The Long & Winding Road

Today was a long haul but we had a good time along the way.  Started off with a mini-van ride to the ferry pier which we made by maybe 1 minute.  The ferry ride was nice with the sun just starting to warm up the air around us.  Switched into a nicer, bigger, mini-van for the three hour drive to the Thai-Cambodian border at Poipet.  We stopped at a restaurant that did visa services as well so they wanted us all to give them our passports and 1200 baht which was way more than the $20 US I had read was the cost for the visa.  We thought it was a scam so Matt and I refused to pay that much and told them we would just pay at the border hoping we could get in for the $20 fee.  When we finally got over the border, the shady immigration officer refused my American money and said it was 110 baht and he wasn't down for negotiating.  So I ended up saving 100 baht which is like 3 bucks but I hate getting scammed so sometimes you have to try to fight the corruption but a lot of times there is really nothing you can do.  At least we tried.  We then got on a bus that was to take us to another bus that would take us all the way to Siem Reap.  We were told the bus would take another 6 hours and that the road was in a horrible condition.  They also said we could take a taxi for 60 US which would do the route in half the time at three hours.  We met a girl from England who didn't fancy the hot, cramped, dusty, 6 hour ride either so we all split on a cab.  The ride was absolutley insane!!  Our driver was passing on both sides, dodging huge potholes, driving through mountains of gravel, dropping off ledges that were destroying his car all at around 80km/h on a brutal road.  Thought I was going to die a couple times but it was actually really fun when I think about it now.  Checked in at the Two Dragons Guesthouse and went out to explore the town.  Ended up having dinner at Happy Angkor Pizza which had been recommended to me by a girl from Japan I had met in Chiang Mai.  They made our pizza extra happy if you know what I mean.  Excellent pizza I might add!  Walked around the Pub St. area for a couple drinks but called it an early night cuz we had been awake since 6am.