The capitol day two

Trip Start Nov 29, 2005
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Trip End Apr 10, 2006


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Sunday, January 29, 2006

today we went to the two other sights that we heard should not be missed before leaving the capitol- the national museum and the silver pagoda. we first went to the museum and cameras were not allowed. it wasn't such a loss though because nothing in the museum was labeled. we walking around looking at sculptures that were probably signigicant but had no idea why. next we headed over to the palace where visitors are only allowed in to the area containing a few temples. one of these is the silver pagoda, so named because of its floor made out of silver tiles. they were cold to walk on but very pretty. at noon, we boarded the bus to siem reap where we would spend the rest of our vacation.

at this point in our story, think back to the mean joke carmen played on lindsay at the airport in japan concerning squat toilets. let us just say that lindsay would have given anything for that toilet during the trip chinese new year celebrators
chinese new year celebrators
 . although she was now fluent in the art of it, these particular ones made her want to die a little.

we arrived in siem reap around dusk and were bombaded by tuk tuk and motorbike drivers the second we got off the bus. they surrounded us so that we could barely get to our bags. there was a driver from our hotel but our name wasn't the name on his sign so he didn't think he could take us. so infuriating! so we chose a driver after he told us the price and we got in his cart. at this point he says the condition is that we have to use him as our driver when we tour the next day. we don't agree to this because we haven't decided what we want to do that day. he says he can't take us then unless we agree. we are now surrounded by these men all talking at once saying they can take us for a higher price and telling us how far away our hotel is. meanwhile, the driver for our hotel is just sitting there. so we get out of the cart and say fine we will just go with someone else. the crowd follows us to the next tuk tuk. we turn to the driver for the hotel and tell him that we have a reservation and if he is their driver he should just take us. this whole thing went on for about fifteen minutes with us not knowing where the hell we were or how to get to our hotel when finally the hotel's driver decided he could take us. we were so pissed by this whole thing. grateful that he took us, but pissed off. lindsay had a nightmare about the drivers that night. she woke up seeking revenge.
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