Cambodia and beyond

Angkor Wat at sunset
Originally uploaded by camandkristin.

On the road again, just can't wait to get on the road again... The bad thing about travelling is, well, travelling. Especially in places like Cambodia where it seems they aren't in a rush to get anywhere, ever.

Anyway, going back. We spent two more weeks with my parents, mostly bumming around on beaches and enjoying the best of Thailand. We used Krabi as our base, and spent a few days checking out the beaches on the Andaman sea, including East and West Rai Leh beaches (a popular spot for climbers due to the seemingly endless peaks of limestone that jut out of the
ocean), Maya beach (from "The Beach", which was far too crowded and far too small to be enjoyable), Phi Phi islands (some of the worst hit areas by the tsunami, although now you can
almost not tell there was damage done), and a bunch of other little bits of white sand paradise. We decided then to head to the Gulf of Thailand to explore some islands there. We spent an entire day of travel- truck, bus, bus, ferry, truck, but made it to a guest house on Ko Pha Ngan late at night not knowing what to expect, or how much we were going to be paying. After 20 minutes bouncing around in the back of a pickup, over some of the worst roads we've seen, we arrived and saw that we were about 100m above the ocean- not the beachfront paradise we were hoping for. But- our luck held out and we proceeded to walk down a staircase in the jungle, and found our bungalows only feet from the ocean, and all for the low low price of $10 per night. But no electricity during the day. Or hot water, ever. And the nearest town
was 30 minutes away, across two mountain ranges. And there were coconut snakes in our hammock. But it was paradise, for sure. We stayed there for 5 nights, wiling away the day reading, sleeping, swimming, eating. Rinse and repeat :) One day we rented motorbikes and headed off to a beach recommended to us by our host. We read later in the guidebook that the road "should not be attempted on motorbike". Oh. We managed it mostly unevenfully. Mostly ;)

Eventually we had to leave our sanctuary for the long road back to Bangkok, and Mum and Dad's even longer road back home. We topped off their trip with an overnight train, without a/c, and without the comforts of cleanliness. They sure worked for their trip- and I'm sure they were glad to get home, where they probably won't eat peanut butter and bread for a very long time...

Once we parted ways with my parents, we spent a night in Bangkok's backpackers ghetto- Khao San Road. This place has everything a backpacker could ever need, which happens to be
convenient for arranging trips out. We were on our way to Cambodia, so took the day to get our laundry done, book our bus, get passport photos for our visas, and get enough money together. There are no ATMs in Cambodia, which seems to make every white person there a walking target as they must have enough money with them to last their stay... Anyway, the
next day we made our way across the border, and by 7pm were in our 8th country of the trip.

Our first stop in Cambodia was Phnom Penh where we sped through the sights of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, the Killing Fields, and the Royal Palace. Cambodia is a gorgeous country, any where outside of the cities- but Phnom Penh is nothing to write home about, and we were glad to leave. It's hard to believe, though, that the entire city was deserted only 25 years ago when the Khmer Rouge were wreaking havok on the country.

From there we headed north to Siem Reap, destination: The Temples of Angkor. Although it wasn't somewhere we had originally planned on coming, we don't doubt it will be one of the
most spectacular sights of our entire trip. It's hard to explain the magnitude of the place- we spent 3 days looking at temples, some of which are over 1000 years old. Many are being reclaimed by the jungle, and many (like the most well known, Angkor Wat) have been restored and are being protected against the forces of nature. We saw over 15 different temples and they are all unique and amazing in their own way. Temples aren't normally "our thing", but this place is the cream of the crop. Cam took upwards of 400 photos!

Today is our last day in siem Reap, and tomorrow we will head back to Bangkok in what we expect to be another long, hot, painful trip over Cambodian roads. From there we will head to the beach, and spend a few days recovering before we are joined by our second group of visitors. Adam and Reanna are flying in to meet us and spend 3 weeks travelling with us-
they will be here when we cross our halfway point, and we can't wait to see them! Anybody else interested in a visit?!

Bye for now,
Kristin and Cam