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Published: January 5th 2008
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Muay Thai boxer gets punched in the face.
Very self explanatory, but if you need an in-depth explanation shoot me an email :) Where to begin? This entry will probably be short b/c I have a lot of pictures to post, and this internet place is really slow.
Anyway, if you remember from my last entry, we were headed to Muay Thai boxing. It was fun for the most part, but it was very slow paced, and every fight was basically the same, a lot of dancing and minimal punches/kicks thrown, and then followed by later rounds of a lot of hugging and knee kicks to the kidneys. Paul and I bet on every fight...I owe him 35 baht. Some of the boxers looked very young, and all of them were pretty small in general. The crowd gets really into it, and they yell a lot trying to place bets as the fights progress. If you like seeing men hurt each other, I suggest you come to Thailand.
The next day we left at 5:00 in the morning and caught a train to Arranyaphrtet, a very rural town that borders Cambodia. The train was interesting, 3rd class, but actually not packed. I got to know a Thai girl along the way (not that well I guess, b/c I don't know her name)
Sun from the train on the way to Cambodia
Actually not sunset, just a fast shutter speed. that was going to see her farming family a town away from our destination. She spoke English pretty well, and told me that she plans to come to California next year for New Years, and then I proceeded to ask her 1251 questions about Thailand and her family and how they make their living. Farming in the rural areas is, from what she said, mostly a job to feed your family, and that a small cut is given to land owners, but not much. I told her about how Americans farm (terminator seeds, government stipends, and large national chains of markets) and she almost pooped her pants. Luckily she didn't...that would have been awkward.
You cross Arranyaprthet to Poipet, which is a terrible town, with nothing but hawkers and a casino and an ocean of people crossing. We stood in line to get our passports for over an hour. Mind you Cambodia and Thailand is hot - 90 degree weather w/o air conditioning or any other royalties.
We took a share taxi from there to here, Siem Reap, with a very friendly company, for a reasonable price. The national highway number 5 (or 6), can't remember, is nothing
National Highway 5
Can you see? We couldn't. Apparently our taxi driver could... but dirt. Cambodians drive crazy. Paul got to sit in the front and watch his impending death coming, while Dan and I tried to take pictures over a bumpy and dusty road. I compare the experience to a monster truck rally video game and frogger, but in a car. For all the moms out there, there is a picture I'll include to show you how dusty, and unvisible the roads are with the hundreds of cars, motorcycles carrying people, trucks moving slowly, potholes, and one lane bridges. I can't stress enough, how exciting and unpleasant this was for me, and I think that I will remember that drive as one of my most exhilerating travel experiences.
We got here, and of course got ushered to a guesthouse via tuk-tuk/motorcycles. It was a good deal though, about 3 dollars a person for a very upscale place with free breakfast, so we stayed. Everybody thinks I'm Chinese and tries to speak Chinese to me, then move on the Japanese, and then are shocked to find I'm American. They usually say "Whaaat's aaahp" after that. The guesthouse was kind of shady though, we leave our key when we leave, and they didn't
Monk on a moto
On this road, it's crazy that he sits that way. His desires have been defeated - especially the one to live. put our third rollout bed in till we left to eat dinner, so all my stuff has locks on it. They are nice though, as we've found with most service people. In fact, most Cambodians have been very nice to us, and usually have a pleasant attitude. Dan thinks I try to bargain too hard, and I probably do, so I have to give the people here credit. And they are very impoverished, so everyone is just trying to make a living.
We have spent today visiting Angor Waht, and Angor Thom, two complexes that hold some of the most amazing architecture I've ever seen. Angor What is a temple complex, and Angor Thom has many wahts within it. The area is
very touristy, as is Siem Reap (very unlike the shacks along the highway we came in on). But outside the wahts are hundreds of vendors and food stalls and I've enjoyed being in that atmosphere a lot. You get harassed a lot to buy things, like at lunch today young boy sat down at our food stall table and told me to buy postcards/books from him for almost 5 minutes. 5 minutes is a long time to
Ceiling of outer corridor of Anghor Waht
It's not part of the modern day wonders for nothing... say tay aw-guhn (no thanks). There are a lot of pictures to follow. Enjoy. Tomorrow we do another day of what exploring, as well as the next. Then onward to Phnom Phen. I hear that highway is in much better shape.
Hope everyone is doing well.
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David
non-member comment
Wow-e, wow-e, wow-e!
Dude, that stuff is a-mazing. Now if only you could put together some boxing monkeys fighting in the Angor Waht... then it would be magical.