Phnom Penh to Siem Reap

Thursday 11th October

We finally got out of Phnom Penh and caught the six hour bus to Siem Reap. Because of all our plans being thrown into disarray, due to the bastards on the bike, as they will now be known, we rolled up to Siem Reap without any accommodation booked, which was a little stressful, as it was dark by the time we got there, but we borrowed the mobile of a guy who was running an internet cafe and made a local call to a guest house.
Siem Reap is more run-down and smaller than I was expecting. I kept having to remind myself how underdeveloped Cambodia is, even in the tourist areas. A lot of the development is superficial - just a front line to greet tourists; a very fine line, behind which are families living in construction sites and cardboard boxes; children running around naked in muddy shacks, and men, women and children everywhere wasting their talents by trying to eek out a living, selling their skilled but often useless services to monied people.