Siem Reap

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hello everyone!!

Yesterday was quite a long day. We left Bangkok at 7am arrived at the Cambodian border at about 3pm. The bus drivers warned us to keep everything out of our pockets. we didn't understand why at the time but once the hordes of children started reaching into our pockets at the border town...well, then we understood.

The tour bus was split up to smaller buses and we ended up at a guest house at about 10pm. The road from the border to siem reap is 157 km and it took about 6 hours. As patsy would say, WOW!!! Our driver told us that most people enjoyed crossing the thai border in cambodia here because the roads gave "more adventure".

MORE ADVENTURE = unpaved, bone jarring, dusk drive through a lush green countryside.

The Cambodian currency is riel (as in keepin' it ) although dollars are happily accepted everywhere. it was quite a feeling as we left the guesthouse this morning on the back of motorscooters and pulled into the teeming traffic of this city. we were riding along thousands of UNICEF trucks, motorcycles, bikes, all with different kinds of contraptions attached to them.

We did a little shopping and then walked around the markets where we were the laughing stock of each stall we stopped at. "What is this? To drink?" (After all, it's in a water bottle, and for sale right next to the food) But petrol is for sale by the liter in drinking water bottles and old booze bottles.

The sights and smells are amazing (in mostly a good way) with all the vegetables and spices laid out in large wicker baskets. I was particularly fascinated by the butcher stalls; the meat hangs from monstrous black steel hooks around the outer edge of the stall.

In restaurants the salt and pepper is mixed together in chunky granules and placed on the table in little bowls.

The plan is to watch the sunset at nearby lake tonight and then spend 3 days exploring angkor wat. the area around the temples have been cleared on mines and is very safe.

Today we spoke with a Khmer man who told us that the Vienamese government manages the temple sites. It was a little muddy on exactly why - either because the Vietnamese government bought the rights to do that or that the Khmer government doesn't have enough control to manage everything. Either way, we are really looking forward to seeing Angkor Wat. It's incredible here!!

matt & patsy

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Photos

cool blues jam
matt wandered into a blues bar in Bangkok (it was SSOOOO nifty!!!)while i got a haircut (my hair was getting REALLY bad) and he promised one of the guys that we would come back (and i'm so glad we did). notice the light fixture behind us (and try not to notice the guy to our right finding something in his nose:): it's actually a PUFFERFISH!! crazy, huh!?

mmm....hmmm....
matt was amazed with the butcher services here. he's trying to find the perfect slice...

cute duckies
these were the cutest little guys i had ever seen. i tried hard to put out of my mind that they were sold in a food market and not a pet store, and enjoyed the little cuddle. the beautiful baskets really caught our eye!!