Cambodia Part 1

I found myself off on another adventure by myself! I actually found out with more than one days notice, that we had a 4 day weekend because of two days off for a Thai holiday. I almost didn't go because of my ear situation, but I felt good enough so I thought I'd venture off! My adventure started by heading to Bangkok after school, staying the night there and getting up at about 4AM so I could make it to the bus station to catch the earlier bus to the Thailand/Cambodia border. I got a bit nervous when the bus pulled over and stopped and a policeman got on the bus and I saw everyone rummaging through their things. I came to realize he was checking passports and ID's. I'm not sure what happened, but one man got kicked off the bus! This happened two more times before we made it to the border.

I enjoyed this picture of the "old school" lawn mower!

This border situation was 100 times easier than when I went to Laos. I had a very nice man help me from the beginning. He took me over to where I needed to go to apply for my Cambodian visa, where I then waited 15 minutes and was led to where I would exit Thailand and enter Cambodia. Unfortunately I got given some news I wasn't expecting and didn't want to hear! That the Thailand visa I had was not a 1 year like I thought, but only a 3 month and that when I would come back over I would only get a 15 day stamp! I'm not sure why I have to get all the good luck! This nice man also got me a taxi ride to Siem Reap. Before we parted ways and I was off in my taxi, the man asked for a tip! OF COURSE! People aren't nice to you for free these days!

This is a picture of the entrance to the Cambodian border.

While I was waiting for my taxi I was constantly impressed by the huge loads the locals were hauling. They do not mess around! That is a whole lot of buckets!

On our ride to Siem Reap, I happened to notice that we were back to driving on the right side of the road. Then I noticed something even more interesting....that the steering wheel of the car I was in was on the right side! I noticed it when we started passing people because our driver would have to get really far over and almost look over in front of me to see if traffic was coming.  I came to realize that when you are passing someone, most of the time you just go, even if a car is coming...because that car just moves over, so you have 3 cars side by side when passing! It was not a very comforting feeling!After obseving many cars, I noticed that some cars had the steering wheel on the left, like back home. I gauged it was about half and half, with steering wheels on the left and right. I'm not sure how that is legal!

I finally made it to Siem Reap and decided it was too late to try to go to the Angkor Wat ruins, so I just explored the town and had an early night so I could get up early with the birds!

I was looking forward to renting a motorbike, but found out that you have to get a tuk tuk driver or bicycle. Unfrotunately I didn't have time to bicycle, so I hired Tong to be my driver for 2 days!

Here are the first of the Angkor Wat ruins, which were built in the 12th century and are the single largest religious monument in the world. 

8 hands are better than 2 don't you think?

Here are some nuns and monks having lunch, with little boys holding umbrellas to shade them.

Angkor Thom

Sometimes the doors seemed to go on forever...

It was a hot and sweaty day walking around the ruins for 6 hours!

Some of the detail in the stone was fascinating and beautiful.

I wanted to know what all these people were doing...and what the meaning was behind it!

The entrance to Angkor Thom.