Thailand: Cambodia Adventure

After approximately 1 or 2 hours of sleep (I can't remember) we were up and ready to take on Thailand. Well actually, we were headed to the neighboring country of Cambodia!! We headed downstairs and waited until our bus picked us up. We thought we were getting on a real bus, but really we just got crammed into a "mini bus," and boy was it mini. Luckily I scored a seat by Nate, instead of Lindsey who scored a seat in between a 40 year old man in a midlife crisis and his 17 year old son, and Hailey sat next to an unclean looking English girl who snored. I was definitely happy about my location. Plus Nate is the biggest gentleman and let me lay all over his lap to catch some shut eye. He loved every second of it, I'm sure. The drive was about 4 hours to the border, an hour at the border, and then another 2 hours to Siem Reap, our final destination. I'm pretty sure we could have gotten there quicker if our bus driver hadn't taken an hour to get out of Bangkok (I think we were driving in circles) and hadn't stopped for food and gas-what felt like a million times. One time, only he was able to get out. So rude. 

Hailey picked out this gem at 7 eleven (which let me tell you--7 eleven is everywhere in Thailand. It's crazy. And every shop has 7 eleven shirts you can buy...and so many people wear them. Like it's this super awesome place, which it is...but still) They were the grossest thing ever. Ham and cheese sandwich. In chip form. Yep, they tasted exactly how they sound. Delightful!! NOT.

Finally we made it to the border. These were our mini buses. So delightful. After filling out paperwork and like $30 later we were in CAMBODIA!! Our new "friends" convinced us to pay just a little bit more money and got us a taxi to our hotel in Siem Reap. We were willing to do anything to get off that mini bus so we agreed, and I think we are still happy about the switch.

These were our Cambodian boyfriends. Meanrath and Toy. We loved them. But they loved us more. 

So happy to be in a taxi!

We traded our money to Riel...we felt rich, since the conversion was 4100 to 1. Too bad it spent veryyy quickly. We probably would have been better off keeping our American cash. Hind-site is 20/20

The cutest little Cambodian beggar girl. I loved her.

We bought bracelets from these girls for "one dollar, one dollar" but we didn't have much of a choice :)

When we got to the hotel first thing we did was shower. Thank heaven. Then we were off in our personal tuk tuk's to get dinner. We didn't really realize we had gotten personal tuk tuk's until it was too late. They seriously just stayed with us the whole time we were in Cambodia, taking us anywhere and everywhere we desired. And being the idiots we are, we never asked "how much?" duhhhhh. We just went with it. Until later we realized hmmm maybe we should ask about this service that we have been thoroughly enjoying. Luke (our hotel friend) avoided the question until the end of our stay. Go figure. It was $100 US dollars!! haha. We totally got ripped off! (Only $25 each between the 4 of us for 2 days...but in Cambodia...that's a lot) But by that time we were so delirious to even care. We just laughed and paid. But we sure did enjoy our drivers. And especially their friendships. Even though technically I guess we were just paying for friends. Whatever. haha.

Dinners in Cambodia and Thailand at restaurants were approximately $20 for the 4 of us. Not bad. 

After dinner, we all got massages again. It was delightful. Until Nate's girl accidentally felt something. And screeched. It was hilarious. (we were all in the same room)

Then it was off to bed because our day was starting bright and early at 5 am to watch the sunset at Angkor Wat, the main reason for our journey to Cambodia.

Don't know what Angkor Wat is? Don't worry, I didn't either.

Angkor Wat is a collections of temples, built by the Khmer civilization between 802 and 1220 AD, and represents one of humankind's most astonishing and enduring architectural achievements. From Angkor the Khmer kings ruled over a vast domain that reached from Vietnam to China to the Bay of Bengal. The structures one sees at Angkor today, more than 100 stone temples in all, are the surviving remains of a grand religious, social and administrative metropolis whose other buildings - palaces, public buildings, and houses - were built of wood and have long since decayed and disappeared. 

I had heard that it was the eighth wonder of the world. I always thought there were just seven, but I googled it and multiple websites have said it. Who knows. All I know is that it is beautiful and I'm so happy I went :)

On our Tuk Tuk, on our way to Angkor Wat at 5 am

Simply amazing....right??

These are our engagement pictures with Nate. He had three beautiful girls lusting after him the whole trip. What a poor guy. :)

  

Then we decided to be animals. Don't ask.

Super awesome circle rainbow

Breakfast with Ala and Nok-Our personal Tuk Tuk drivers

 “Ta Prohm” is one of the temples in Angkor Wat, but it was later renamed the "Angelina Jolie Temple." Why? Because that is where "Tomb Raider" was filmed. And where Angelina fell in love with the Cambodian people. And the reason behind her donating so much money to help the circumstances there. And why she decided to adopt a little Cambodian boy from an orphanage in the Siem Reap province. Yep, she has done a lot for these people. And I can see why. It was such a humbling experience seeing how they live. Houses are literally made of sticks. Children run around naked and barefoot. And they are cute as can be. Life over there is so simple. But you can tell they are so happy. I absolutely loved it. 

We loved the Angelina Jolie Temple

I'm a little bit ashamed that not only had I never heard of Angkor Wat, I really didn't know much about Cambodia or it's history at all. On our mini bus ride to the country, the other passengers were talking a little bit about the holocaust type regime they had over there in the 70's. I seriously had no idea so I read up on it a little bit in the bus. None of us did, actually. Anyways, while there I decided (thanks to some beggar children, again) to buy this book. I am really glad I did. I am not too far into it yet, but it is really good. I'm not much of a reader, but I love these kinds of books. I highly recommend it (so far). It's about a 5 year old girl who survived the Pol Pot regime. Pol Pot became leader of Cambodia in mid-1975. During his time in power he imposed a version of agrarian socialism, forcing urban dwellers to relocate to the countryside to work in collective farms and forced labor projects, toward a goal of "restarting civilization" in "Year Zero" The combined effects of forced labor, malnutrition, poor medical care and executions resulted in the deaths of approximately 21 percent of the Cambodian population. In all, an estimated 1,700,000–2,500,000 people died under his leadership. It especially hit home when we were talking to our new "friend" (and tuk tuk driver) Ala about it. He had mentioned something about Pol Put so I asked him how it had affected him. He told me that his father had been killed becasue of him. At first I was kind of confused because he is only 25 years old and that happened over 30 years ago....but he said that his dad worked in the mine's and one of them blew up while he was there. And because of Pol Put, all the doctors had been killed, so there was no one to save him. Ala was three when this happened. I seriously was so touched. We here about the holocaust and Nazi Germany, but all of that feels like it happened so long ago. But to sit here and see this poor kid who had been immediately affected by this really hit home with me. It was a really neat experience.

After visiting a few temples, we were hot and ready to do something new. Remember, we were up and 5 am? Being up that early sure makes for a long day! Luke had told us about a lake we could swim at. So we ate some lunch and were off to the lake. It was about a 40 min tuk tuk ride through the town and it started to downpour the whole ride. It was freezing. But I was so distracted by the awesome things we saw. The houses were like nothing I had ever seen. Even more desolate than the houses I saw in China--and that's saying a lot. It was raining so hard that we didn't really get pictures, but I seriously wish we had. None of these pictures are of the houses really. 

Once we got to the lake, we were told that it was an $80 boat ride to get to where you can swim. No thank you. So we just told them to take us back. Back through the rain. And back through the town. Oh well. But it was still totally worth it :)

That night we just walked around town and ate some super yummy gelato. It was really fun, actually. 

Luke had offered to take us in his car to a Cambodian kids dance show. We were really excited about it. But then it was cancelled. Boo. Ala told us that Luke is rich because he has a car. Then when we saw that he had karaoke IN his car, we knew he was rich! And probably thanks to us. hahaha. jk.

Luke, Me and Lindsey

Lindsey was obsessed with trying to buy something for 100 reil. (The equivalent of .02 cents) haha. I won the bet with getting a local to give me a piggy back ride! haha

Hailey and Luke...This was right after she sold him her iPhone for $160. haha. In return he also gave her his sweet Nokia. We also think he looks like a bobble head next to Hailey. haha.

This was the Fourth of July in Cambodia's time zone. We all wore red white and blue to celebrate. We are so patriotic!! :)

Luke and our hotel: No Problem Villa hahaha

Luke also convinced us to take a taxi out of Cambodia (which wasn't hard to do) and then to also get a PRIVATE mini bus back to Bangkok. We are suckers haha. But it really wasn't that much. I think part of it was even included in the iPhone deal. But our private transportation really was getting expensive. (In comparison to what it could have been) I think our mini bus to Cambodia was 400 baut ($13) and the private bus was like 600 baut ($20) hahah.

Boy was our taxi drive out of Cambodia interesting though! Our driver was hecka cool and knew a decent amount of English. There's only one road and it's all dirt. And cars pass each other like crazy. There really is just a lot of swerving and stuff. I'm kind of surprised we weren't killed. Actually we almost were. A guy on a moped didn't look before crossing the street and Bam we swerved so hard to not hit him and we slid on the gravel and came literally within an inch of smacking the shiz out of him. Going 60 miles. It was so scary that I yelled "Holy shit we almost killed a Cambodian!" So scared. And so real. Don't judge me for my profanity. I almost did kill a Cambodian. Top of the line stress right there. But luckily we didn't kill anyone....actually we did. Less than 10 minutes later, a dog ran into the road and we totally killed the crap out of him. It was actually really really really sad. And that, my friends was a great ending to our Cambodian adventure. (Not really, but it definitely added to our adventure, I must say)

Poor Dog

Back at the border....we met back up with our Cambodian boyfriends. Except the innocent flirting we did at the border two days prior, all of a sudden became a little bit more real for the boys. Toy especially. He reallt really liked me now, apparently. And wants me to move to Cambodia. I got a little nervous when he kept hugging me and trying to kiss me. And i got offended when I heard he was married. I even called his wife. He claimed it was his sister. And I kind of believed him. But it was still a riot. Oh Cambodia. How we love you so.

Nate giving a guy iTunes lessons. haha

Toy and Nate

Toy Nate and Me. Nate has a hilarious video of Toy telling me he likes me and me asking about his wife. Good times.

I think we left our hearts in Cambodia.

We sure loved that place.

And we will return one day.

Mark. My. Words.

<3