Day 207 - Sunrise, Sunset

We woke up this morning hours before daylight to catch the 5:00AM bus to Aranyaprathet, the Thai border with Cambodia. Unfortunately, I was wide awake for the dark part of the ride, and fell asleep just in time to miss a lovely sunrise.

Thai tourist buses are generally a scam, but are very easy to avoid simply by buying all bus tickets directly at the bus station. The bus station sells tickets only for state-run bus companies, and the quality of each class of travel is strictly regulated. The express buses to the border are all first class, which means not only are there air con and reclining seats, but someone comes by with little snacks and water. On the VIP buses, the service is upped once more, including meals, movies, and essentially barca loungers for seats. (We haven't gotten to ride one of these yet). On the downside (or upside depending on your opinion) karaoke is just as popular in Thailand as in the rest of SE Asia, and often the bus's audio visual system is set to en route karaoke. This is less than amusing at 5:30AM.

We arrived at the stop closest to the border at about 9:30AM. After a quick trip to the toilets, we negotiated a tuk-tuk to the border. The driver initially asked for 150baht per person. We ended up agreeing on 20baht per person. He was very cheerful about the whole thing - I suspect that when they ask for such ridiculously high rates that it is more a game than actually trying to get it.

The border was a little dodgy, as visa scams are common. We ended up having to pay a little more for our Cambodian visa on the Thai side of the border because Cambodia was temporarily suspending visas on entry for foreigners unless they could provide proof of onward travel. I would call it a scam, except that this particular hitch was government sanctioned - which makes it no less scammy, but at least I don't feel like a chump for falling for it.

Visas in hand, we walked across the border without a hitch, took the government bus to the taxi stand on the Cambodian side, and had soon negotiated a fair price for the bumpy 3-hour ride into Siem Reap. Bumpy because the road is largely unpaved. Having been to India and Nepal, we were unfazed by the unpaved road, and in fact felt pretty swank as we sat in air con comfort watching the dust billow past our sealed up windows.

Once in Siem Reap, we were surprised at how lovely the town is. Unlike Agra which knows people will come to see the Taj no matter how nasty the town, Siem Reap retains much of its French-Colonial charm, despite the recent boom in tourism.

By the time we finished a late lunch and showering off the road dust, it was nearly 4:30, and time to meet our tuk-tuk driver to take us to the ticket office and sunset point. Sunset point is a tiny temple perched on a hill over the plains and Angkor Wat in the distance. Unfortunately, it is VERY much on the tourist map. Resulting in the more striking view being red-faced tourists puffing their way up the hill and crawl-climbing the extremely steep steps to the top rather than the sunset. It felt like a scene from a Hieronymus Bosch painting.

It was still nice, though, if very strange. Monks in saffron robes peppered the crowd, and the Buddha statue in the center of temple had offerings of fruit and incense laid at his feet. I liked these small reminders, that despite being a UNESCO site, and tourist trap, it is still a working temple.

Tomorrow we follow the hordes once more to the mother of them all...Angkor Wat.