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Published: September 29th 2008
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i love cambodia!!! one can see why angelina fell in love with the country & the people. bangkok does not compare to cambodia!
our trek to cambodia was one hell of a ride! NO JOKE! adam & i left phuket thursday afternoon on a 12 hour bus ride back to bangkok. we made the mistake of purchasing a 2nd class bus ticket (the lowest class ticket you can get) and the bus & ride was HORRIBLE! the bus was very run down. i wanted to take pictures but we were one of the last ones on & the other passengers would not have been impressed. however, let me describe the bus for you guys.
1. the seats were disgusting (leather seats that looked like it hasn't been cleaned once)
2. there was NO airconditioning (they just took air from outside & passed it off as airconditioning)
3. we each got mixed matched blankets that smelled & had hair from previous users
the last & my favourite was the constant smell of toilet coming out of the vents every five minutes! the bus also stopped every two minutes to pick up random people waiting on the streets. i thought
dirt road!
we drove on this for four hours to siem reap for a minute there that i was riding the public transportation bus. we drove around for an hour & didn't even make it out of phuket!
we arrived in bangkok after 13 disgusting hours on the bus & the fun part starts! we got off the bus at the WRONG bus terminal (our fault since we jumped the gun & got off at the first stop) and grabbed a taxi to khao san road where we had to buy our bus ticket to cambodia. when we got to khao san road, the tour company was not opened and we were told by some tuk tuk driver that it wouldn't be opened til 10am (but we needed to leave that morning because we didn't have a place to stay in bangkok). so for $20 baht, he drove us to the TAT (some government agency) to buy our ticket to cambodia that leaves at 8:30am that same morning. YES!! after getting off a 12 hour bus, we got on another bus for another 12 hour journey to cambodia!!
the first six hour trek was okay since we were on the thailand side heading towards the cambodian border. adam & i
had the entire bottom level of the VIP bus (yes, VIP after spending $900 baht on the ticket). once we arrived at the border we were given our passports with our cambodia visas from some shady guy that we paid to have it made for us. we followed him to the cambodian border where we had to wait for a "shuttle" bus that would continue our trip to siem reap. we waited in a store front with plastic lawn chairs and a tv playing "Beverly Hills Ninja". this was their "bus terminal"!!
when the shuttle bus came - i was thinking that they were not serious! it wasn't even a bus! it was like a minivan covered in dust (now i know why) with NO AIR CONDITIONING. they crammed about 24 people into this thing using the back bench to store all of the passenger's backpacks. everybody was thinking if this thing could even last the four hour trip we had ahead of us. our suspicions were confirmed when the "bus" stopped after 30 minutes to purchase a spare tire! there wasn't even room to store the spare tire so they threw it in the bus blocking the doors.
now let's talk about the road. of all the travel books i've read, they ALL recommended flying into siem reap complaining that the roads were bad and you come out of it covered in DUST. they were not lying and now i'm going to add to that recommendation! the road were dirt roads (ones that motorcross bikes use for racing). you couldn't go straight; there was a "detour" every corner! and the best part was all the craters and holes in the road that the bus seemed to love going over!
adam & i managed to meet a couple of guys (one from france & one from oaklahoma) on the bus that made the drive more pleasant since we were cracking jokes & trying to pass the time.
when we arrived in siem reap, of course the bus stopped at a guest house that belonged to our bus guide who had a row of men in front harrassing us to show us the rooms as we're waiting for our bags. adam & i had already had accomodations from a referal from a canadian girl that we had met in vietnam.
that evening we went out for food
angkor wat
my "reflection" picture & drinks with the two guys from the bus. i ordered noodles with chicken & got noodles with beef instead. this was the beginning of my chicken horror in cambodia.
the next day we went to angkor wat with jared (the guy from oaklahoma) and rafeal (the french guy). we paid the tuk tuk driver $5 USD to spend the day with us, driving us from temple to temple.
angkor wat was beautiful! we paid $20 USD for a day pass, giving us access to all the temples in the area. when we arrived to the first temple (angkor wat) we were harrassed by little girls trying to selling us everything from postcards to bracelets to water. adam made friends with a girl that calls herself "spidergirl". she was selling him water. i met some girl that made me promise to buy her postcards when i left the temple. damn these girls have good memories because they were shouting our names before we could even spot our tuk tuk drivers - and of course, our drivers were parked where they were! as we walked to our drivers, they swarmed us screaming and shouting tell us to buy their
goods. adam didn't buy any water, he just gave her money to get her away from him; but me on the other hand, i didn't buy postcards from that girl and she was going on and on about how i promised her. i told her i didn't have any money (i didn't want to buy them) to get her off my back, i offered her $500 riel. the girl had the nerve to tell me that $500 riel was worthing nothing to her and threw the postcards at me & wouldn't take the money. i got the last laugh because i picked up the postcards and kept them! AHAHHAHAHA. she tried to get them back from me but i told the tuk tuk driver to leave before she could! LMAO!!
we continued sight seeing at the wats and stopped for lunch. i ordered fried rice with chicken and when it was brought out, it was made with pork & bits of beef. i was not impressed since everyone else's order was correct!
towards the end of the day, we hiked up a mountain and to climb up to the top; we had to climb several 90 degree angle
flights of stairs to reach the top. when we reached the top; it got cloudy and we knew that watching the sunset over angkor wat was impossible so we just hung around and took pictures. watching the sunset over angkor wat is a "must do" when you're there. too bad we had to miss it.
after a tiring day at ankor wat on the hottest day ever; we left at around 6pm to our guesthouse to wash-up and grab some food! we ate at one of cambodia's finest restaurant - we had to treat ourselves at least once before leaving the next morning. i ordered pad thai (khmer style) with chicken and when it was brought out, it was made with seafood!!! i have to conclude that there is no CHICKEN in cambodia!
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Clauds
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Wow dude good luck with that chicken hunt! Your pics are still amazing!