Crossing the border into Cambodia was quite an ordeal! A process I wouldn’t want to repeat over and over again, But hey, Emily (my roommate) needed to do a Visa run, as well an Eunjin (a brother in our hall) so I thought let’s go! Get another stamp In my passport, fill up another page, it’ll be an adventure, and an adventure it was!!! I loved it, however crazy it may have been! 😉

We woke up bright an early at 4 am (haha I was totally in zombie mode) to be at the Big C (the Thai equivalent of a walmart… Plus a giant food court) where the bus was going to pick us up at 5:30am. The four of us, (Emily, Eli, Eunjin and myself) met at our apartment, at 5am. We started walking to the Main Street hoping to get a taxi. There weren’t any car taxis only motorbike taxis, which are great buuuuut when you have 4 people, each with a full backpack and extra travel bag, two motorbikes are not looking that awesome! We wanted the drivers to take two of us and then come back for the other two, but they are absolutely adamant, we would all fit. So there we went, speeding down the bumpy road, three per bike with all our luggage piled on, trying to hold on for dear life as the taxi driver lived out his dream of being a world class motor cross racer for approximately 10 minutes! Oh it was awesome! It was sooooooo early, and we were soooo out of it, Emily and I are in hysterics the while ride! That probably only egged the driver on more though, but oh well, it was fun! I can just picture Eunjin and Eli now… Three gown men smushed on the bike ahead of us, Eli with his giant backpack hanging off the end and his legs all bent up behind him so they wouldn’t drag on the ground! It was hilarious! Definitely Made for a great memory!!! Man, was I ready to get off that thing though! 😉 we finally got to Bic And bought our ticket to the border. The bus wasn’t the big buses with the giant recliner sets, this was what Is called a mini bus… In other words a 12 person van 😜. We piled in and set off for Cambodia. The drive was long, about 6 hours. We talked, laughed, slept ( A LOT!!! ) listened to music, etc. until we arrived at the border. We got out, our legs extremely happy to be in motion, grabbed all our things and started the trek towards customs. We had to go through quite the battle trying to get our passports approved, stamped, all fees paid, fingerprints taken, etc. it all took about 3 more hours. From that experience, I really got a taste for the government there, no rules. No right or wrong, the officials we dealt with kept asking for more money than was customary, so we had to say no, wait in line again, and try a couple minutes later until hey finally accepted and approved our passport and visa. They were quite intimidating to say the least, but you just have to show by your demeanor and attitude, you know what your doing and you’re on a mission and you’ll be much better off. I was happy to have people with Emily and I that have done this before, in Cambodia. They told us what to do and we did it, good life experience.

Once we went through all that, it felt so good to cross the border into Cambodia and have that whole process behind us. Once we crossed, we still had to get to our hotel which was approximately 2 hours away, in Siem Reap. We took a bus first, then switched to a taxi which dropped us off not at our hotel like we said, but at a tuk tuk who eventually brought us to the hotel. Once we got to our hotel, the events didn’t end there! We paid for the taxi (quite a lot I must say) and when they didn’t take us to the hotel like we agreed on, they said the tuk tuk was free and part of the deal. Part of the money we originally paid. We didn’t really have any other choice, so in the tuk tuk we went. We arrived at the hotel and the driver, instead of leaving went inside the hotel as well, weird right??! Well, We were checking in and he interrupted asking for 5 minutes of our time to talk about touring the temples tomorrow. We didn’t have a for sure plan for the next couple days would bring while we were in Cambodia, and didn’t want to tie ourselves down to Anything we weren’t sure of. When our driver heard that, he was adamant we needed to talk and that it was part of the deal… Today was free buuuut we had to hire him the nest day!!!!! we told him that’s not what we wee told and He just wouldn’t listen so we had to just go our room. Finally, peace and quiet! That was a really really long day!!! Lots of driving, lots of waiting, lots of 100 degree weather! We freshened up in our room and then met the guys in the lobby. We explored downtown for the rest of the afternoon and once we couldn’t take one more step we went back to the hotel and crashed! 😴😴😴

The nest couple days where awesome! The streets of Siem reap are full of markets, during the day and best of all, the night markets! We wandered the streets for hours during our visit, so much to see such little time! 🙂 we made it to the temples as well, Angkor Thom, Angkor Wat, I forget the name of the 3rd, and took pictures and explored even more! It was truly amazing! So beautiful and detailed! I would defiantly go back again! Photographers paradise! 🙂

The last night in Siem Reap was absolutely epic! It was late evening and we decided to walk down Pub street to find a place to eat, they have so much to pick from! 🙂 this street was amazing (pic below) it was covered in twinkle lights, the air smelled of exotic cooking, dance music blasting, people from all over the world smiling and laughing! The atmosphere was contagious! As soon as you stepped onto the street you had a big smile on your face! I just couldn’t help it!!! All the restaurants and pubs were open to the street so you got to experience the whole thing while you sat back, relaxed and people watched 😉 it was amazing! We finally sat down at a booth near the street and enjoyed our surroundings, the people we were with and the amazing Cambodian food! Everyone around us was so much fun, there was one guy in particular who was just dancing up a storm, dancing with everybody around him! Definitely a party starter 😉 Guess what???! Couple minutes later he had started a giant random dance party in the middle of the street, pulling people from either side of the street to join in! Oh yes!!! Emily and I were two of those people!!!! 😀 we had an absolute blast!!! We literally could have stayed there all night long 😉 hehe! It was a fantastic way to end our Cambodia trip, the cherry on top of an already great adventure! 🙂

The next morning, we got fairly early and did a boat tour of the floating villages. We wanted to do one fore thing before we picked up a taxi to take us back to the border. It was very interesting, the way Some people have to live. Siem Reap is one of the poorest countries in the world, on this tour I definitely saw it with my own eyes. It was an eye opening experience, seeing the living conditions of the people every single day. It made me that much more grateful for everything i have, even the little things i don’t really think about… fresh water, clean clothes, a bed… They don’t have that. I can’t wait for the new system where nobody will have to live their life that way anymore. Everybody will he clean, healthy and happy! It couldn’t come soon enough! Despite all that they go through, the people are so kind. We loved visiting the little kids, taking there pictures and playing with them. That was a highlight of this trip too, all the adorable Cambodian kiddies!

Later that day we arrived at the border. Going back over was not as time consuming as crossing the first time. We did it without a hitch. 6 hours later we found ourselves back in Pattaya! Phew! Another loooong day of traveling! It felt good to be back in our apartment, with the wonderful air conditioning! 😉 overall, it was a great trip! I experienced the whole adventure spectrum… The good the bad and the ugly. I saw the harsh reality of ones living in a third world country, I danced like a crazy person in the middle of the street, I filled up two more pages in my passport (woot woot!!!) and I experienced it all with great people!!!! 🙂 …now for the next adventure! I’m ready! 😉

We finally made it across the border and are in the way to our Hotel in Siem Reap, Cambodia! On the left is Ashley and the right is Eli 🙂

Downtown Siem Reap Market

Grabbing lunch at a Mexican/Khmer/Thai fusion restaurant. It was delicious!!!! Plus, we were starving so it tasted extra amazing!!! 😉 from the front left: Eli, Emily, Me, Eunjin.

Pub Street during the day!

My favorite! Pub Street at night!

Anybody hungry??! Here we have snakes on a stick, grubs, crickets, frogs and my favorite… Tarantulas! 😉

Tarantula. Giant, black, hairy tarantula. This is not a 7 year olds pet. This is food. People actually eat this… Like popcorn or chips or something!

Ok, guys! Here it is. What you’ve all been waiting for. You know the picture I just showed you, the one above of the disgustingly huge spiders. You know what I said in the caption… (Re read it just in case 😉 ) soooo…. You remember how I said people eat these like snacks… Thai people, Cambodian people… And a new to the list… ME!!!!! Oh ya, I did it! Now I can officially say I’ve eaten grubs, two, and tarantulas! Aaahhhhhh! I know your probably screaming right now, cowering in disgust and fear but hey they weren’t half bad! It was the pre shoving it in my mouth anxiety that was the worst! it tasted fishy.. Like the dried salted seaweed you can buy at trader joes. I actually preferred tarantula over grubs… Anyday!!! I was so proud of myself though!!!! I didn’t ant to pass up that opportunity! Plus the Thai people love watching foreigners try things like that ;P Eli and I were ready to pop them I our mouths, Emily’s camera was ready and zoomed in close to capture the moment, when two Italian guys came up and asked if we’d wait a minute, the one guy wanted to do it with us! the three of us did it at the same time! 😉 So there we were, standing on the side do the road, snackin on hairy spiders, like no big deal 😉 haha! I think its just all part of the traveling experience, eating what the locals eat… It just happened that Cambodian people eat spiders! Who woulda thought!??? 😉

P.S. Temple pics to come in part two 🙂