Cambodia (10-13 April)

Angkor What? It rises up out of the jungle.. It is something you can't even imagine building... It used to be a fortress where the people lived and worshiped and went about their daily lives. Whoa!

I was suitably impressed. I wandered around in the hot hot sun... I think it was about 100 degrees the day that I was there... I did have a nice little guy who drove me around on a motorcycle all day though. This was both exciting and scrary. He was a lot better driver than the guy I had in Vietnam, but still, there is something about going down a dirt road without a helmet on a bike meant for one person (you know, one of those little tiny ones...like a Honda 90). Anyway, for about 7 dollars, he would take me from place to place and wait for me to look around before taking me to the next one. He even got up at 4 in the morning with me so I could go and see the sunset. It was worth every penny.

Unfortuntaely, my stay in Cambodia was very short and so I only really had time to explore Angkor Wat and then high tail out of there so I could make in time to Thailand for Songkran, which is their New Years festival...I had a hard time getting out of the country, as what I did not know was that Cambodia also celebrates Songkran and all the busses are shut down for a 4 day period while they celebrate. Fortunately, I met a nice guy who was willing to share a cab with me to the border (a long, bumpy ride!), where we took a bus from the border to Bangkok. For some reason the busses WERE running in Thailand, thank god. We arrived in Bangkok and took a cab into the city, where we got drenched with water, as it is the tradition to soak everyone for 4 days straight.... What fun!