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Day 11
location:Penang
summary:In which the travellers are physically outclassed on a treacherous descent from the highest peak on the island
trip:sea04
day:11 -
Day 10
location:Penang
summary:In which the author is cautioned against the release of tortoises
trip:sea04
day:10 -
Day 9
location:Penang
summary:In which a new traveller is introduced, who makes an unexpected admission which threatens to ruin the trip
trip:sea04
day:9 -
Day 8
I woke up late again and packed, then wandered over to the Silk Bar for breakfast. I spent most of the morning there, ordering fruit shakes and catching up on my journal, then I went to see my old stomping ground at the Viengtai Hotel. Stopped at the massage parlour for a second Thai massage, this time even more enthusiastically delivered, and then set about wandering through the city.
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Day 7
6:00am, 4:15am, 7:00am … I was in need of a lie in. So I got up at 10:30. Not a problem, I’ve already got Bangkok done and dusted from a previous trip, so I didn’t have anything I desperately needed to see. Apparently there’s a new metro system, but I was willing to bet it was pretty much the same as every other new metro system in the world.
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Day 6
An entire day was set aside for the journey from Siem Reap to Bangkok, in neighbouring Thailand. It’s not really that far, about 300km, and the ticket seller was confident that the bus would take 8 hours. At an average speed of just 37kph (23mph), that doesn’t seem very impressive, but given the state of Cambodia’s roads, it was decidedly optimistic.
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Day 5
Since we only had one day at Angkor, we wanted to make the best of it, so we got up at 4:15am and were ready to go by 4:45. It was still pitch dark outside when we left the guesthouse, and the tuk tuk driver who we had booked the night before was asleep in his tuk tuk. So we woke him up.
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Day 4
The night was hot, and I slept fitfully. Switched the fan off, then back on again. I was alternately feeling hot flushes and shivers, as the stream of air from the fan hit me in waves. Eventually I managed to manhandle the fan to point in a direction that made the air move, but not directly at me, and I managed to sleep.
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Day 3
Phnom Penh is basically known to foreigners for two primary attractions – the Tuol Sleng genocide museum, and the killing fields. These chronicle the history of one of the world’s bloodiest campaigns of violence, a genocide in which some say three million people perished at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. We headed to Tuol Sleng first.
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Day 2
I hadn’t been away for a while, and when it was time to do it all again it wasn’t difficult to choose where to go. My sister Emily was in China for two months, and planned to finish her trip with a week in Cambodia and Thailand. I was envious and keen to try China but without really enough time to spare. I decided to book another tour with Gecko Travel to Malaysia, and join Emily for the preceding week to check out Cambodia.