Hello everyone! We have been in Cambodia for over a day now and let me just say that it is amazing. We decided to get the hell out of Bangkok and make a run for the Cambodian border without having our visas first. Generally this is no problem as it is in Burma but the particular land crossing we were choosing was known to be a sketchy one with lots of border guards trying to scam you out of your money and demanding high inflated prices for visas. Knowing this, Will did a great job of finding some information on the net about how to get to Siem Reap the cheapest. Our five our luxury bus from Bangkok left at 5 at and it cost us less than a $1.50. About an hour into the trip i realized that I had completely forgotten to get a passport photo for the visa application that was required. I quickly said a small prayer on the bus asking for safe passage across the border while being willing to pay any reasonable price for the visa. And then i tried to get some sleep and not worry about having to be returned to Bangkok or having to find a passport photo shop in Poipet (the border crossing town) The border/immigration guard took my visa application with no photo and said something in Cambodian that I simply said...do not have and made a waving motion with my hand. He then pulled the drawer open of his desk and fished around and pulled out a passport photo o a Thai looking woman with long dark hair. He placed it over the empty spot on my visa ap and looked at me and said "same same." I said yes, I recently bleached my hair and then he quoted me a price of 1100 bhat (only 100 more than he was charging Will, around $30) and i forked over the cash to him quickly. Our visas disappeared somewhere with a man driving a motorcycle and then they came back in ten minutes looking totally official. Thank you government corruption!
We then met up with two of the cutest Australians...a brother and sister ages 18 and 21 names Ray and Barry and we split a taxi car to drive us the next five hours to Seim Reap. This cost $15. So now we are here and have spent the last day touring the ruins of Ankor and being completely amazed! I know I have not yet finished blogging about Myanmar, but the ruins of ancient Bagan are not quite as spectacular. Pretty close, but really different all together. On the way to the ruins we say Monkeys! So cute, they were on the road and very playful. AND we could have seem the temples of Ankor of elephant back for $15. It seemed like a great deal but in the end it would probably be a little stinky.
I am fairly certain that I am close to knowing what it feels like to be a rock star. Every temple you show up at there are throngs of people (mostly children) hawking lots of stuff from books, tshirts, bracelets, whatever. They are totally darling but too much attention quickly turns to asking for anything you are willing to give up...candy? Gum? Pen? Suddenly when they realize you are not going to buy their ten postcards or bracelets for a $1 then they want to know what you have in your backpack that you are willing to part with. Too funny.
We love the tuk tuk driver in cambodia. They would never think of taking us to a travel agent OR a tailor. God bless them! Our driver yesterday and today was David?! He really assured us that he has no Cambodian name. Generally everyone knows just enough English to say Hello, how are you, what is your name...simple stuff. When we got dropped off yesterday by our taxi and had to get a tuk tuk to find our guest house the guy who picked us up was a different breed of cat...instead of a general salutation like Hello, how are you he simple proclaimed " I am Pete!" I yelled back "nice to meet you Pete I am Cody and this is Will!" Lets GO! and we were off! The guest house is $8/day and has free internet although each key sticks really bad. It has cold showers and in this heat that is just fine. We have everything we need and we are content.
Ok, that should do it for now!
Until next time.
willandCODY
The weather was the hottest it has been the entire trip. We were sweating the entire day and it almost rained which we would have been delighted by. The whole day was yet another day in our travels when we were grateful for each other but really wishing we were each here with someone special instead. This continues to be a common theme when we are talking.
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