Monday 23rd October

Today we get back on the bus cavalcade heading north to an old temple complex pre-dating the Angkor empire, then west to Siem Riep home of Angkor Wat one of the man made marvels of the world.

The plan was to have two options enroute, either to climb the 809 steps to a temple complex or to continue to an intervening town with time for lunch. Unsurprisingly Tim took the stair climbing option while Tracy went with lunch. The complex proved to be very impressive with a rocky outcrop affording extensive views over the flat fields for miles around. Even more impressive were the large carved reclining Buddhas carved in the sides of the outcrop, each with its own shrine. Lunch was a little less organized as the town was not well able to cope with the crowd. With time moving on many of the less adventurous in the group wanted to just head to Siem Riep (Tracy and Willy took this option) while two bus loads elected to continue along a bumpy dirt road for a trail.

Tracy enjoys a tasty local snack (teryaki spider)

It rapidly became aparent that the road was worse than when scouted a few weeks before and the buses made very slow progress. Finally after a few miles one driver got too close to the edge to miss a pot hole and (as Tim looked down out the window thinking "that looks marshy") dropped a wheel off the road. He compounded it by revving for a while before we decided to evacuate the bus... to find that the outward opening door was blocked by the mud. We all hopped out the emergency exit with more or less ease and found ourselves on an isolated stretch of road between rice paddies next wo five local wood houses built out on stilts - those people certainly got a show - and with a bus that was clearly sunk down to the chassis.

Things looked up a little when the beer truck for after the run appeared so it was with water and beer supplies that we tackled the job of getting unstuck. First a passing truck was enlisted but that just broke our tow rope and his chain. Then the other bus appeared and we hooked it up with the guys pushing (more for show than effect) and that failed. By this time some of the party had resigned themselves to a long night but to our great luck a big army truck appeared carrying an enormous earth moving machine. They hooked up a serious town rope and the truck made light work of hauling our bus out to great cheers.

A failed attempt at towing

At this point the bus needed to turn so we could abot the journey north and it was clear to all but the bus driver that this could be done at a driveway 50 yards ahead. He elected to do a K/3 point turn right there and... dropped another wheel off the road. Once again he then revved and dug deeper as a bus load screamed at him to stop, but luckily not so deep that the other bus could not do the hauling out honors this time. And we were finally on our way back towards Siem Riep after a short in distance but afternoon consuming short cut.

Willy and Tracy had got us all booked in to the very impressive luxury hotel in the town (our orgnizers must be able to cut a sweet deal) by the time we arrived so we soon headed into town for food before some continued partying while we got some sleep in before a busy day ahead.