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On to Cambodia
Entry 21 of 51 | show all | print this entry |
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We were warned, but we still didn't totally believe it. Now we know: the trip from Bangkok to Siem Reap in Cambodia is TERRIBLE! It is fine until the border with a good Thai air-conditionned bus. Then problems start. After a night at the border, we got a bus ticket for a supposedly nice aircon bus. Well... First you have to cross the border. That is quite an adventure since you're being herded from one office to the other, not knowing exactly for what and why. Waiting in line in the hot sun and high humidity is fun! But then we finally reached the other side and found our bus. Let's just say that once in a previous life it must have been a nice bus with aircon, but that was a long long time ago.
We finally set off and after about 1 km the pavement disappears and the biggest succession of potholes I've ever seen starts. The bus is literally jumping from one to the other and our backs get more and more sore. Of course the "5-hour" trip changes into over 9 hours and we finally arrive in Siem Reap at 10 pm. But we were told we were lucky since it sometimes takes until 3 am.
Happily it is worth the trip. Siem Reap is the little town located in the Angkor Wat area. Angkor Wat and other fortified temple cities are amazing stone buildings erected by the Khmers between the 9th and 13th centuries. With the war the temples were kind of forgotten and recently rediscovered and opened to the public. I am sure the backdrop of the movie Tomb Rider rings a bell to most of you. Well, it's there! We got a 3-day pass and took off on the back of motorbikes to explore the temples. They are really beautiful! Some of them like Angkor Wat have been very well restored and show really detailed and intricate stone carvings of warriors and dancing women. They also show scenes of the daily lives like kick boxing (apparently not a Thai invention), and cock fighting. Other temples like the one where Tomb Raider was filmed are still kind of abandoned with huge trees growing on the temples, their roots slowly wrapping around entire buildings. This gives the place a mysterious, supernatural feel, and it is really cool (especially for Seth of course) to walk around thinking you're some kind of treasure hunter about to make an amazing discovery.
We spend the 3 days climbing up and down the temples. It is really beautiful, but after a while, we are a bit "templed out". To relax we decide to give another try to the numerous massages advertised in town. This time we try the oil massage, hoping it would be closer to the Swedish massage we know and like, and not so much like the strong poking we experienced in Thailand. We found out that it's even more vigorous and we are both left hurting and limping more than before. I think I've had my fair share now. Over all we enjoyed our first Cambodia experience, but it is different from Thailand. You can feel how the country just recently opened to tourism and that after the horrible war people went through, they are poor and really need to survive. Unfortunately this results in a pretty constant hassling by all kinds of vendors, beggars, restaurant owners, tuk tuk drivers, you name it. A bit tiring after a while.
So after 3 days we continue to Phnom Penh. More thumbnails ...
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