JasonKessler

Fortunately, getting from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap no longer requires sitting on top of a speed boat in the middle of a giant lake for six hours getting sun stroke. Instead, for a quarter of the price, you can spend the same amount of time in a cramped, aggressively air conditioned bus while listening to the hits of Khmer Karaoke. The bus operators were even kind enough to include several microphones for those who wished to sing along. Luckily, nobody took them up on the offer. I was starting to feel under the weather, and sentimental Cambodian pop music along with its video accompaniment of awkward, poorly acted foreplay wasn't helping matters. According to the booklet the travel clinic gave me before I left (published in 2004,) there are no international clinics in Siem Reap. ... read more

Note: I'm on a slow connection right now so I'll put the pictures up when I get a chance. Alex has some excellent ones on his blog Shoppers delight. Coming in directly from Cambodia, Malyasia feels like more like New Jersey than Southeast Asia. Kuala Lumpur, their "futuristic" capital city, is, like most capitals, not really intended for tourism. Nonetheless, we were able to get a cheap flight out of Siem Reap to Kuala Lumpur that saved us from spend 20 hours in a cramped bus traveling back to Bangkok. As soon as we got through customs, we happily gorged ourselves on McDonald's, having spent the last week without any western food. Yes, we're soft. We decided to be adventurous and took a Gypsy cab from the airport, with a driver who called himself The ... read more