adventures in Cambodia

Last week we set off for Cambodia (after our failed attempt to go to Loas). Because our plans changed at the last minute we bussed it a few hour th Chang Rai to tried to catch a plane to Bangkok and get to Cambodia from there...all flight were full...so our adventure began! Later that day we took a 12 hour bus ride to Bangkok...a VIP bus ;) It was actually really nice! Equivalent to first class seats on a plane with service the whole way...not so bad. 24 hour of traveling then turned into 36 as we hopped on another 5 hour (basic) bus ride to the Cambodia border. Getting our visa's and crossing the border was quite an process, but eventually we made it to a taxi to get us to our destination...160 kilometers (about 100 miles) took close to 7 hours on a dirt (mud) road. At one point trucks were getting stuck in the mud everywhere and the bottle necked road was similar to I-5 in rush hour, but in mud, the middle of nowhere, in a torrential downpour. it was quite a ride! Eventually we got to Siem Reap to our nice little 6 dollar a night hotel...woo wee, that shower, beer and steak hit the spot! The next day we explored the Angkor Wat ruins...amazing temples dating back over 1000 years. It was a wonderful day, but with little more to see in that town we decided to take a different rout out of cambodia and booked a boat south for the morning. Our mini bus (8 passenger van crammed with 16 people) picked us up at 5:30 am and off we went to the boat...another great adventure! The boat was over booked, so as some of the last ones on, we sat up on the roof with a few others as well...turned out to be a fun group! The ten or so of us baked in the sun the whole 7 1/2 hours having a great time, while the 25 or so other in the seats below sat quietly reading or sleeping...comfortably and much cooler, but they hardly had the adventure we did :)
As the boat chuged slowly through the heavy brushed swamps we dodged branches while waving at the locals who lived sporadically on the water in little floating shacks. We made a pit stop at a floating restaurant, bought some beer and shared out travel stories with the others (from Australia, Japan, Canada, England, and France)...we had a nice (very hot!) ride waving at the local kids the whole way...they were so excited to see a boat of white people come through they all waved so excitedly...They were SO SWEET! (Our arms were tired after nearly 8 hours of waving...I kind of felt like the rose princess)
Our adventure continued in a taxi to the Thai boarder...this time 2 hours. The road was paved most of the way. But then it was like we were in a twilight zone...We ended up at the same boarder! We spent 10 hours traveling south to cross over the boarder toward the Thai beaches (our destination) and our non-english taxi driver drove us back up north. After a nights rest we headed south in thailand...we made it to the island of Koh Chang by dinner and we've been chillin on the beach ever since! It's really beautiful here!... Gorgeous white sand beaches lines with coconut palms and crystal clear water. It's pretty laid back and not a lot of people, but a few bars along the beach with fire dancers every night... fun ;) Our plan is to head over to another island in a couple days to do more of the same for our last week. ;)