Cambods,

as my cousin calls it has been...intense. Thats pretty much the only way to describe it. It all started on the 12 hour ferry/bus/walk across the border/another bus/tuk tuk ride from Koh Chang to Siem Reap. We rode, as the Swede we met put it, the "scam bus". That's right. the scam bus. According to his guide book the scam bus is a package deal that seems pretty cheap (700 Baht /$21 to get all the way from KC to SR) but takes as long as possible. This is so that the Thai travel companies can charge you more for your Cambodian visa (we paid 1,200 B- $36 when it should have only been $20) and so that tuk tuk drivers can swarm upon you as soon as you get off the bus ride to take you to a guesthouse that gives them a hefty commission for sending travelers their way. In short, it was good that we booked our hostel ahead of time because we were, as they want you to be, too tired and annoyed to put up much of a fight. We could at least say (and mean) that we already had arrangements.

The town of Siem Reap was really nice. Despite being tourist central it had a lot of character. The guesthouse we stayed at, the Palm Garden Lodge, was amazing. The rooms were big, clean, and the bed was a tempurpedic. They also give you free breakfast and when we left they sent us on the road with a to go lunch for free! If you're ever going to Siem Reap, definitely stay there.

The temples were awesome. Angkor Thom was great with all its temples. Ta Phrom was straight out of Tomb Raider. Angkor Wat was nothing short of spectacular. All the temples were everything I wanted/thought they would be.

After the temples we took a bus to Phnom Penh. The six hour ride was intense but we drove through some really cool countryside. Its sad tho, to see how poor the people are here. It really makes me thankful for what I have. Today we visited the Killing Fields and the Genocide Museum. Both were sobering experiences.

The Killing Fields were so sad. The Khmer Rouge executed tens of thousands of people and buried them in mass graves there. As a memorial there is a huge white stupa. Inside are tons of skulls that were dug up, and a pile of clothes that they found in the graves. 86 graves were exhumed and 43 are still left buried.

The museum was scary. It was originally a school that was converted into a prison/torture center for the prisoners of the Khmer Rouge. Its left almost exactly as they found it. Blood and handprints on the walls, broken beds, shackles on the floor. 14 victims were found just left in their cells. It was hard to walk through the museums and see the pictures of the victims (pre and post torture). The Khmer Rouge exterminated so many people for being intellectuals, educated, professors, diplomats, anyone who didn't fit into their communist regime.

We had hoped to see the Grand Palace and Wat Phnom after the sad things as a pick me up but our tuk tuk driver took us in the opposite order. Maybe a western dinner can get us out of this funk...

As for tomorrow, we're hopping on a boat to Vietnam. Our first stop is the Mekong Delta, then to Na Trang and then to Ho Chi Minh City. We wanted to go to Laos for a few days but the transportation was just too expensive. We would've had to fly because well...there's just no convenient way to get to where we wanted to go, and 2 days on a bus were not an option.