Cambodia

we stopped over in bangkok for a few days, then shortly took a bus to the thailand - cambodia border of poipet.  the crossing was not very fun and the process of getting from the border to siem reap our next destination not very clear.  but at the bus station we met patrick a guy from switzerland seems he had just put his girlfriend on a plane back home and was solo and looking a little sad so we had someone to share the experience with.

angkor wat

from poipet we knew we had to catch a bus that would take us somewhere between 4-5 hours to the town of seim reap.  not too far in maybe 120 km, but we had read that the road to town was not paved and was very very very bumpy.  by the time we got to the bus station we had missed the public bus, but after an hour of negotiations, and thanks to 2 canadian girls, we were on our way with 9 other farang (tourists).  there was a cloudburst just before we left to make sure that there was lots of mud on the road and the trip took 6 hours!!  we were all just happy to make safely without being ripped off too badly. 

Angkor Wat Sunrise

we awoke the next morning to a similar landscape.  for neighboring countries, at first sight, cambodia was much much different than thailand.  but as we were to find out there are very big differences.  once we got to know some of the people though the differences were very apparent.  we found the cambodian people more approachable and learned a great deal more about them and their culture from them. 

in siem reap the main attraction was ankor wat.  the largest religious site of temples.  we watched sunset the first day and then visited the land mine museum.  this was our first real introduction the the bloody history of cambodia.  it was started by an amazin man, aki ra who has an unbeliveable yet sadly common past.  he was involved with war and violence from a very young age but after surviving it all started this most noble of organizations.  here is a link to it if you would like to learn more or maybe donate to this very worthy cause:

ankor wat

http://www.cambodialandminemuseum.org/

the next day we got up at 5 for sunrise and we spent the day touring several of the sites and still only saw a fraction of them.  dating back to 111 ad.  they are at least as impressive as the pyramids of central america and represent the khmer empire at its peak.  what an amazing feats of architecture and culture! 

canadian gals who helped us hitch a ride

children in temple

children trying to make a sale

classic rural cambodia

land mine museum

local lady

more temple

more temples

morning shadows in the temple

remnants from the mines

temples

visit to the local zoo