One of the other volunteers and I started talking about making a trip to Cambodia way back during training. We knew that it would be in October because that is when the schools go on midterm break. At the time, it felt like October was a lifetime away & it is so hard to believe that I just returned from the trip that we were planning.
I left my site Sunday evening…taking a 7:30 pm bus into Bangkok. The night bus is not that bad (usually extremely cold though). I took a VIP bus so that meant that I sat by myself & slept the entire way. We arrived in Bangkok at 5:00 and I met Kerry (a volunteer from down South). We got on the 6:00 bus to Aranyapratet (the border town). On the way, the bus stopped at the site where we had our training & we picked up Melanie & Maria (they had stopped to visit their host families).
We arrived at the border around 12:00 and had to take a songtao from the bus station to the border. We first had to purchase a visa then we were ready to cross into Cambodia. It was a little confusing because there weren’t a lot of signs to direct you but we eventually found the “departure” building where we had to go through customs. After we “left” Thailand, we were again a little confused as to where to go. There was a huge gate that you crossed under to enter Cambodia
& then there were a bunch of casinos…so we thought that we were actually in Cambodia. We even stopped at one of the casinos to ask how to get to Siam Reap (the city by Angkor Wat). We eventually realized that we had to officially “arrive” in Cambodia which meant standing in another line & going through Cambodian customs. Once finished, a bus took us to a little taxi shop & we hired a taxi to take us to Siam Reap.
Now I had heard stories about the road from the border to Siam Reap, but I didn’t really believe them until I was actually on the road. You see, the entire 4 hour trip is on a dirt road…one continuous pot-hole! And then it rained…
At one point there was a complete road block…huge trucks were parked any which way on the road. I don’t know what happened, but you could tell that those trucks would not be moving for quite some time. So we took a detour. I only wish that I could have gotten some pictures of this road. We were seriously off-roading in a taxi! There were mud slicks that I didn’t think we would make it through…and did I mention that it was one lane? That meant that we had to take turns with oncoming traffic. We did get to see some interesting sights
(there are actually pigs in that tube!)
(I THINK this pig was dead but I'm not sure because it was foaming at the mouth)
and at one time we had to cross a “toll bridge.” There were a whole bunch of guys surrounding this small wood bridge (back home I would be scared to WALK across the bridge) and some of them were standing in the middle of the road at the end of the bridge. As we crossed, the driver rolled down his window a few inches and threw out some money so the guys would let us cross.
We finally got back onto the main road & I don’t think our driver let off the horn once for the rest of the drive! Four hours of constant bumps and unending honking is bound to get on one’s nerves. When we got to Siam Reap, the driver dropped us off at a tuk-tuk stop (a tuk-tuk is basically a little cart that is pulled by a motorcycle…it usually seats about 2 people but we have crammed 6 people in one before…they’re pretty comfortable & a lot of fun) and we took tuk-tuks to our guest house. The drivers were very nice and we ended up hiring them to take us on a sunrise tour of Angkor Wat the next morning. We checked in and then walked down the street to a gas station to get money. Now usually a stop at a gas station would not be exciting enough to write about, but they had food that I have not seen in 10 months…salt & vinegar chips, Pepperidge Farm cookies, Aquafina water…it almost made me cry! We ate a quick dinner at a little restaurant near our guesthouse (I had a pizza) and then we went to bed (we had to meet the tuk-tuk at 5:00 am after all).
We woke up bright and early the next morning (4:00 am to be exact) and met the tuk-tuks in front of the guesthouse. I came to a realization on the ride from the guesthouse to the temple…Thai drivers are not that bad compared to Cambodian drivers. I don’t think that our tuk-tuk driver stopped for one red light (and there were plenty of them let me tell you). We stopped at one point to purchase our ticket to get into the temple ($20) and then we were off again. The tuk-tuk stopped at a little clearing and we had to cross a bridge and make a little trek to get to a good viewing spot (and all in the dark).
(this pic was actually taken on the way back to the tuk-tuk)
There were a whole bunch of tourists doing the same thing we were & it was so hard being patient waiting for the sun to rise. I kept taking pictures that turned out completely black because there was not enough light. But eventually…
When it was finally light enough, we decided to explore the temple. It was really cool because you could actually go inside it and do some exploring.
The murals on the walls were amazing. I can only imagine what they looked like thousands of years ago!
When we finally finished exploring the Wat, we decided it was time for breakfast. We saw some vendors along the side of a walk-way so we ventured over to see if they had anything to eat. As we were walking over, we noticed some monkeys in a tree.
As soon as we got near the vendors, we were accosted by little kids trying to sell us postcards for $1 (I should explain that Cambodians mainly use the US dollar but do not use the coins…instead they use the reol…so you could had someone $5 to pay for something that was $1.50 and you would get $3.00 plus about 2000 reol…makes things pretty confusing). They spoke EXCELLENT English! One little boy asked us where we cam from & when we told him America, he told us that he capital was Washington DC. He then asked us what State we were from and Maria told him Washington. He mispronounced the word “Olympia” but came pretty close. Then Kerry asked him what the capital of Massachusetts was and he told her “that he didn’t know but that he never told her that he DID know and that he wasn’t talking to her anyway!” It was so great to be around kids that aren’t afraid to talk to you!
When we finished with breakfast, we went back to the tuk-tuk to head to another temple.
(End Part 1)
No comments:
Post a Comment