Cambodia

The first real destination was Cambodia. We flew into Bangkok in the evening and so stayed there overnight before returning to the road. Siem Reap took about a day to get to. The bus ride from Bangkok to PoiPet, on the Cambodian border, was about 5 hours long and cost about 7US. PoiPet rhymes with toilet for a reason. It is not a very tidy place. This town has no reason to be there except that it has a border crossing station which attracts a lot of Thais who cross the border to gamble, its illegal in Thailand.
The border crossing was fairly quick. We had bought E-Visas in advance so that we only had to stand in one line instead of two. It took about 30 minutes to get through. Once one the other side we were surrounded by cabbies asking us where we needed to go. Of course we ignored them. I had read that you should get out of the initial area to find a ride to Siem Reap. Finally some guy told us to get on his bus, it was free and it would take us about a kilometer up the main thoroughfare. Fine with me.
Of course he took us to the cabbie company that he was hooked up with. They offered us a decent price so we mulled it over. At the border crossing we had met up with two Australians and agreed that sharing a taxi between the five of us would be the most efficient way to go. I think it was 35 US for the ride. As we were talking about the taxi I noticed the emblem on the hood of the car, it was the very service I was told not to take, but by this point they had offered us a good fare.
Getting that taxi was a hassle. First they wanted us to pay first (which we of course refused) then we settled on half-now half-later deal, then they had to find a driver who knew where our hostel was (which didn't matter in the end), then we had to switch cars.... it was obnoxious. What made it all the worse is that the Camry we ended up in was tiny... see, the Australian chap was like 6'5", so he automatically got the front seat, which left the four of us in the back seat. Had we all been the width of....umm, something really skinny... then it would've been fine; but as was we were we were like sardines packed in a crushed tin box. Which, from the get go, was tolerable. Then we got on the "road". It was A) entirely dirt, never been paved. B) no lanes, because to avoid the literal craters one has to use to entire road. I THINK you're supposed to drive on the right side of the road in Cambodia, but I can't be sure. C) Even with successful crater evasions, riding in this car was like going through turbulence-hell. Even with all of this, we kept our cheer up for a while. Had to get our tire filled a few times, and sealed another time, for there was a large slab of metal sticking out of it at one point. The real problem with the ride was that we had no idea how long it was really going to take (the taxi guys had said "4 hours" and when asked the same question a bit later,　said "3". Our driver spoke almost no English, so asking him wasn't much help either.
So; we finally get to a paved-ish section of the road, meaning we were finally nearing Siem Reap, but then we stopped at a tuk-tuk stand for some reason (tuk-tuks are those little open air motorcycle things- google it). Apparently taxis can ' t go into the region of the city where our hostel was, and we had to finish the journey via tuk-tuk. We were all very wary of this, but didn't really have a choice, so off we went, in a little tuk-tuk procession. And they actually took us to the hostel, no problem and no stops, which was kinda amazing. We learned later that taxis totally could come into this area of the city, so why we had to switch to tuk-tuks I will never know.


Our first day we needed a tuk-tuk to take us to the temples. I wasn’t exactly sure how far the temples were from Siem Reap. This being our first time hiring a tuk-tuk, we weren't exactly picky in our choosing- so we went with the first guy who quoted us a good price. It seems that most tuk-tuks are powered by a motorcycle of at least 250 ccs. The one we hired must've been powered by a scooter- we had people on bikes passing us. I’m also pretty sure that the driver had cataracts.

It's hard to describe the temples. They are about 1000 years old. There are multiple complexes over a very large area. Angkor Wat is only the most famous and best preserved temple, there are many others by different names that can be reached by tuk-tuk. If you want to research the history a bit more go to; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Wat .
I had heard of another temple structure that had never been reclaimed from the jungle so we snagged a tuk-tuk driver and headed off to that one. It was called Tah Prohm. I think this one was far more interesting than Angkor Wat itself; it had fewer restorations, and was pretty well left as it was. In some places there were giant trees growing into the structures. (see picture) There are many options for tickets to the Angkor Wat area temples. You can buy a one day, three day, or 6 day pass at 20, 40, or 60 US$. I recommend the one day if you are holding a mild interest in the temples. One day, three temples, 6 hours, that was enough for me. If you buy the three day pass I recommend going for 3 or 4 hours only of each of the 3 days. Looking at temples is cool, but can get monotonous. The six day pass is for the very hardcore. If you like temples, grew up in one and miss home, or are really into acting like Tomb Raider, then maybe you should buy this pass. That evening was spent getting massages, eating good food and a little shopping.
The next day　ｗｅ　ｄｉｄ　ａｌｍｏｓｔ　ｎｏｔｈｉｎｇ．　Ｗｅ　ｇｏｔ　ｍａｓｓａｇｅｓ，　ａｔｅ　ｗｅｌｌ，　ｓｈｏｐｐｅｄ　ａ　ｌｉｔｔｌｅ　ａｎｄ　ｇｅｎｅｒａｌｌｙ　ｗｅｒｅ　ｓｌｏｔｈｆｕｌ．　Ｔｈｅ　ｄａｙ　ａｆｔｅｒ　ｗｅ　ｌｅｆｔ　Ｓｉｅｍ　Ｒｅａｐ　ａｎｄ　ｂｅｇａｎ　ｏｕｒ　ｊｏｕｒｎｅｙ　ｂａｃｋ． This trip closely resembles the one into Siem Reap, except this time there were only three of us in the Camry， so everyone had their own seat. The main difference was that this Camry, instead of having tire troubles, had engine troubles, so every now and again we would stop, our driver would get out and tinker with the engine a bit, and we'd continue. At one point he removed a large piece of the engine during his tinkering (which he of course replaced before we continued). During these little breaks Ｒｉｃｈ and I would amuse ourselves by throwing rocks at the few trees, pretending they were attacking monkeys. (Had monkeys actually attacked us, we would've been easily overcome, because we couldn't hit the trees with any sort of consistency, and they weren't even moving). So we made in into Poi Pet, crossed into Thailand, and jumped on a bus to Bangkok. Ｗｅ　ａｒｒｉｖｅｄ　ｌａｔｅ　ｏｎ　Ｃｈｒｉｓｔｍａｓ　Ｅｖｅ．