Alright, so Cambodia! This is going to be a picture heavy entry, and very lacking in pictures of me. Because it's been half a month and those lazy people that came with me haven't put their pictures on Facebook. But I'm tired of waiting, lest I forget, so we'll work with what we have.

The aforementioned van took us to the border, Poi Pet. I've been here before, for a visa run. A small town, filled with extreme poverty among the towering grand casinos catering to the elite of Thailand (gambling is illegal in Thailand, since it is forbidden in Buddhism). But let's be curt here, Poi Pet is kind of a shithole. There is perhaps the most massive income disparity in the world here, and I constantly kept a hand on my pocket, and eyes on everyone else's pockets. Thankfully we weren't here long. The previous night I was kept up with worries that I didn't bring my old passport, since my new one doesn't have any entry visa into Thailand, only my residency permit. Turns out they didn't care after all, and I was 90% sure they wouldn't. But hey, ya never know.

We rented out a van for the trip to Siem Reap. A rather uneventful drive, Cambodia is quite rural. Fun fact, Cambodia uses US dollars for their currency. Turns out they don't really have a lot of faith in their own, and use it only in small amounts. It's about 4100 Cambodian Riel to $1, so they just assume 1000 = 25 cents and ditch coins. It's actually kind of an interesting idea, and it was 1) weird to use US dollars again 2) have a combination baht, riel, and dollars in my wallet and trying to work out THAT math problem. We arrived at the hostel, which was the nicest thing in Siem Reap. Australian owned and operated, they had great deals on food and drink, and was one of the cleaner hostels I've stayed at. We dropped off our bags and they arranged a trip out to a floating village.

When Cambodia says floating, they apparently mean really godamn floating. Like, out in the middle of a lake, with no land to be seen floating. It was an odd experience, and I considered what life would be like if my house was on the water in the middle of nowhere. I imagine I'd be able to swim. Also, it would be annoying to have to use a boat every time you wanted to go somewhere. But I suppose they also have things like convenience stores, and there were solar panels and generators for electricity. Still, crazy life. We passed the town, and were out in the middle of the water. Then a boat pulled up next to us with children who wanted to sell us beer for $2.

I remember that time, I was in the Philippines. When I hiked to the top of a volcano, and some woman approached me with a bucket full of golf balls and a driver. This was a time where money lost all meaning, and I would give up everything in my wallet to do that. It was pretty similar here, as I loved the idea of being boarded by children to sell me beer in the middle of a godamn lake. And it was cold, even! At showing even the slightest hesitancy, the price dropped to $1. Shit, I would've paid $5. But then, the trip kind of ended at this point and went into "Okay, lets see how much we can get from these foreigners".

First, an offer to see some sort of grove or trees or something. Declined.

Next a stop to some shop to buy trinkets. Nothing was bought, except maybe a bag of chips or something.

Next a stop to a market to buy rice for orphans. We were encouraged to "give with our hearts". I think everyone was thinking, but nobody wanted to say, "This is bullshit." Well, Ella and I did in Chinese. We eventually settled for the small, incredibly overpriced bag of rice. Seriously, you can get those at a Bangkok Tesco for 1/3rd the price. And I'm sure in Cambodia it's a heck of a lot cheaper. Ah well. We dropped it off at the school, cute kids. Turns out they were learning Vietnamese, which Ella can speak. She asked the teacher if they were orphans. The teacher said "Eh, not really."

Well. Shit.

Anyway, we headed back to the hostel for some drinking nonsense, ready to tackle the next day in Angkor Wat.

Angkor Wat is one of those places I would have never expected to be 5 years ago. I definitely wouldn't have expected it when I was 10 years old playing it as a dungeon in Illusion of Gaia. (Great SNES game, look it up) But, here I am. And there's actually surprisingly little to say about Angkor Wat. It's a bunch of old temples. They're massive, and impressive as hell. But it's impossible to convey the scale, or the "oldness" without just recycling words like "very" and "really". So let's just throw out some pics. Angkor Wat is the most famous temple, but by no means the only one. There are others like Baphuon, Preah Khan, Ta Prohm, and Angkor Tom (not Angkor Steve). The names kind of start to mean nothing, as they're all pretty similar old temples. With maybe the exception of Ta Prohm, as it was all overgrown and probably the coolest. Angkor Tom is actually a big complex with lots of temples, including Bayon. In the evening, we climbed Phnom Bakheng hill along with a million others to see the sunset. And then, rain. Torrential rain. I was lucky to find a little tower thing that kept me mostly dry, but pretty much everyone decided being soaked from head to toe was no bueno, so we left without a picture. Not that it would've been a pretty one anyway. It was the 2nd most soaked I have ever been - 1st has to be that crazy rainstorm in Taizhong, also experienced on a mountain. Back to the hostel for more drinking, as seems to be the theme. Anyway, here's a bunch of Angkor Wat pics.

The third day, Kristi and Manish decided they haven't had enough temple stuff. The rest of us had, and we went out to a folk village that made silk stuff. It was actually quite fascinating and totally free. We saw the whole silk process from beginning to end, and I mean real beginning - with silkworm larvae. It was something I knew nothing about and I quite liked it. After we went to Wat Bo, the oldest continually operated Wat in Cambodia. Meh. For lunch we tried to go to Pyongyang Restaurant.

Pausing for a sec, Siem Reap has a lot of Korean tourists for some reason. Pyongyang Restaurant is a straight up, North Korean owned and operated business. I ate at one in Dandong, China, and it was an interesting experience. I've heard they're basically used as vehicles to launder money into the country, and the waitresses are basically indentured servants. So, with my moral compass thoroughly intact, we unfortunately missed lunch by about an hour. Darn! I hear there's one in Vietnam, I'll have to give that a try if I end up there next year.

The next destination was definitely the highlight of my trip. Angkor Wat... MINI GOLF. Yes. It exists, and is glorious. I haven't played mini golf in years, so I quite enjoyed it despite the blistering heat. And holy crap, this mini golf was HARD. Par 8 on one of them. Lindsay got a hole in one, somehow, which meant she got a free drink. After a rest at the hostel, we went out to the night market for some rather delicious and cheap food. It was short lived however, as we woke up at 2am to head back to Thailand. Which, after many delays and border crossings, Kristi and Manish managed to make their 3:30pm flight to Phuket at like. 3:15. As for the rest of us, we had a lovely evening in Khao San, and eating pad thai for dinner at the world famous Thip Samai, who claims to invented pad thai. I am skeptical, but it's delicious nonetheless.

Whew! And that my friends, is the story of... my friends. In Cambodia with me. It was quite a ride, and a huge check off the bucket list. Thanks very much for coming everyone, and I hope to see you again next year!

The Cambodian Crew

"The Infiltrator"

"The Rock"

"The Brains"

"The Experience"

"The Wild Card"

"The Muscle"

"The Sushi"