We made it to Siem Reap, Cambodia

Well, we made it to Cambodia! We left at 7am on Saturday, and arrived in Siem Reap by 7pm on Saturday.

The trip was exhausting. The road from Thailand to Cambodia was paved only in parts, and was filled with cows, bicyles, various home made machines, and motorbikes. We rode in the upgraded "taxi"option to Siem Reap, which cost $15 a person (a lot) but saved us 3 hours of transit. And, all the times they say are wrong, so it probably saved us 5 hours. Apparently this road is much better than it was in the past, as they were working on paving it (while we were driving on it). Every 10 minutes or so we would have to avoid a new part of the paving process by swerving out of the way of the machines and workers. The driver kept his hand on the horn, honking at every single bicylist and moto that we passed. This meant literally that he honked the entire drive.

We got through immigration with no problems. Since we already taken passport photos, we did not have to pay the $2 required to bribe the officials not to worry about the fact that you don't have photos. We also paid $1 to "expedite" the processing of our visa, which i was more than happy to pay.

In Cambodia, everything is priced in US dollars, but when you pay, you get anything less than $1 back in their local currency, which is Riel. The ATMs dispense Riels. It seems to me like the local people pay in riel, and the foreigners pay in dollars. Today we went to a restaurant where there were no other foreigners, and the guy accidentily told us the price in reil, but then switched to dollars. The dollar price was about 1/3 more. However, in some places it is more.

We went to the temples of Angor Wat today and basically we were forced to eat lunch there. This is the #1 tourist attraction for hte whole country and basically the reason that everyone is here. So, the lunch menus were really pricey, all run by local people, for example, noodle soup = $4. I kept saying, too much, too much, and then they immediatlely dropped the price. Ok, special price for you lady, i give you discount. We got about a 50% discount on their menu prices, but it was still overpriced. You can't blame them, the people here are very poor and the surge of tourists represents something very far out of reach.

One more thing for now, it is HOT HOT HOT HOT here. I am not sure about the real temperature, but it feels about 100 at noon. I was seriously not built for this weather. I realize that I have traded one extreme for another. There is tons of dust in the air because of the dry season, and also lots of smoke because of the cooking methods, and the slash and burn agriculture. All the people on the road wear bandito masks over their noses and mouths to avoid the dust, chad and i have starting doing this as well. But, i am not going to let it bother me. I swear.