Transfer to Siem Reap

Today we left at 9am to catch a bus to Siem Reap, Cambodia. If my lovely roommate, Jessica, hadn't worken me I would have missed it. I had forgotten to set an alarm! I probably fell asleep with my phone in my hand.. I felt surprisingly good today though :)

The drive to the Cambodian border took about 4 or 5 hours and we stopped to use the washroom and for lunch. We ate chicken with rice and I had an iced coffee which was lovely. I slept for most of the bus ride, still exhausted from now 3 nights of very little sleep.

The border crossing was crazy! It seemed so informal to me and had I been alone I'm sure that I would have messed something up somehow. First you leave Thailand, then walk a few hundred metres to the Cambodian Visa office to obtain your visa. The walk wasn't direct though, it was through a little town and didn't have much signage. Makes me wonder how they truly monitor who's entering the country. Anyway, after obtaining our visas we walked to the "entry point" which was just a small office along side a street as you walked into the country.. All very confusing. But of course, the group leaders knew exactly what to do so it went smoothly.

After officially entering the country we waited at a little shop for a transfer bus to take us to the bigger bus we'd complete our trip in. We all had a beer here! And the bus arrived sooner than expected so we brought them onto the bus with us... All totally normal apparently, the driver didn't even blink. Our laws are so strict at home it's ridiculous.Once onto the big bus we were far more comfortable and the ride went quickly. It feels strange to be driving on the right side of the road again... Toni and Eric delivered their formal welcome speech and ran over a few important things with us. It reminded me of being in school again.. But totally necessary I know, and I don't feel like the rest of the trip will be so formal. They just asked about respect, not to give to child beggars, quality of life is different here, don't expect comforts of home, etc etc. What I found particularly interesting is that the primary currency is USD. And the secondary the Riel. And even more confusing, it that the USD is predominate, but you will receive any change less than a dollar in Riels. So no coins at all. Which will be fun to figure out haha. 1000 Riel is approximately $0.25 USD

When we arrived at the hotel, Popular Guesthouse, I had so many notifications on my phone it took me almost an hour to go through them all.... Mostly birthday wishes! And that left me a short time to socialize before heading down to the restauarant to meet the group for a "family dinner" and get to know one another a bit better.

After dinner, most people went to bed as they were exhausted form last nights activities and travelling all day, and probably jet lagged too. Glad I don't have to worry about that one!

So even though I was exhausted, my new roommate Kayla and I walked the 5 minutes to pub street. We stopped at the Temple Bar because it looked pretty fun and shared two $4 pitchers! The rooftop had a live band, a fountain, and all bean bag chairs. It was pretty great. It was nice to just relax and listen to music from home sung by great voices. When we decided to leave at about 11pm the club downstairs was going strong. I'm sure that we'll be back! When we're not exhausted and have a big day tomorrow exploring the Temples at Angkor Wat!Read more