SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA. WEDNESDAY APRIL 7 2010, 2200 HRS. DAY 10.
Temperature approximately 40 °C. Writing at a guesthouse room without air conditioning.

If possible, today it was even hotter than yesterday… hmm, interesting how you kinda loose your appetite if the temperature gets hotter than hell. I'm just drinking (also water) all day long and sweating it all out immediately. The locals say it's too hot for them also, and that these weeks are the hottest of the year. But I like it, and as a certain song says: "let's turn up the heat, let eternity begin!" Good weather to get a tan, and even better weather to get seriously sunburnt… let's see if I've finally learned how NOT to manage to do that.

Last Monday evening I went to see Muay Thai at the Ratchadamnoen Stadium in Bangkok, and it turned out to be quite an experience... on the previous day all the fights were cancelled due to the protesting right in front of the stadium. But I was lucky enough to get a V.I.P. ringside ticket on my last evening in Bangkok (I'm still returning there for the flight to Kolkata, but anyway). Before the main event I went inside the actual protest area and took some nice photos and walked around. Then I went through the protesters and the riot police and finally I saw some real Muay Thai. The fights are highly ritualized, and during the match the fighters move in the rhythm of the hypnotic music. And let me tell you, Muay Thai fighters seem to be carved out of bamboo wood - their stamina is just unbelievable.

Tuesday morning I woke up late (too much beer) and almost lost the bus which was leaving for the border of Cambodia, but after Running Wild again, I managed to catch the bus. All in all, I had a really great week in Thailand, and even as a tourist in a big city I got to know some traditional customs and saw a glimpse of the Thai way of thinking, thanks to the nice Thai people (and especially my friend Mod, cop khun kráp!) Thailand kicks ass!

Before the border I had my first experience with the Asian toilet… I really would have preferred to try it out first without a hangover and without the bus waiting for me outside in a hurry. Everything at the border went smoothly even though it was a bit warm there (39 °C) and in the afternoon I arrived to Siem Reap.

The Cambodian people are amazingly kind and friendly, everywhere little kids and their parents are smiling, saying hello and waving their hands to me. The atmosphere in the marketplaces of Siem Reap is very exotic, even though the prices seem even more expensive than in Thailand, to my suprise.

With some local help from Em, I learned the basic greetings in Khmer language and how to tie a krama, the Cambodian scarf (sorry to all of you who always say I shouldn't wear a bandana, a heat index of 44 °C is a good enough excuse for a bald guy to dress up like Jack Sparrow hahah!).

In two days in Cambodia I've seen some contrasts so huge, that after Siem Reap and my next destination, Phnom Penh, I really want to get away from big cities and as far away as possible from other Western people. So hopefully this will be the last night for a while which I'll spend in a hotel room with my own shower and other comforts, I want to go more ascetic. But this is also due to the fact that I really, really have to start lowering down my daily budget.