Cambodia

We made it. In a rather hot internet cafe right now (11pm), which is unfortunate because I just showered. We are staying in Popular Guest House, Siem Reap, Cambodia, for the next 4 nights; the Angkor Wat temple complex is just a few kilometers away. The girls are upstairs, showering themselves.

Yesterday was very hectic. Today was slow, but oddly far more stressful. Heading to unknown territory will do that. Approaching a border crossing after reading the 4 entire pages in your Lonely Planet guidebook about how you are about to be scammed, misguided, and generally taken advantage of will also do that to you.

We spent last night in Siam Square, a happening, modern part of town; breakfasted with banana smoothies and took the Skytrain then taxi to the bus station. With relative ease (compared to the zoo that was yesterday in the bus terminal. Anna or Sam will have to write about that soon) we purchased our bus to Aranyaprathet, Thailand. Bus was 212B (or like 6.50), and a good 4 hours. Upon arrival, we stuck to our Lonely Planet guns, avoided the official looking Thais offering to stamp our passports, got our passports stamped by real officials*, fended off the Tuk tuk drivers, and walked on foot to Cambodia. After around 5 minutes our motley group of foreigners arrived at the border. Once there we were ushered along by Cambodia security, who disconcertingly didn't look all that official. But we filled out some paperwork indicating we were healthy, submitted it, and moved on to get our visa (moving from one dilapidated building to another, none of which look particularly governmental).
*and here confirmed my new passport works!

At the visa desk, the girls paid the expected $20 plus 200B because they didn't have any photos to attach to their application. Did they then get their photos taken? Nope.
I then approach the desk. I whip out my passport, completed form, and a photo. $20 and 100B, they say. I point to the sign above the desk indicating $20 for a tourist visa, and hand him everything with the twenty but no Baht. A brief back and forth ensues, I hold my ground, and he finally just slides my paperwork to the side of the counter.
Alrighty, I'll play ball; I hand him a 100B note, he smiles and takes my paperwork, and a few minutes later I had my visa and was on my, having successfully bribed my way into Cambodia.

We took the free shuttle to the bus station (actually not a scam, as Lonely Planet warned us), warded off the active bus agents, and grabbed a famished lunch (nearly 3). After lunch we tried to shake the bus operators and hail a taxi, but they followed us out of the station and on to the street. A friendly Korean has told me he paid $25 for his ride to Siem Reap, but with the intimidation of the bus officials we couldn't negotiate w/ the taxi driver and settled for $30 for the 160km (I think) ride to Siem Reap. We watched the taxi driver hand the bus dude cash once we got in the car. Anna was furious we were so blatently taken advantage of, but hey, what's a few extra dollars if it gets you where you need to go.

Cambodia is far more 3rd world than Thailand (though the part of Siem Reap where we are is happening). Driving is also more frightening. My motorcycle drive through downtown Bangkok was exhilarating, but at least in Thailand the chaos is organized chaos, and the even if the de facto rules of the road are crazy and illegal, at least you get the impression everyone is on the same page. Much less of that here. I sat up front w/ the cabbie (back to right-handed drive here, as a former French colony), and it was stressful at times. The road was never more than 2 lanes with no median, but boy did it have lots of lanes. We say at one point 3 motorcycles and 2 bikes abrest, in a single lane. The shoulders are used as the slow lane, for all the bikes, tractors, and trucks. Sadly the herd of cows we weaved through didn't really obey this rule. The center of the road was for passing, and we did lots of it. Our cabbie honked often. Often. Never really figured out why. Perhaps to signal he was passing cars and bikes (so said Lonely Planet), which looked reasonable but there wasn't a clear pattern. He also aggressively used his turn signal, which was odd because I'm not sure if we ever turned once we left Poi Pet.

Upon arrival we snagged a free tuk tuk into the city, avoided his favorite hostel, booked one here, ate a sumptuous dinner (I had amok, a traditional Khmer (Cambodian) dish; it was basically yet another type of curry, or goop on rice as I like to call it. Deeelicious, and at a nice sit down restaurant I paid the high price of $3, plus $1.50 for 1.5L of water), went to another restaurant solely for sticky rice and mango (win), went shopping at the night market, where I bought elephant pants and a dorky straw hat (double win), and back to the hostel for the night.

8am departure w/ our guide and tuk tuk tomorrow. The AC here is not working. Goodnight.