WOW.
Our trip to Cambodia started out with our longest, bumpiest, hottest, most cramped bus ride of our lives. We left at about 7:30am from Bangkok in a beautiful airconditioned bus and drove for about 5 hours on beautiful, smooth, flat roads to the border of Cambodia where our lives changed. The bus people were exceptional at helping us get our visas and pass through customs with very little effort. All they kept saying in thier cute little thai accents was "beeeee carfuuuuuuu" (in an english accent it would be " Be Careful." They let out a little giggle after they said it over and over. It was adorable. I guess they had a few problems the week before with some pickpocketers by the border crossing. We managed to get to the other side with no problems and boarded a tiny, did I mention tiny? bus that would take us the rest of the 200 km to Siam Reap, the tiny tourist village where people flock to in hoards as a base for visiting the monstrous and incredible Angkor Wat ruins. We look at the map again and figure it couldn't possibly take more than four hours. Again, we were wrong. We drive down the bumpiest "main" highway road known to human kind for the next 8, yes EIGHT hours! We did stop in there for a dinner break, but still! Imagine the worst dirt road you've ever driven on in Canada, then add hurricane force wind and rain and picture what the road would be like then...that is what we drove on. Poor Tyler had is huge, long limbed body crammed into a seat made for the tiniest of Cambodians. Of course, the seat in front of him was broken and was stuck in the 'reclined' position...not so bad for the guy sitting there but VERY painful for poor Tylers knees. It was kinda funny at one point when I look accross four seats in our puny row...Me at the window being as small as I can possibly be to make room for Tyler who was looking like a sardine crammed into a tiny can with 20 other sardines, I had to smile. THen the poor french guy sitting beside Tyler who was trying to be "manly" and not let his legs touch Tylers too much so as to give the wrong impression, but still having a hard time avoiding too much contact as we sailed over potholes big enough to bathe a large dog in. It was pretty cute. Then the guy on the far window who looked like he had been sent to the corner to think about what he did wrong. His arms all bundled up in his lap, his head hung low trying to imagine he were in a happy place with all the room in the world. It was a sight to behold. A classic travel scenario that would be hard to escape from even if you tried.
All in all, what do you REALLY expect for $6 ??? We remembered what we paid and were thankful for the brief blow of coolish wind that passed over us whenever the fan/air con decided to kick in every know and again.
We later learn that the Cambodian government, four years ago, signed a contract with a Thai airline in hopes of boosting the tourism and economy in a country who was struggling to survive. This contract prevents the government here to repair, fix or build a new road connecting Thailand with Angkor in order to encourage tourists to fly and make the airlines money. This contract is up in two years after which I'm sure, the ride we experience will become something of the past and the dirt road replaced with a beautiful new highway.
On the way here we saw huge blue flickering lights all over the farmers fields. They looked like huge bug lights which we learned were actually grasshopper and cricket catchers which they exported to Thailand for 'snack'food?!
We were so tired at the end of the day that we agreed to stay at the hostel where we were conveniently brought to at 10:30pm that night that was conveniently owned by the drivers buddy. It was only $5 US a night and it was actually, a really nice room. It even has a TV!!! It is a bit out of town but we've managed to get rides into town every morning with little hassle as one of the 8-10 guys who are sitting around, sleeping on couches, "working" slowly gets up and puts on clothes like we are really putting them out and they hop on thier motorcycle with a little carriage attached to the back to take us into town. Too funny. It is honestly SO bloody hot here during the day that I can't blame them for being so lethargic, but come on...they WORK there?!
Today is the third day of our three day pass we got to see the temples of Angkor. They truly are more impressive than many we've ever seen before. I mean, they are comparable to Machu Picchu, the pyramids, and many of the egyptian temples I saw...but the fascinating part is how much space they occupy! THere are 14 km separating some buildings from one another. The other thing is that the rock they used isn't all that big compared to the rocks used in Peru and in Egypt. But the detail and carvings and reliefs and structure are fascinating to look at. The first day we hired "Paep", a guy from our hostel who speaks immaculate english and is just the cutest cambodian I have ever seen with a shy smile and gentle personality. A true gentleman. He is 27, no girlfriend because he is too shy and not a good flirter, so he says. He met Angelina Jolie and thinks she is a gift from god, as most people here think as she was at the temples to film 'tomb raider' and of course, still remains involved in Cambodian culture. He says that Brad is a lucky man. Too cute. He waited around for us as we toured through the temples. We had to buy cold water every hour as it is SO hot here you could dehydrate at the drop of a hat. Not that there is a shortage of women and children running around offering "cold water, lady" whenever you walk near them. Kids EVERYWHERE selling everything and anything. TYler is the hugest sucker for them and we now have a flute, 5 wooden bracelets, a pack of 10 postcards, way more beer and water than I"m sure was needed to keep us happily hydrated, some relief replicas printed on cheap paper...and I"m sure the list goes on. It's usually SO cheap and it truly is hard to say no. For a "snack" that afternoon while we went to get a piece of roasted corn on the cob from one of the million people selling the exact same thing (entrepreneurs and free-thinkers they are not) we also tried some of the deep fried cockroaches that Paep got from a vendor. We hesitantly pulled of the back shell, a few legs and of course, the head and popped them in. Very crunchy and oddly flavoured of garlic. It must have been the oil? A neat experience. Paep was very proud. Seems like the Cambodians are much above the grasshoppers and crickets which they get rid of in place of the much more extraordinary cockroach cuisine!!
Later that night Tyler went in for a $5 one hour massage that he has taken quite a liking to in SE Asia. I'm talking about the "legitimate" massages, don't worry, Deborah! He got talking (imagine that) and left with the idea of setting this girl up with our friend Paep from the hostel! He's playing matchmaker and loving it! We've been going out at night for dinner. Everything here is charged in US dollars at there are so many tourists so things are a bit costly compared to Thailand. I'm sure prices will go down when we get to Phenom Phen tomorrow and out of the tourist trap that we're in. There are kids wandering around everywhere asking for money and food and for you to buy another flute. So cute and like I said, very hard to say no to. At the same time, we pass by houses and villages with kids laughing and giggling and playing together as if life were great. A nice change to see this.
LIke yesterday, we will again rent bikes and tour around some of the temples for a final time. Spend some time there at sunset for those glorious sunset pictures that we love so much :) It is SO hot and it's quite a distance to bike around all day long for two days straight in the beating down sun. It must be 8km to the ruins and then 15 km around the area before the long ride home. Such a hard, long day...did I mention the bikes were electric and we barely have to do any peddaling?? :) Brilliant idea.
We will write more soon to update on the rest of this amazing country.
