Favorite day so far
Trip Start
May 18, 2008
1
9
18
Trip End
Jun 16, 2008
Siem Reap,
Cambodia
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
1) drive me to western union to get the $ RK (i was running dangerously low on cash after losing ATM card in pukhet)
2) land mine museum
3) banteay srei - known as the jewel of the temples but quite a bit away
4) see an orphange/NGO
i wasn't sure if EP was going back to bangkok today or not but i wasn't finished exploring here yet, so i took off! my driver was the nicest man - and we had a good time traveling together - him telling me about growing up in siem reap and me telling him there was such a thing as snow and that it got really cold in New York. did you know that this man, aki ra, who had been forced into the khmer rouge and planted thousands of land mines, had made it his goal after defecting to de-mine the country. he does this with a screwdriver and his barehands, and the land mine museum is his NGO.
at a random lunch spot across ishmaebon temple, i bumped into an israeli backpacking couple i met at the border. we decided to have dinner in town and go to phnom penh together the next day. they've been living a fascinating life - selling art in ireland and england, jewelry in israel, surfing, and they are dying to settle in australia. after dinner we bump into AL. he's going to phnom penh tomorrow too - so we arrange to facebook regarding accomodations after we arrive in phnom since none of us have any. i catch a motorbike ride back to my hotel, got hit on by the driver, chatted with the cambodian boys working there. they're working so they can go back to school, studying english during the overnight shift. so glad i'm staying an extra day in cambodia.
