The next chapter

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Our day in Beijing was almost over. Our plane was sat on the tarmac two and a half hours after we were due to leave and we were told the time was coming soon. I'd come away less impressed with Beijing's airport than I thought I would have. As we wandered around in the darkness, had somebody not paid the bill, I thought. Finally finding the business center, I asked the attendant if I might be able to use a computer. She looked back at me with hollow eyes and no smile, "Only have one." "Okay," I responded, "may I use it please?" "No." "Why is that?" "Only have one." This left me a little confused. "I see. Is somebody using it? I don't mind waiting for a little bit, I've got time." Again, "No." There was no reason to ask why, I already knew my answer. Only have one. If China had plans to be the overall global power, surely, I thought, they had to get a few more computers in their main airport. I'd just come from Seoul and the place was lined with them.

Back on the plane they were wheeling the drink cart around again, maybe we wouldn't be taking off so soon. As the drink cart passed this time I noticed they were still not serving up any alcohol. This seemed odd to me. The other delayed flights I'd been on alcohol was brought out to keep everybody happy. This time though, it was late and I suspect they didn't want people to become unruly so I settled down with a cup of orange juice. This wasn't going to help me to relax and enjoy the flight, something I'm not a major fan off, but it just might boost my Vitamin C I thought.

3:00 in the morning, Bangkok time, and we'd finally made it to our hostel. "How much?"I asked the driver and rummaged my hand through my pockets in search of bills. Pulling them out I stared at the wad of baht and all the zeros trying to do exchange rates and figure out what was the appropriate fee. As the minutes went by I struggled to show on my face that I was too sleep deprived to figure this out at the moment. I didn't want to look like an easy mark so I shuffled off a few of what I thought to be the right bills and confidently handed them over to the taxi driver. He took them with a smile and and handed me some smaller bills in change before leaving. Had I just been taken? At this hour I didn't really care. It had been a very long and heavy last weekend in Seoul and I was in the mood for sleep and didn't mind if I'd paid a little extra for the man to bring me to a bed.

The next afternoon we decided to head for Cambodia and save Thailand for the end of our trip since we would be flying out of Bangkok. We loaded onto a bus and hoped to make Siem Reap before nightfall. This wasn't to be the case however. When we reached the Cambodian border I was told that there wasn't sufficient room in my passport "What about here?" I asked. "Can't do it." the guard replied back. "Okay, what about here?" "Can't do it." Finally he looked up and said, "Help me and I'll help you." How much help is this guy wanting I wondered to myself. As it turns out 200 baht or about $6.50, if my math was right, was the amount of help he was looking for. I forked it over as I was in hopes to catch a bus on the other side of the border and didn't want to waste time arguing. So far this vacation had not gotten off to the start I had hoped for.

On the other side we were informed that we'd have to stay the night in the border town of Poipet as there weren't any buses until the next morning. This wasn't the best news I'd heard. I was really hoping to get somewhere with a decent meal and some relaxing bars for a few drinks an Poipet has none of these. It's loaded with tuk tuks and taxis trying to get you to hire them for the 3 hour trip to Siem Reap at very inflated prices. We'd decided to stay in the town for the night and get out as early as we could the next morning. When I say that there is really nothing to do in this town, I mean there is nothing to do. Unless you need a guesthouse, an overpriced taxi, or a cell phone contract then you're pretty much out of options.

We wandered around after we checked into our guesthouse for something to eat. Not finding a single restaurant, we turned to the Lonely Planet for any information. The only advice it gave us was, "the first thing you should do when you enter this town is leave as soon as possible." No help there for food. Eventually we found a decent little fried rice restaurant. Looks like there was something to do. After dinner we headed back to our guesthouse with some Angkor beer to relax and watch some t.v. before rising early and getting outta town. There was nothing really waiting for us outside. Only taxi's, cell phones, and tetanus.

The next morning we found that the bus to Siem Reap was not until 3:00 clock that afternoon and took 5 to 6 hours so we found an Australian couple and shared a taxi to Siem Reap. We arrived around 10:30 and left our hostel for the market to finally start our vacation and allow Jen to work on her bargaining skills. She had plenty of chances as she loaded up on dresses, hats, bags, and trinkets from the first few stalls. Get her going and she doesn't stop. I took note of this, we were gonna have to avoid some markets later or this girl was gonna run out of money. Having been to the market before two years ago I knew what I wanted and headed out to find some new "Birkenstocks" for the trip. Finding them around the next corner I talked my way down to $12 and threw my old "Birkensticks" from Korea away. This is something I would later regret. As I'm typing this, my Cambodian "Birkenstocks" have given me a blister on one toe and one of the buttons has rubbed the skin off of my other foot. I wish I had those "Birkensticks" back. Alas, the hunt for comfortable shoes continues.

The heat of the afternoon was getting to us and after our treatment at the doctor fish pool we headed back to the hostel for a swim and a few happy hour beers to beat the heat. Sipping on a few $.75 Anchor pints I had a talk about basketball with a guy from Boston. He was explaining to me the value that KG brings to the team and I was trying to convince him that if Oden's leg's end up staying attached he's gonna be the center we needed.

We carried our conversation and our desire for refreshments out to the town for some Cambodian BBQ. I'd had this before when I was in Siem Reap and was eager to take Jen. Our new friend Adam joined us too for a meal of snake, crocodile, and kangaroo. I know there cute and cuddly and people don't like to think of those types of things on their dinner plate but kangaroo is delicious. If you get a chance to try it I would suggest that you do. When our dinner was finished and we needed a chance of pace we headed up to pub street for more $.75 cent beers, drink prices are the best in the world in Southeast Asia, and to see if we could pick the prostitutes out of the crowded bars. Pub street is a great atmosphere. We met another traveling couple from Ireland and they joined us at our table as we told some stories and swigged some brew.

Our second day in Siem Reap was spent seeing the temples of Angkor. Again, I'd seen them already but Jen was very eager to see them and I had no complaints about seeing what many consider the 8th wonder of the world for the second time. We both enjoyed it and took many pictures but by mid afternoon could take no more from the heat. It was beating us down. The Korean spring hadn't prepared us properly for this.

When we arrived back we found the power out for the town so we headed over to the hammocks to watch the sun edge it's way toward the horizon and do some reading. As the hours passed and the darkness set in the power was still out. This could be kind of nice, I thought. Luckily the beer was still going, backpackers are almost always laid back but I didn't want to see what kind of frenzied shit storm might take place if the power went out and the keg wasn't working. As I was looking through my bag for a flashlight and having a conversation about our current situation with a German roommate the A/C charged back to life with a gush of cold air down my neck. Ah, powers back on.

That night we had some Vietnamese food and mailed some postcards back home. After dinner we shot off to the night market, something I thought might be dangerous for Jen, but came back empty handed. We'd spent too much money the night before and needed to do some saving when we could. After all, the trip was just starting. After an easy night we decided that it was best to take off for Phnom Penh the next morning. We were eager to get as much done as we could in six weeks and although I loved Cambodia last time, and still do after a second time, I was excited to get somewhere that wasn't so familiar, to Vietnam, but we had to get our visas first.

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