i am strangely grateful to have chosen to travel overland from Thailand into Cambodia. stepping into a different world and starting all over in getting my basic bearings. thank goodness i have chosen to travel with a guide because Poipet is nothing like i have ever experienced. every day there are real moments that challenge all the western amenities i have come to take for granted. this is a dusty, gritty frontier town with hardly any directional signage, grim-faced police, children begging and one glaringly new casino .
once our group of twelve clears immigration we load up into an old bus to begin the 3 hour drive to Siem Reap. miles of dirt road with occasional groupings of thatched huts huddled on the side selling trinkets. i have seen these images of people living in this kind of poverty but seeing it right outside the window is something else altogether.
water was everywhere in Bangkok, here there is none. the heat is so dry and there is hardly any green. i see lone spirit houses, the dwellings they once watched over now gone or fallen to pieces.
