out of Thailand and into Cambodia

We had just a couple more days in Bangkok after my previous Blog entry, and during one of those evenings we went to see the “ladymen”.

That's right – here's proof that the best looking women in Bangkok are actually men. I didn't exactly prove that is a man, but, well, I'll just take his word for it.

On our other free evening we went to the movies and saw Avatar in 3D Imax. Wow – was that ever cool!

Here's a random shot of something that I would NEVER see back home in Canada. If you click on the picture it should download a larger image. Can you read the word just below the driver's leg?

It says “POLICE”. So here's a policeman, giving a ride to some lady who is sitting improperly and not wearing a helmet. And the best part is the policeman is doing this while he's on-duty.

Here's an example of some of Thailand's lesser known delicacies.

That's right – those are piles of fried bugs. Hmmm – can't figure out why this hasn't become as popular around the world as other Thai food. I still haven't brought myself to try these yet. Click on this pic too to see them better. Mmmmm.

And then our time in Thailand was up. We bought a bus ticket to Cambodia and set off. We're wary of bus rides based on the three universal truths we learned in India:

1. your departure is always delayed

2. you never get quite what you paid for (nothing is as it seems)

3. the journey always takes longer than advertised.

I was hoping those universal truths would be left behind in India, but nope. We were picked up from our guest house half an hour late (universal truth #1), then collected some more passengers from other hotels and left the city. An hour later we picked up a Thai girl in some village. Another hour later we were driving through a big city. A really big city. That looked an awful lot like Bangkok. So I asked the driver if he really picked us all up at 07:00 (well, 07:30 really) only to bring us to some tiny village to pick up the lady and then have to back track all the way through Bangkok to actually begin our journey to Cambodia. And yup – that's exactly what he did. So he wasn't really half an hour late to depart Bangkok – we didn't actually really leave and head in the right direction until more than two hours later than advertized. Great – just what we wanted – an extra two hours in the car. Good thing we didn't have a flight to catch or anything.

But it gets better. Once we crossed into Cambodia the people in our van were split up based on what city they were going to. We were the only ones headed to Phnom Penh (capital of Cambodia), so the guy told us he'd get a cab for us and we'd drive the remaining 400 km by car. Great I thought – sounds like we're getting spoiled. But I should have remembered universal truth #2 – nothing is as it seems. As promised, we did get a taxi – just a regular 1980's American car, but we had to share it with four other passengers. It started off as just us two in the back and then the driver picked up another fare for the front seat. And then he stopped for two more. I told him “no way – those extra people aren't getting in the back seat with us”. Without batting an eye the two new passengers were put into the front seat. So it's driver and three passengers in the front and just us two in the back.

That's the driver second from the left. I felt pretty bad about us having so much room and them squishing up there (in addition to the obvious safety issue – in a car with no seat belts), and even though we paid the inflated “rich foreigner” price for our tickets and had a right to our seats, I told the driver to pull over so we could re-arrange, but he didn't bother. I guess driving like this is not uncommon in Cambodia. Indeed many cars we passed had four in the front (or more if moms carried babies with them).

A little later the tables were turned when our driver said this is as far as he goes and we had to switch to a different cab. It was all pre-arranged. Including the three passengers (and driver) already in that cab, so I couldn't exactly refuse. So now it was us four in the back and three in the front for the last few hours.

Hey – that's what you get when traveling budget style the third world. Don't like it? Then don't come. Oh - and just in case any of you reading this haven't seen this before - it's increasingly common in Asia for people to wear masks over their faces like the girl above. In major cities the air is so polluted that people cover their mouthes to try and filter out the smog. I don't think it actually works, but whatever.

Oh ya – we didn't get into Phnom Penh until several hours later than advertized (universal truth #3).

Once we finally did arrive into Phonm Penh we found a nice room in the center of the city and the next morning dropped our passports off at the Laos embassy to get entry visas. For the few days it will take to get our Laos visas we decided to head to Cambodia's beach village of Sihanoukville and spend Christmas there. So like eternal optimists, we boarded a bus and headed that way. It was a strange Christmas to be away from family, and surrounded by sand and heat. So hot. Where's the snow??? We spent three days there and then got onto another bus (yes, the same three universal truths) and went to Siem Reap, home to the famous temples of ancient Angkor. Stand by for pics in the next update.