Cambodia

From Bangkok, we decided to make our way out to Cambodia to see the Angkor ruins. We read horror stories online about getting over the border...it is super corrupt and everyone is trying to scam you and, apparently, an unnamed airline is paying them to keep it that way so that people will be too scared to cross by land and will purchase flights instead. We just decided to read up on the scams and felt prepared enough to do it ourselves. We hopped into a cab at 6:30am and headed out to the bus station. It was about 7am when we got there and there was a bus taking off for the border at that time, but we realized that we still needed to exchange our money into US Dollars because this is all they will accept at the border. We bought tickets for 8am, then went to find the exchange office. Closed until 10am...sweet. We just crossed our fingers and got on the bus hoping that there would be an exchange office at the border. After a four and a half hour bus ride we arrived at the border. We expected to be attacked by tuk tuk drivers trying to scam you into an expensive ride to fake border crossings like we had read and heard about, but there was no one there...apparently, our bus dropped us off at the actual border crossing so we were able to skip a lot of the hassle which was great. We found an exchange office, made our way through the Thai border and talked our way out of paying the "extra fees" they tried to make us pay at the Cambodian border. They threatened not to let us in but we insisted we would only pay the amount posted and 5 minutes later we had our visas and could pass through the border. We were so confused and felt so disoriented as we walked easily through since we had expected to put up such a fight. Everything was going so great, and then...something tragic happened. I realized after we were already on the road to Siem Reap that I had left my book on the bus! Not just any book, but my Twilight book number three that had miraculously appeared on the shelf in Lucerne...lost on a bus somewhere in Thailand. Such a exciting and wonderful moment - finding the book - only to have it ripped from my fingers a few weeks later. Well, okay, I left it on the bus, but still...saddest moment of my trip. :( At least we are in South East Asia where cheap, counterfeit (photocopied) books abound, so hopefully I will be able to replace it soon. After three and a half more hours in a taxi, and then another 30 minutes or so on a tuk tuk, we finally arrived at our hostel in Siem Riep...$5 each per night with $6 in-room massages...we love South East Asia!

The next morning we woke up at 4am to get breakfast at our hostel before heading out on a tuk tuk to watch the sun rise at Angkor Wat. We zoomed past other tuk tuks carrying people to the ruins in the dark and made it there just in time to see the sky begin turning from gray to pink and gold behind the dark silhouette of the temple. It was pretty phenomenal. We watched until the sun had risen over the temple and then began to explore while the air was still cool. We spent about 6 or 7 hours walking through the amazingly well preserved temples and ruins. The carvings and construction were spectacular, and in some places the jungle has taken over the ruins and huge roots and trees engulf the abandoned stone buildings. It was pretty cool. After a long day hiking around, our tuk tuk driver took us back to our hostel and we enjoyed our in-room, $6, one-hour massages...one of the best massages I have ever had. Because of our limited time in S.E. Asia, we made Siem Reap our only stop in Cambodia - we hear there are some amazing towns in the South, but we will have to come back another time!

sunrise at ankor: