let's be off: Siemp Reap, Cambodia 01/18

Enormous tree roots take over the temples.

Can you find me in this picture?

More gigantic tree roots.

This is how I climb down the stairs. What were the Kmers thinking making such narrow and steep steps?

A statue in Angkor Wat.

Enormous faces sculpted out of boulder like stone at Angkor Thom.

As usual, Peter is doing something he probably shouldn't be doing.

We made it across the border into Cambodia with no problem. Our bus dropped us off at the other end of a huge market and we had no idea where the border was, so we had to wander around a bit. I was pretty anxious because the crossing is notorious for scams and I was unsure if we were going to make it to the real Cambodian immigration once we cleared Thai customs. The guidebooks say there is a fake one somewhere at the border and that there are all sorts of touts pretending to be Cambodian officials so you essentially you end up either paying for a visa twice if you buy a fake one or just overpay for some guy to get you one. But we were prepared. We knew not to pay more than $20 for a visa and we researched where we should walk to get to the legitimate place. We arrived late so there were no lines and actually very little hassle. We cleared customs and got our Cambodian visa with only a 200 baht “processing fee.” Apparently you can stick to your guns and not pay the fees the officials claim as “processing fees” but by paying the fee you get your visa within a few minutes. If not, then you wait until the officials feel like giving it to you....which can be hours. Since there were no other tourists around to take a shared taxi we had to pay an enormous $40 for the 2 hour taxi ride into Siem Reap! The taxi/bus stand told us that there were no more buses, which was probably a lie, but how would we know. So, as it was getting late and it would be dark soon, there was no other choice. We were dropped off in Siem Reap on a dusty road where a “free” tuk-tuk picked us up and took us to our hotel. Free meant that he would drive us to our hotel if we would hire him to drive us around the next day.

We arrived at our hotel to a warm greeting, cool towels, and delicious Cambodian iced tea. Our hotel was very pretty, comfortable and the people were super nice. We learned that the amount quoted by the tuk-tuk driver was fair and that we would need transportation anyway to get to and around the temples. The next day we hit the temples full force. We spent about 8 hours driving around the archeological park. We visited several different sites including Angkor Thom and Angkor Wat. The following day we rented bikes and did a 30 mile loop from our hotel and back visiting the rest of the temples. We saw pretty much everything and it was totally awesome. By the end of the second day were exhausted and all templed-out. The Angkor temples are unlike anything I have seen before. Totally worth the trip. They are massive, some in very good shape with elaborate carvings and bas reliefs. Some in shambles and engulfed by tree roots. Some are terrifying to walk through due to the enormous boulders that make up arches, hallways, and lintels that seem to be collapsing. But the amazing thing is that you can. You can walk on and through the temples. You can climb up the narrow, steep boulder-like steps to the very tops of the structures. These are the remains of several capitals of the Khmer empire from the 9^th - 15^th centuries. There seems to be much speculation as to the purpose of the temples and the fall of the Khmer empire. But from the remains it seems that the empire was quite a large and powerful one.

Our way out of Siem Reap was yet another adventure. We were planning to head to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and then up north along the Vietnam coast up to Hanoi and Halong Bay. But, due to stormy weather along the coast and freezing temperatures up North, we decided to abort that mission and head back to Thailand instead. We will travel South and hopefully end up in Singapore. Maybe we will still make it to Vietnam afterwards, maybe we will go elsewhere, or maybe we will get stuck on Thailand's beaches. So, we booked another bus ticket to Bangkok. This one, all the way from Siem Reap to Bangkok, cost us $7 each. But, that ride was a fiasco. I guess that is why it was so cheap.

We woke up early to be ready for a driver to pick us up at 7:30 am, but he arrived way early so the hotel manager asked him to come back for us later. We waited and waited and the driver finally showed up at 8:15 (our bus was to depart at 8:00) and drove us down to the dusty road. I guess that was the “bus stand”. Tuk-tuk and cab drivers swarmed us, apparently knowing something we did not (like there was no bus or it had already left) and waiting for us to cave and hire them. We waited for about an hour before heading back to our hotel which took great care of us, called the agency where we bought our tickets, and had the travel agent come down to talk to us. He assured us that we would get on a bus at 11am. He said the bus was having some “problems.” Another driver would come for us. So we waited and a driver did come but didn't take us to a bus. We were taken to a shared taxi where we met two other travelers, one from Australia and one from South Africa. So, the ride was pretty good because we got to talk quite a bit and exchange travel information. We learned that the South African guy was told that he missed the bus and that he would have to buy another ticket. His ticket was $13, so he paid a total of $26 for his ride. We also learned that the man from Australia paid $41 for his Cambodian visa. Once at the border, I couldn't believe there was actually another bus waiting for us. It was a real bus, too, not a minivan or a scooter. Just another typical day in Asia, I guess.