Through Cambodia

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At 4 am we were racing above a sleeping Bangkok on the elevated highways to catch the early bus to Aran from the Mawchit 11 bus station. We got a visa at the border, walked across into Poipet with the gamblers, the carts, and others on the way to Siem Reap. Wiki travel describes Poipet thus 'Other than gambling, whoring and lowering one's opinion of humanity, there are no sights or activities in Poipet. It is a miserable huddle of touts, beggars, thieves and dodgy casinos for daytripping Thais.' With a billing like that, I just had to check it out.

We got a taxi to Siem Reap, and we were 30 minutes out of Poipet when the taxi broke down. As luck would have it, an empty taxi came by a few minutes later and picked us up - grateful for this, we hired him for the next few days.

The next day we started touring the temples. Angkor Wat is certainly better than advertised, the more you know about it, the more impressive it gets. It is worth getting up early to see the sunrise over the temple, bring a flashlight.

A few days later we went to Koh Ker to see more temples and then to Thailand - crossing at Choam Srawngam. Driving through the country side and enjoying the dusty roads was the best part of the trip. Compared with Poipet, Choam Srawngam is a quiet, isolated border crossing. Of course there was no 'commercial' transportation available, so we sat down at a little shelter and bought a coconut from the lady. Before we had finished our drink, another young lady had shown up and we negotiated with her for a drive into the next town (about 30 km away), so she got her husband and 2 kids and we all piled into the cab of their pickup, and we were on the way again.

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