say hello to siem riep!

David and I arrived today in Siem Riep, Cambodia, the gateway town to Angkor Wat, a marvel of archaeological and historical and architectural temples and city, that we'll be exploring over the next 2 days, before heading to Phenom Penh, where we'll regroup and probably continue on to Chiang Mai.

Anyway, yesterday we explored Bangkok. It's a crazy city. In the morning we walked a lot, and found ourselves in the old, fortressed part of the city, where the Royal Palace and many central wats (really just a southeast Asian temple) are. We walked through Wat Po, where there was a huge reclining gold Buddha, and then onto the Royal Palace and the Shrine of the Emerald Buddha, which David had read a lot about. David is actually quite the expert on Buddhism - not specifically Thai Buddhism, which is Theravada Buddhism, but Japanese Buddhism, which is Mahayana Buddhism. Apparently Therevada is like Tibetan Buddhism and is very esoteric and monk oriented. Anyways, he was educating me quite a bit on what the towers and figures of the Buddhas and shrines represented. It was all very interesting, although I haven't really retained much. It's the stupid heat.

All of our walking was accompanied but any street vendors and food carts, hawking their wares and thrusting beggars in our faces. Walking the in city is a bit overwhelming, and I hoped that the rest of SEA wasn't as "in your face." We then hopped on a river taxi and rode down to the center of the city, and along the way saw some barges, the ferries, and many, many tall buildings. It's a really big city; according to wikipedia about 8 million people. We disembarked and then hopped right on a skytrain, which, during rush hour, was packed, especially with families and school children, all dressed in the same navy blue shorts/skirts and sky blue shirts, all heading to the mall for an after-school snack and hang out/cause trouble/run amok time. Some things, some cultural elements, are pretty universal.

The skytrain was neat, really just an elevated metro. We got off at Siam Center, a really, really big complex with three connected malls. They have Starbucks, 7-Eleven, Coach bags, Swensens, and movies theaters. This part felt super westernized.The mall was air-conditioned, and so we bummed around for a bit, exploring the basement level "Gourmet Food Market," which is basically what the San Francisco Shopping Centre basement food hall/Gelson's wants to be. It was super neat and, again, a bit overwhelming. We left the mall and explored the shopping and street vendors below. David really wanted Curry, I was just hungry. Eventually we found some non-curry chicken-rice-bowl. Then we walked. And walked and walked and walked, heading back in what we thought was our hostel, but it turned out was south, instead of west. We decided to keep walking, towards the nearest pier in order to catch a river taxi. By the time we got back to the pier, it was around 730 and the taxis stopped running at 6. So we ended up taking a tuk-tuk (like a covered motorcycle with a bench for two) back, and got to see some definitely non-touristy Bangkok along the way.

Early this morning we got up to take a bus to the Thailand-Cambodia border to cross over and then take a taxi to Siem Riep. The whole thing was fairly cheap, but still more than bus-bus, and until we got up, seemed a bit dodgy. But the first bus was like a super shuttle, or a sherut. It was large and ACed and has comfy seats and sat about 10. It filled up with a brazilian couple, a french couple, a few very non-friendly israelis, and some unidentified asian women. We bonded with the french couple, who had been traveling for about 8 months and marveled at our ability/willingness to see places in a few days - for them, at least a week in Siem Riep would do. Anyways, once we got to the border, we waited. And filled out visa paperwork. And waited some more. And waited some more. And then drove to the border. Where we waited. And waited. And waited. And crossed from Thailand into liminal space. And then waited. And then crossed over into Cambodia, and then waited in line. And then waited. And waited. And waited. And finally got in our taxi.

Eventually, we made it to Siem Riep. The whole process, in retrospect, was farcical (David would like me to note here that he thought it was farcical the whole time, whereas I was just annoyed and frustrated). And incredibly frustrating. But, it's now over, and probably when we cross over back into Thailand it will be via plane, so maybe a little smoother? But the Thai, and especially Cambodia countryside are beautiful. Really gorgeous. And Siem Riep is a neat city, with a fun touristy but cute downtown, and a wide, brownish river and big trees (it feels very southern), and large wide streets, tuk tuks and bicycles and motos chaotically filling the roads.

Anyways, we're going to spend 2 days exploring the Temples and city of Angkor and then away we go!