Our Journey to Cambodia

July 21 marked our journey to Cambodia! We woke up at 5:30am since our cab was meeting is at 6am to drive us to the Mochit bus station in Bangkok. We sleepily got to the bus station after 45minutes of heavy traffic... We were only 4km away at our hotel!

We ate delicate noodle soup for breakfast before getting on the bus. We had gone to bed late the night before, so we buckled up our seatbelts (we were at the front of the bus and a short stop would have launched us through the windshield) and slept. We were both rudely awakened by the smell of cigarette smoke. I originally thought someone must have tried smoking in the bathroom, but then realized our bus driver was smoking while he was driving. He was leaning out the window, unsuccessful at keeping the smoke outside of the bus. We dozed off again, stopping to pee at a rest stop before we neared the Cambodian border. We stopped a few kilometres away from the border were lunch was delivered to us. A man hopped on the bus as our bus drivers hopped out with Cambodia Visa applications. We filled them out, and the man asked for our passports just to verify them. We paid him about $50 each, and then he hopped off the bus saying he'd return them in about ten minutes. This is when Brad starting freaking out, as there are many horror stories with fake borders and stuff in Cambodia. Then our bus started driving away, our passports still not in hand. This is when Brad started really creaking out because he has researched you get your visa at the border for $30. I started looking up numbers for the Canadian Embassy, convinced we were screwed and our passports were gone forever. While we were driving closer and closer to the border, a man honked his motorbike, giving our passports back (with Visas inside) to our bus driver. Brad was so mad at himself for getting scammed he couldn't talk for an hour. I was just happy I wasn't stuck in Thailand forever.

We finally reached the border where we had to walk through and the bus would meet us on the other side. We first had to exit Thailand. We each waited for the person at the desk to call us up. We had to grab our exit slips we received when we entered Thailand. I found mine no problem... Judging by the lady yelling at Brad, I knew he did not have his. I waited inbetween Cambodia and Thailand for quite awhile, wondering if Brad was allowed to leave. Finally, he came through the doors and muttered something like, "Get your shit together Brad."

We exited into dust, oxen, wheelbarrows, casinos and chaos for about 500m until we reached Passport control. We got stamped and approved to enter Cambodia, then walked out. We hopped back on the bus and without anyone checking our passports, drove into Cambodia. We seriously could have exited Thailand and walked into Cambodia without anyone questioning us! So bizarre.

People drive on the left side of the road in Thailand and the right side in Cambodia. Our driver hurtled through single-lane highways for hours, with such dexterity that it made us shit our pants on more than one occasion. We reached the city of Siem Reap, our first destination, and then got off the bus. We were immediately attacked by tuktuk drivers saying they would give us a free ride to a hotel. We took one with a man named Koy, who actually found us a nice place for $25 a night. Saweetttt.
He wanted to take us to the temples in the morning. We said we'd see. He said he'd show up at 9:30.

Weirdly enough, even though the official currency is the riel... Everything is in American dollars. Everything. We went to a bank machine and it dispensed us American dollars. Nothing is in anything but American money!! I have no idea how this is possible, but it is happening!

We wandered through the old market, watching people hustle raw meat and various fruits around. We ate delicious Cambodian food, had a beer at Angkor What? on Pub Street, and then wandered through a night market.

Tomorrow: the Temples of Angkor!