Happy Valentines Day from Siem Reap

SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA

4:00 am awake from a night of fickle sleep. the heavy night has worn away with the cool morning breeze. Soon I forsake the idea of further sleep and rise to prepare for the long day ahead. The alarm sounds from the other room and i hear the stumblings of slowly waking bodies. the light from the bathroom illuminates a dazed Mark sitting at the edge of his bed staring blankly and sadly at his off tv waiting to say goodbye. David stirs on the couch and rises. We say thank you very much goodbye and head towards the waking streets to catch a cab to the train station.

So begins our 12 hour journey from bangkok to Siem Reap.

The train, much regailed, turned out to be quite pleasent. As far as third class train rides go. We feared it would be quite crowded. We'd heard in fact from another foreigner who trave led the whole six hours standing. This morning everyone got their own seat. Or two if they so wished. We rumbled through the absent countryside. past farming communities and staggered trees. this was a joy in itself and much better than any aircon bus.

Around noon we arrived at the Cambodia border and crossed over into the filthiest most impoversihed armpit of a casino town i'd ever seen. the thais often come here to the border to gamble as it is illegal in thailand. we trudged glasseyed past the childbeggars tugging at our arms, the racketeers selling fake visas, the tuktuk drivers, and cops. we trudged all the way to the end of the line in spite of demands to stop and fill out forms. from what we've read we decided to trust no one at all.

you don't have a visa? ok 1000 baht.

we'll pay $20.

impossible.

so they sent us to sit down. then as we didn't budge they sent us back down the way we came to a little depot to speak with another official, behind him snoozed a government man asleep in a hammock. he told us the same. but his shiny ear to ear grin betrayed him. we told him we'd only pay the official $20. he told us to go back to the beginning to a building we had passed coming in. the on ewe thought was false. we thought we had set out on a kafka chase. through a maze of misdirections. a game of endurance till one party caved in. we exchanged wearied glances and decided it was best (or inevtable) to play along.

tourist visa - 20 USD

at last!

no no. old sign. new price. twenty five USD.

we managed, after some haggling, to get through for $47 for the two of us. and it only took two hours.

past the gates a swarm of taxi drivers motorbike drivers and tuktuk drivers buzzed around every entering party. we had met a couple sweded at immigration and they agreed to abandon their bus (after i told them about the infamous bangkok - siem reap scam) and join us in a taxi to the city.

we marched passed the initial throng and were found by the taxi mafia who took us aside to their lot of camrys and offered to take us there for $40. not too bad. we agreed and climbed in for the 4 hour dust cloud potholed spine-compressing ride that followed, weaving through the surprisingly thick traffic of bicycles motorbikes and cows.

by 530 we made it into the city of siem reap. that jumping off mat to the legendary ruined city of the ancients, angkor wat. we joked around with some tuktuk drivers who eventually conceded to take us to the guesthouse of our choice free of charge. we, ever unprepared, secured the last room at Garden Village Guesthouse, leaving our new swedish friends to find another place. Though i wonder if the bamboo walls and ceiling fan would be quite to their taste. i like the atmosphere so far. free internet a restaurant upstairs and $2 bike rentals. and its hard to beat the $4 a night price tag.

tomorrow we meet the sun at the gates of angkor. riding a tuktuk at 5am. booked $10 all day. with a bonus tip if it's especially good.

i haven't eaten but a couple of oreos all day. fearing an irritable bowel emergency aboard less then luxury transport. so i think i'll test the grub upstairs.