Cambodia
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PS. Click on the links to get to more photos.
So after knowing Daniel and Magnus for 2 days, I decided to follow them to Cambodia. What a trip! The ticket cost $2.50 and took the entire day. We got picked up in a small alley at 6am only to be dropped off a couple of blocks away where there were about 50 other backpackers. We got into a coach for a couple of hours and got dropped off at the border. The border was quite overwhelming. As soon as you stepped out of Thailand and into Cambodia you were surrounded by little kids begging. Obviously you go through immigration and just my luck, they wouldn't let me in! My passport was expiring in a month's time and according to the law, they don't allow people in unless it is valid for at least 3 months. So here I am stuck at the border with a bus full of people waiting for me! I had no idea how I would get back to Bangkok so I basically begged him to let me in. After a lot of staring at my passport and grilling me on my plans, he finally let me in.
Cambodia is a really poor 3rd world country. The border town was a trading town, with loaded trucks, lots of motorbikes and even ox-drawn carts! It was now mid-afternoon and we still had 4 hours to go. The road was terrible - a bumpy, dusty dirt road. Finally around 10 at night, we got dropped off at a guest house in Siam Reap. Some food and a beer and off to bed.
The next morning we woke up at 5:30am to go see the sun rise of Angkor Wat, the largest of the temples in the Angkor area. Stunning! A group of 5 of us had hired a minibus and a tour guide for the day. We visited about 10 temples and went till sunset. After sunset, we went to the market in town and got back to the guest house exhausted around 8 o'clock.
Took it easy the next day. Went to the markets and bought some stuff, had lunch in a great restaurant (the food had been terrible up to that point) and went back to a couple of temples in Angkor. That night we went back to the restaurant and had our final feast together.
Daniel and Magnus were off to Phnom Peng and Vietnam. Sad to see them go, but the next day I got the bus back to Bangkok (and yes, the trip back was just as grueling!)
