steve really enjoyed being beaten up by the lady!

We also made the 1 hour trip to see Banteay Srei, this was well worth doing, the inscriptions are well preserved here and it was a really nice journey out into the countryside

All in all, the poverty and the child sellers was hard work but well worth it, I loved Cambodia, the food was amazing and the temples awesome but off to Borneo we must go :-)

We headed off into Switzerland to drive the San Bernadino pass to add another country to the blog :-)

Such a shame I didn't bring a camera charger so all the photo's are from a disposable...............not so Girl Sensible!

The scenery was stunning, we made our way out of Lake Maggiore over to St Vincent in the Aosta valley. Our hotel appeared to be empty and they allocated us one of their suites for our money.......very nice indeed. Enjoyed the views of the Alps from our window with a bottle of bubbly :-)

We drove to the Matterhorn early the next morning, I was amazed to still find snow on the ground and couldn't resist a snowball fight. We headed to Mont Blanc and were disappointed to find the cable car undergoing in maintenance so we didn't get to go up. Still I wasn't disappointed with the surrounding mountains

We then spent the afternoon walking in the Gran Paradiso National Park before flying home.

The pounds didn't go so far as they did in Asia but a great week away.

We flew to Milan very early on Thursday morning :-)

Headed straight out to Lake Como, it looked stunning even though it was grey :-(

When the sun finally came out it was gorgeous.

We took boat trips all over the lake and ended our last day finding the highest random road on the map and driving it until we reached the top. It was amazing, we got there in time for sunset, what seemed to be a deserted village, slightly eerie but worth it

Next we are off to Aosta valley to see the Matterhorn and Mont Blanc

The weather was gorgeous for the two days we spent in Ko Samui.

It was an early start for our boat trip out to Ang Thong National Marine Park. After a stop in a clear water bay for some snorkeling it was off to see the lagoon at the Marine Park and relax under the palms...... gorgeous :-)

We kayaked again....our favourite thing to combat those bingo wings!

After an exhasting shopping trip early evening we went out for a few cocktails. Everything was closing around midnight so we decided to checkout the lady boys at one of the hostess bars..... interesting!