Hello everyone! Right now I am writing this entry at an extremely slow internet in Chang Mai, which is north Thailand. Greg and I caught a late night sleeper train up here last night - it was a 14 hour journey, but the sleeper train provides everyone with a bed so the trip went really fast! It has been a hell of a time finding any type of internet connection - everything is extremely slow around here, so basically uploading pictures is out of the question unless I really luck out at a good internet place :-( sorry guys. As soon as I can put a few pics up, I WILL!
After spending 1 week in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, with Greg and his two buddies (Adam and Ryan), Greg and I left to head up to Siem Reap to check out the Angkor Wat temples. Greg had already seen them, but he was happy to come along again since it's such a remarkable place!! It was a 10 hour busride up to Siem Reap, and probably one of the longest busrides yet simply because the entire way there was Cambodian karaoke being played on the TV. It's tough to describe exactly what this sounds like, but it is honestly the WORST sounding music paired with the WORST dancing I have ever seen haha! THANK YOU iPod!!! And they were just blaring it ... even with my volume way up on the iPod I could still hear the shreaks of Cambodian tunes. Oh well, part of the experience. The busses in Cambodia are probably built for people who are 5 foot nothin', so when someone my size is having a hard time fitting in the seats, you know its not going to be the most comfortable ride lol. I felt sorry for Greg - he's about 5"11.
Regardless, we made it up to Siem Reap, quickly found a spot, then went out for supper. We stumbled across an Indian Food restaurant and it was some of the best food we had eaten all trip! Butter Chicken and Naan bread & 3 draft beers ran us just about $5.00!! Pretty amazing. After that we walked down the street and bartered our way into a 1 hour long massage for $8, then we hit the hay as we had a big day ahead of us.
We grabbed a tuk-tuk at about 10:00am to head to the Angkor Wat temples! Some people will ride bicycles to and around the temples, but becasue we were only going to spend one day here, we hired a tuk-tuk for the full day for $14 (Cambodia works off US$ by the way). As soon as you pull up at the temples there are kids EVERYWHERE trying to sell you stuff. Post cards, guide books, coke, water, random memorabilia, etc. Some of the kids have a great sense of humor, some are a real pain in the ass ... just gotta laugh at them. We have to accept that this is what those kids to EVERY DAY!! Tough life for many of them.
So the first temple we visited was Angkor Wat - the largest one. Without asking, we had a nice Cambodian guy take us around the entire temple and explain many of the stories that were delicately carved into the walls around the entire place. It was truly fascinating to see how much planning and history went into the construction of the temples, as well as to hear about the incredible stories and beleifs the Cambodians share. We gladly tipped our Cambodian guide, then it was off to the next temple. All in all we visited 5 or 6 temples throughout the day, then climbed to the top of one to watch the sunset! Fantastic day. We tipped our tuk-tuk driver with a beer before we left the temples, and he shared the favor by offering us some of is pappaya fruit (which was delicious!). The pictures from this day were absolutely amazing!! This was our last night in Cambodia, so what better way to spend it than getting another cheap massage? Greg somehow managed to barter our way into a 2 hour massge for $10 ... it wasn't the best massage ever, but it was only $10!! Can't really complain about that.
The next day we were set to depart at 7:30am from Siem Reap to head back to Bangkok. Originally we wanted to travel straight up into Laos, but we soon figured out that this was not exactly advisable - supposed to be a very long, bumpy, dusty trip. 20 of us plus all our baggage were packed into the smallest bus I have seen on the trip so far, and we didn't leave Siem Reap until 8:30am ... definitely have to get used to "Cambodian time" over here haha. It was about a 6 hour drive to the border on almost all dirt roads. Bumps everywhere, detours around new bridges being built, and as you can imagine, it was extremely dusty. We tried our best to sleep, but as soon as you do fall asleep you turn into a bobble-head - I think my head hit the window at least a couple times while I was "sleeping". Once we got to the border, same as when I entered Cambodia, we had to grab all our baggage and walk through customs. The line up was HUGE this time through, so I think it took about 2 hours standing in the line ups to get through. We were also made aware of a brutal new rule in Thailand - those entering by land are now issued only a 15 day visa (used to be 30 day visa). Only those who fly into Thailand will be issued a 30 day visa. Kindof a pain in the ass!! Basically we will have to continually hop in and out of Thailand every 15 days unless we want to pay a $30/day fine!!! Anyways, we walked across the border, waited another hour, then loaded onto the bus that would take us to Bangkok (4 hour journey).
We stayed on the same street I stayed at the first time in Bangkok and spent most of our time checking out the shopping around Bangkok, which is INCREDIBLE by the way. Malls and street vendors everywhere. We also went to see a movie in the coolest movie theatre I have ever been too - reclining chairs and blankets for everyone!! Everywhere you go in Thailand all you hear about is the "Ping Pong" shows. After talking to a couple fellow tourists, we quickly new what to expect. Greg's two buddies, Ryan and Adam, are flying home on the 23rd, so to spend our last night together, we finally gave in and decided to go to a Ping Pong show. I'm not going to explain this show in detail until I get home, but I will say it was truly one of the most disturbing things I have ever seen. Lots of laughs of course, but you guys will not beleive what actually happens at these shows!!
Anyways, we are now in Chang Mai which is absolutely beautiful!! The sleeper train was absolutely FREEZING last night, plus I had a little bit of a fever, so it was not the most pleasant trip for me. Today I went to buy some medicine to calm my fever and stomach down - if symptoms persist into tomorrow I'm going to the clinic. It's not the worst place to be sick, however it is kinda shitty to be sick again on the trip. Oh well, to sooth my aching muscles we went to get another 2 hour massage today :-)
I want to wish everyone a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS as well!! I wish I could be at home with you all celebrating. I sure hope the weather has calmed down back home.
Love you all
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