Wednesday, December 27, 2006
20 December, 2006
Our private taxi was waiting for us at 7am as organized and we didn’t know what would happen today. We left for the Choam Singam border and it was a smooth beautiful ride to the border. He was a good driver and the road was surprisingly wonderful. All was going well and we now walked through the border. The Thai side was fine and then we arrived at the Cambodian side. We had to wait under the thatch for a few minutes for the chief to come and give us visas. That was all fine and brisk (apart from him trying his luck at extorting about $5 from each of us) and then we had to go and get the stamp. Well, I thought that they would not let me through the way they were analyzing my passport, from the seam to the cover and they were flipping through it madly. I eventually got it back in my paws and we walked through the dusty road to where, we were not sure. A taxi came by and we negotiated a rate to Anlong Veng, a town 13km from the border. The border was very quiet and I am not sure how long we would have waited for the next mode of transport to arrive. We ate breakfast / lunch in Anlong Veng at something that looked like a restaurant and from there we caught something called a ‘shared taxi’ to Siem Reap. This consisted of 6 other Cambodians excluding the driver + us all neatly packed into a Camry. It was an experience considering it was a dirt road the whole way, really bumpy and the driver was going fast. He did not slow down for anything. It felt like our bodies were going through the mill but it only lasted two hours- how disappointing (Ha Ha). There were a few remote villages along the way but very primitive. Thick, dense bush covered most of the terrain and even the cows were very scarce. We finally arrived in Siem Reap without breaking down and we were attacked by tuk-tuk drivers - our next mode of transport. We chose the calmest one and he drove us around until we found a hotel. It took a while but it was worth it because it was very good value for money and it was more of a resort. We chilled at the pool for about an hour and realized that we had actually made it to Siem Reap before midnight. Things went pretty smoothly looking back. We walked around the town and it was really fun. There were so many restaurants, a little market and some art galleries. The alleys were small and pretty and there was a lovely vibe in the town. We had a traditional Khmer lunch and dinner (Amok). This is a type of curry served in a leaf either with fish, chicken or beef. It was very good and the spices were great but it was quite rich. Many places had a happy hour going but we thought we would leave the bucket of vodka for tomorrow night since we had a long day in Angkor Wat ahead of us.
Our private taxi was waiting for us at 7am as organized and we didn’t know what would happen today. We left for the Choam Singam border and it was a smooth beautiful ride to the border. He was a good driver and the road was surprisingly wonderful. All was going well and we now walked through the border. The Thai side was fine and then we arrived at the Cambodian side. We had to wait under the thatch for a few minutes for the chief to come and give us visas. That was all fine and brisk (apart from him trying his luck at extorting about $5 from each of us) and then we had to go and get the stamp. Well, I thought that they would not let me through the way they were analyzing my passport, from the seam to the cover and they were flipping through it madly. I eventually got it back in my paws and we walked through the dusty road to where, we were not sure. A taxi came by and we negotiated a rate to Anlong Veng, a town 13km from the border. The border was very quiet and I am not sure how long we would have waited for the next mode of transport to arrive. We ate breakfast / lunch in Anlong Veng at something that looked like a restaurant and from there we caught something called a ‘shared taxi’ to Siem Reap. This consisted of 6 other Cambodians excluding the driver + us all neatly packed into a Camry. It was an experience considering it was a dirt road the whole way, really bumpy and the driver was going fast. He did not slow down for anything. It felt like our bodies were going through the mill but it only lasted two hours- how disappointing (Ha Ha). There were a few remote villages along the way but very primitive. Thick, dense bush covered most of the terrain and even the cows were very scarce. We finally arrived in Siem Reap without breaking down and we were attacked by tuk-tuk drivers - our next mode of transport. We chose the calmest one and he drove us around until we found a hotel. It took a while but it was worth it because it was very good value for money and it was more of a resort. We chilled at the pool for about an hour and realized that we had actually made it to Siem Reap before midnight. Things went pretty smoothly looking back. We walked around the town and it was really fun. There were so many restaurants, a little market and some art galleries. The alleys were small and pretty and there was a lovely vibe in the town. We had a traditional Khmer lunch and dinner (Amok). This is a type of curry served in a leaf either with fish, chicken or beef. It was very good and the spices were great but it was quite rich. Many places had a happy hour going but we thought we would leave the bucket of vodka for tomorrow night since we had a long day in Angkor Wat ahead of us.
# posted by Heidi & Richard's travels @ 3:49 AM 
