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Woah nelly it is HOT! Heather and I have coined a new term - "I have beads." Sweat beads that is. That's not a problem though because we just left poolside at our hotel after lunch being served to our lawn chairs.
In Cambodia they know how to treat backpackers and we are damn glad. Our "hostel" is more like a 4 star hotel and literally has a free breakfast (baggette, jam & butter and eggs made to order just the way we like it) and a selection of alchohol, coffee and this amazing ice-lemon tea. Our room has A/C and a private bathroom, with a shelf in the shower (very important), and is the nicest place I have ever stayed. Did I mention we got a free welcome drink upon arrival? It had ice. We were in a non-air conditioned bus for the last six hours and our drink was worth exactly ONE MILLION dollars.
We heart Cambodia. We did not however heart the busride:
Getting started: Sit on curb and wait for man to ride up on motorcycle and tell us to wait. Man comes back and tells us to walk down the block. Stand outside bus and wait some more.
Hour 1: Sitting on bus watching man outside of bus count our money over and over again.
Hour 2: Still in Bangkok. Stopped twice....we're not sure why.
Hour 3: On bus listening to 70's Thai music.
Hour 4: Bus stops. Driver gets out. We wait. Driver gets back in and we listen to the bus shift gears for five minutes.Moving again.
Hour 5: Stop at random resturaunt, give our passports to strangers and head to the border crossing.
Hour 6: Arrive at border. Get our passport back with Cambodian visa's. Get our temperature taken (no swine flu here). Stand in line. Stand in line some more. Heather goes through....Leanna didn't have her Thai departure card from the airplane filled out so had to go to the BACK of the line, while Heather stood between Cambodia and Thailand. Stand in a 2nd line and then we were in CAMBODIA!!
Hour 7 - 11: On bus to Siem Reap, listening to Thai music again - this time without any A/C.
Hour 12: Get into a Moto (what they call Tuk Tuk's in Cambodia) and arrive at our wonderful hostel.
We spent the day at one of the wonders of the world (we think it's the eigth wonder of the world), but who knows. We have a personal moto driver (arranged by our beautiful hostel) named Sambo (like Rambo). He just smiles and drives us around the temples and ancient ruins of Angkor Wat. It didn't feel real to us today that where we were standing used to be a city of a million people - the picture won't do it justice. Tomorrow is an early morning to watch the sunrise from Angkor Wat with our trusty moto driver Sambo.
The little children here are adorable to look at, but they are constantly following you around selling their braclets and what not. What's amazing is that they base their pitch on what country you are from. One little girl told us that Stephen Harper was her brother. Another girl told us that "Ottowa is the capital of Canada, but the two big cities are Toronto and Vancouver," adding the fact that, "you speak two englishes: english and french," before running after another tourist.
After being in Bangkok, Siem Reap is refreshing because it is a smaller city and more laid back. Drivers seem to be a little less crazy and everyone smiles back at you when you smile at them, something we didn't experience in the craziness of Bangkok.
Talk to you all soon.
Love,
Heather and Leanna
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