Cambodia with Pinarcan

-from April 21st to April 27th, 2012- 

My best friend Pinar did a surprise.. a very nice one..  It was not sure until the very last moment whether she would come or not, but she made it finally. She could take days off and she came to visit me only for 6 days all the way from Istanbul. 

Until she came, I wasn’t sure about where we would be going but I really wanted her to want to go to Cambodia just like me. She arrived on the Saturday when Ozges were leaving and after spending the first evening in Bangkok, we decided to go to Cambodia with a day bus as she had also wanted to go there without even spending much time in Bangkok.

 Enjoying Bangkok rooftop 

Our bus trip was hilarious. The bus was mostly filled with locals and there were only a couple of tourists. The ticket lady was the source of our fun in the 7-hour trip. Going back and forth, she kept on counting the people in the bus, each and every time she was getting confused and she was counting again and again. Once more, starting and 2 minutes later with a confused expression on her face, she was going to the front and starting all over. When she was finally OK with the counting, she approached us and started to tell us some stories, some mysterious numbers with her more less 20-word English. :) She talked around 1/2 hour or so and what she told still keeps its mystery until today..

The Ticket Aunt on our bus to Cambodia border 

After a bit of compliments towards Pinar by the policemen at the border, we finally reached Cambodia. A taxi from the hotel was waiting for us already and after another 2 hour trip we could finally reach Siem Reap, a city that I was always curious about. As it was around 8 in the evening, we didn’t see much and after we met with Deniz who had already arrived one day before, we decided to "flow into" Siem Reap nights.

 Experiencing Siem Reap nights with Deniz

It was cheap drinks, good music and a lot of fun. My one and only night in Siem Reap was one of the best nights I had in Asia. First we started with shopping and bought a lot of dresses, bags and shirts thanks to the super cheap prices and even our better negotiation skills. 

Legendary Angkor Wat 

Our next day was our only day in the city so we went to Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm (the temple where Tomb Raider was once shot) and Bayon Temple which was full of statues of faces. With our hardworking and iniative tuk tuk driver, we had a quite efficient day in our one and only day in Siem Reap. In the evening, we were already ready to visit the beach town, Silhanoukville.

Monks in Angkor Wat & Our "highly initiative" tuk tuk driver

We took the sleeper night bus to Silhanoukville, it was the first time that I was going horizontal in a bus. My window was dark and broken, there was no barrier on the sides so at a sudden brake God knows what could potentially happen. Around 6 am in the morning, we arrived to the quite and well preserved beach town of Silhanoukville. 

Our sleeper Bus & where we reached finally, Otres Beach 

We stayed in Otres beach at a place called Mushroom Point. The hotel didn’t even have bungalows but there were HUTs with toilets outside.It had the best resting point and Pinar and I didn’t want to even move from there. More than the beach, we were spending time in the “lobby” of our dearest hotel. Pinar, reading her book, me, surfing online we were quite happy to just stay there and do nothing.

 Our motorbike adventure & Our local friends from Silhanoukville

In one evening, we even decided to go to the other side of the town, but after our short motorbike trip we decided to stay instead in our little beach town, Otres Beach. After 2 days in Otres, we had to go back to Bangkok as Pinar already had her flight back to Istanbul the next day.  After another 8-9 hours ride, we were finally in Bangkok.

 Pinar resting in Silhanoukville Beaches & Sunset at Silhanoukville 

In our last day together, we decided to "give ourselves" to the Khao San road and do shopping. Loving the style and the prices, we did quite a lot of shopping in the touristical zone of Bangkok. And after the short but very full 6 days, she was already ready to leave on Friday and I was ready to wait for my next guest, Bruno coming from India. 

On the way back to Thailand - Cambodia Border