..17.. angkor wat

the most arduous journey of my life so far began yesterday morning at 5am. we boarded a bus in bankok to head to siem reap, near the famous ankor wat in cambodia. one rest stop had a starfruit tree and amy and i climbed it and grabbed some fruit - yum! arriving at the cambodian border around noon, we stood in a very long line while hungry children (whose families lived on blankets on the bank of a river of trash near the border) begged for food and money. we then proceeded to get ripped off for a cambodian visa, and then ripped off at the bank when we exchanged money - it's a crazy experience to be in a place where the government officials are so openly corrupt. we then boarded a bus with approximately wooden seats and started on the journey to ankor wat. we had been warned that roads were bad, but there simply aren't words for the joke of a road we journeyed on for nearly 10 hours. there's no way we averaged more than 3 miles per hour, and even as the bus slowly picked its way along the washed-out roads, it bucked us all from our seats continuously. the shock absorber that was my spine sitting on a hard seat has seen better days :) many buses were stuck in the mud or broken down - we were lucky to get through unscathed. the land along the way was beautiful - seas of perfectly flat, refreshing green rice paddies reached in every direction, contrasted by the red mud road. there were occasional stilted straw huts along the road, which looked like a kid's dream tree-house - very basic. it was quite a contrast upon entering the siem reap area, where the rice paddies and straw huts immediately turned to luxurious hotels and manicured gardens - was there another border crossing i missed?

ankor wat itself is incredible - like a cultural yosemite, you can bike around the main road and see some great sights. by parking the bike and venturing into some of these 11th century temples, you can explore the filmsites of Two Brothers and Tomb Raider :)