we have landed

so. we are here, we are well.

flight from adelaide to KL was all good, individual tvs with endless tv and movies to choose from - how could that not be good!
arrived in KL and found our way to our transfer bus, along with some other weird australians... why are other tourists so annoying?? why are we the only non-annoying tourists? anyway, that was all ok, 50 min drive to our flash hotel... much confused about the time, but knew we were hungry so decided to try the hotel bar for food and drinks, even though by this time it was about 10pm local time and about 1am by our body clocks... the annoying australians came in handy for something as they gave us a rough idea of what the malaysian prices equated to Australian dollars... beer was as expensive as food and almost as expensive as a cocktail (equivalent to about $8) what more motiviation did we need to drink long island ice teas??

next morning got up early for our buffet breakfast, forgot it was christmas until the waiters all jumped at the opportunity to excessively merry christmas us. laura was much excited when the chef noticed her smiths tshirt, and not only knew the smiths but started quoting smiths lyrics at her...
had an interesting breakfast of a mix of western food and malaysian, but had to cut our feasting short in order to get our transfer back to the hotel...

Laura had bought a new battery for her camera just before leaving, but after charging that we discovered the battery wasnt the problem, the camera was... therefore did a rushed shopping trip at KL airport for a new camera, and i got myself a 1 gig memory card for $70.

another short flight which was all fine and landed in siem reap.

the airport was beautiful, the tourists in the visa queue annoying... came out of the airport to find someone waiting with my name on a big sign - so good. drive from airport to hotel was fascinating - the driving on the opposite side of the road initally freaked me out, but then my major issues became just the strage ordered caos of cars, buses, and mostly motorbikes and bikes... quite an amazing sight. the roads are lined with a mix of massive hotels and tiny hut like shop fronts - the tourist boom is obviously having a major impact, the buiding works are everywhere.

arrived at our 'green garden' guesthouse, which is lovely - people were very friendly, the room is nice, and spotless, the bathroom is even good - although we havent worked out the hotwater yet... our room is right next to a gorgeous pool just as an added bonus.

we decided to explore the town, found some markets, and made some purchases of a few scarves, tshirts etc. everything is of course obscenely cheap (tshirts $2US). after having explored the old market area we headed back to the hotel and had a swim then lazed around the pool for a while reading. we then decided to head out for more shopping on our way to dinner.

found an optomertrist 100m from our hotel, and laura ordered two pairs of glasses and a two pairs of prescription sunglasses which all came in at about $120US... unbelievable really.

wondered on towards dinner - found a very small child had attached itself to my had at one point, walked with me past several shops while i tried to fight off my urge to snatch it up and take it home, eventually we stopped and asked it where its parents were, at which point we got a heart breaking smile, a tug on my hand and a gesture back towards another shop... finally convinced it we werent going to go back although it was pretty hard to let it walk away!

Decided to go to 'pub street' in the heart of the tourist area for dinner, which while geared for tourists was not lacking in local charm. sat outside and went with the lovely waitresses reccommendation to try the 'fried amok' (chicken for laura, fish for me) with our jug of angkor beer. goes down as possibly the most delicious thing i've ever eaten - a sort of very mild curry that i wont attempt to describe beyond that, except to say AMAZING. laura's highlight for the evening - the restaurant played Wham's 'last christmas' which laura felt outranked the malaysian smiths fan as the best christmas present ever.
whilst sitting outside eating we were accosted by another heart wrenching small child wanting us to buy his postcards... we're blaming the beer, but we handed over our $1US after some chat.

All in all the evening felt alot like being in disney land - a kind of surreal other world feel... neither of us want to leave ever.

headed back to our hotel exhausted, although still relatively early by local time - unsuccessfully attempted to get on line, gave up and headed to bed althoughtthe christmas party at a local private school across the road from our hotel was still going strong, their overloud bass vibrated laura and i off to sleep quite rapidly.

today we will attempt to see the temples of angkor and possibly get ourselves a massage...
enough time wasted!

love to all and hope you all had a lovely christmas