The following morning we woke up, had our breakfast and headed out to the border town of Aranyaprathet. I had met a cab driver the night before and agreed on meeting at 9am in front of our hotel so that he could drive us for 5 hours to the border with Cambodia. Truthfully, it was a long and uneventful ride (except for the Lays Pepper Steak potato chips which were GROSS). 
Once at the border, everything began to fall apart. We crossed the border by foot and made our way under the archway that read “The Kingdom of Cambodia” adorned with an almost rubberish replica of the ruins at Angkor Wat. Once we crossed the arches that greeted us into the ‘kingdom’ we exchanged our Thai Bahts into Cambodian Riels so we wouldn’t get screwed later on with the exchange rate. From there we asked where we needed to go for immigration with our E-Visa’s since we had done the whole process online well before the beginning of our trip. I began asking guards if they knew where we had to go and they all answered 100 meters. We kept walking and they kept saying 100 meters. Well, whatever. Maybe that’s all they knew how to say. Before getting to the 700 meter mark, we passed a casino which we entered and left almost immediately. We could have won a 20 riel jackpot!! (4,000 riel’s = 1 US dollar). Anyway, we finally found the hot and dusty office where we would do our immigration process which was done fairly quick. While in the office, we met this guy who kept insisting he was part of the department of tourism and wanted to get us on a taxi that would drive us all the way to Siem Reap. We all had specifically read that we should not trust any of the touts at the border that would offer rides to Siem Reap. The warning said they were dangerous and that some people were driven for over 15 hours when it is a 3 hour drive. Well, our gut instinct told us to go with him since the French guys in front of us seemed to know the guy from a previous visit they did. Once in the taxi, the visuals, the smells, the colors, the sadness, the poverty, the shear fear of death (our death) took over. It was truly for the first 10 minutes a terrifying experience. We weren’t sure where they were taking us, their English was poor and we had two drivers but only one steering wheel which made it a bit uncomfortable.
As you might have guessed, yes, we were murdered by savages.
Nah, we were SO tired, we fell asleep after seeing the amazing colors of a Cambodian sunset. I’m not sure how we were able to sleep since the roads were all of dirt with holes sometimes 2 feet deep, small cliffs the taxi’s wheels would sometimes hang off of and motorists that payed no attention to the fact there was a car coming in the opposite direction. I guess we got used to it being that humans are creatures of habit. Finally, after three grueling hours of “driving” we made it to our hostel in Siem Reap. Once inside, we were met by Mara, the nice Cambodian drag queen receptionist that was so kind as to give us a room with a faulty air conditioner. Mara was thin and tall and very lady-boy looking. Jorge loves that shit so he was in heaven with all of these characters he could dissect and analyze and talk to and bla bla bla bla.. I could have cared less about Mara. For all I knew, she was a bitch who wanted to screw us over by giving us a hot room. Fuck her!
On with the story, we went around the reception desk and up the stairs to the second floor. Our room was spacious and private and clean. We were quite happy to leave our funky trails of shit in the toilet after a day full of enjoyable driving. Once downstairs, we went to the bar to get some food. AMAZING FOOD BY THE WAY! Whoa, Cambodia has amazing food!! Really! Anyway, once downstairs, we met the infamous Chan Dara. This man is Jorge’s baby daddy. They will one day have children and a fence and a dog and a backyard filled with skulls in the vicinity of the Killing Fields Cambodia is notoriously known for. In the mean time, I’m still waiting for my yummy food as I stare at the indoor pool with desire. The pool looked like a KFC bucket of chicken in the middle of a street in famine stricken Mozambique. Seriously, I wanted to sleep in it. After my food of course. Well, once we were all satisfied, we made our way up to our hot room and showered and slept and died and went to heaven and back.
The following morning, we woke up early, showered, had breakfast and met Mr. Yin Yan. He was our driver for the day which would take us to see the marvelous ruins of Angkor. We definitely got much more than we bargained for. A driver, THE WHOLE DAY, for 5 US dollars a head. I mean a person, not that he gave us head for 5 dollars each. Whatever, you know what I mean. Ridiculous! Well, we said hello, he said hello, then we had baby chickens and monkeys and lived happily ever after.
Next, I’ll tell you all about Angkor Wat, Bayon and Ta Prohm, the wonderful Spider-Girl, the afternoon at the pool, the scam market, and the most amazing fried rice I have EVER had in my life.
Stay tuned!
Once at the border, everything began to fall apart. We crossed the border by foot and made our way under the archway that read “The Kingdom of Cambodia” adorned with an almost rubberish replica of the ruins at Angkor Wat. Once we crossed the arches that greeted us into the ‘kingdom’ we exchanged our Thai Bahts into Cambodian Riels so we wouldn’t get screwed later on with the exchange rate. From there we asked where we needed to go for immigration with our E-Visa’s since we had done the whole process online well before the beginning of our trip. I began asking guards if they knew where we had to go and they all answered 100 meters. We kept walking and they kept saying 100 meters. Well, whatever. Maybe that’s all they knew how to say. Before getting to the 700 meter mark, we passed a casino which we entered and left almost immediately. We could have won a 20 riel jackpot!! (4,000 riel’s = 1 US dollar). Anyway, we finally found the hot and dusty office where we would do our immigration process which was done fairly quick. While in the office, we met this guy who kept insisting he was part of the department of tourism and wanted to get us on a taxi that would drive us all the way to Siem Reap. We all had specifically read that we should not trust any of the touts at the border that would offer rides to Siem Reap. The warning said they were dangerous and that some people were driven for over 15 hours when it is a 3 hour drive. Well, our gut instinct told us to go with him since the French guys in front of us seemed to know the guy from a previous visit they did. Once in the taxi, the visuals, the smells, the colors, the sadness, the poverty, the shear fear of death (our death) took over. It was truly for the first 10 minutes a terrifying experience. We weren’t sure where they were taking us, their English was poor and we had two drivers but only one steering wheel which made it a bit uncomfortable.As you might have guessed, yes, we were murdered by savages.Nah, we were SO tired, we fell asleep after seeing the amazing colors of a Cambodian sunset. I’m not sure how we were able to sleep since the roads were all of dirt with holes sometimes 2 feet deep, small cliffs the taxi’s wheels would sometimes hang off of and motorists that payed no attention to the fact there was a car coming in the opposite direction. I guess we got used to it being that humans are creatures of habit. Finally, after three grueling hours of “driving” we made it to our hostel in Siem Reap. Once inside, we were met by Mara, the nice Cambodian drag queen receptionist that was so kind as to give us a room with a faulty air conditioner. Mara was thin and tall and very lady-boy looking. Jorge loves that shit so he was in heaven with all of these characters he could dissect and analyze and talk to and bla bla bla bla.. I could have cared less about Mara. For all I knew, she was a bitch who wanted to screw us over by giving us a hot room. Fuck her!On with the story, we went around the reception desk and up the stairs to the second floor. Our room was spacious and private and clean. We were quite happy to leave our funky trails of shit in the toilet after a day full of enjoyable driving. Once downstairs, we went to the bar to get some food. AMAZING FOOD BY THE WAY! Whoa, Cambodia has amazing food!! Really! Anyway, once downstairs, we met the infamous Chan Dara. This man is Jorge’s baby daddy. They will one day have children and a fence and a dog and a backyard filled with skulls in the vicinity of the Killing Fields Cambodia is notoriously known for. In the mean time, I’m still waiting for my yummy food as I stare at the indoor pool with desire. The pool looked like a KFC bucket of chicken in the middle of a street in famine stricken Mozambique. Seriously, I wanted to sleep in it. After my food of course. Well, once we were all satisfied, we made our way up to our hot room and showered and slept and died and went to heaven and back.
The following morning, we woke up early, showered, had breakfast and met Mr. Yin Yan. He was our driver for the day which would take us to see the marvelous ruins of Angkor. We definitely got much more than we bargained for. A driver, THE WHOLE DAY, for 5 US dollars a head. I mean a person, not that he gave us head for 5 dollars each. Whatever, you know what I mean. Ridiculous! Well, we said hello, he said hello, then we had baby chickens and monkeys and lived happily ever after.Next, I’ll tell you all about Angkor Wat, Bayon and Ta Prohm, the wonderful Spider-Girl, the afternoon at the pool, the scam market, and the most amazing fried rice I have EVER had in my life.Stay tuned!
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