Monday, September 17, 2012

Cambodia

With all the crazy drivers and seeing a tour bus on its side in a ditch, we were very grateful to have made it safely to the Thai/Cambodia border.  The process at the border took us about 1+ hours of waiting in line to both exit Thailand, and enter Cambodia.  I was relieved to see our driver who unfortunately had been waiting for us for hours.  I felt bad, but they said they are used to waiting for their clients.  We were then escorted onto a bus that was about a 10 minute ride to a bus station where people can meet up again with their hired drivers.  I found out if you hire a driver, that they cannot take their own vehicle to the Cambodian border and park.  Below is a small video I took on our bus ride.  Its hilarious if you can view it.


The scenery in Cambodia was nice and rural.   It took about 2 hours along the countryside to drive from the border to where we were staying in Siem Reap.  We stayed in a nice hotel that had very nice rooms, a great pool, excellent customer service and a superb breakfast buffet each morning.


Angkor Wat.


We decided to hire a guide and driver for our 1 day to Angkor Wat.  The one day pass to Angkor Wat is $20 for adults, and kids 11 and under were free.  The temples were spectacular.  We went to Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm and to Angkor Thom.  There is so much history and the places are so old its hard to fathom, but having a guide to explain things to us was nice.  The pictures we took don't even do these temples justice.  Although it was scorching hot and humid, I think we all mostly enjoyed ourselves.

'Tomb Raider''at Ta Prohm.
"Faces" in Angkor Thom.
The day after going to Angkor Wat, we hired our guide again and he took us on a Tuk Tuk tour around Siem Reap.  He took us to an indoor market, to a Silk Farm, to one of the small 'Killing Fields', and to Cambodian Village. This day was busy and hot.  Unfortunately, Danton started feeling sick at Cambodian Village, so we cut our tour short.  We think it was the flu, because Justin also ended up with similar symptoms a couple days later.  Overall, Cambodian was full of very sweet people, good food, and a good time.

Silk
Performers at Cambodian Village

You can become a monk at age 10.
Killing Fields Monument.

Petrol is being sold on the side of the road.  It is very expensive.
We even saw a family of 4 on the same bike.

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