Thursday, August 9, 2007

You can't drink and come to work; you're not airline pilots!

Well my trip is quickly coming to an end. I just got back from a 4 day trip to Cambodia and let me tell you I am tired. Going drinking the night before a 7 am bus always sounds better before you stuff yourself full of Indian food, drink copious amounts of beer followed by several of Cambodia's "Thai buckets" (I said I wouldn't drink any more of these, but I lied). The first bar I went to with this guy James (we met in the taxi on the way to the airport) was full of old white men and Cambodian prostitutes (or at least I assume that's what they were). They kept on grabbing me and trying to get me to dance. The beer combined with the girls made me think staying was a bad idea so we moved to the bar across the street and promptly got trashed.
Prior to my trip to Cambodia, I was on Koh Tao where I finished my Open Water certification and completed 3 of my 5 advanced dives. At first I wasn't so sure if diving was my thing, but I quite enjoy it now. The only downside to going on 7 dives in 3 days was that I was too exhausted to drink or really explore the island. The only thing I really saw was the ocean, which was quite nice.
I hadn't planned on going to Cambodia, but after spending a week on various Islands, I was ready to explore something new. Generally there are two methods for getting there; by bus or by plane. The bus costs about $50, but takes anywhere from 12 to 16 hours while the plane costs $200 and takes 1 hour (not including a 5 hour bus ride to the Siem Reap, which costs $7). Being pressed for time and lazy I flew. In total I've taken 7 flights, 3 buses, 3 ferries and 2 trains, so naturally based on the sheer number of flights, I've blown away my initial spending estimates....oh well, I'll probably only be here once.
While in Cambodia I spent the majority my time exploring ankor wat, as it is the countries main attraction and the locals there are crazy. After getting off the bus I was behind a high fenced gate where a security guard waited for the passengers to disembark so that he could "let us out". The problem was that as soon as he opened the gate I was instantly surrounded by people trying to offer me accommodations and transportation. Eventually after countless offers of "tuk tuk" and the like, I don't even acknowledge these peoples presence anymore.
Tomorrow I'm going to go to the Tiger Temple, visiting the death railway along with the floating market. On Saturday I'll probably visit the royal palace and buy a crap load of counterfeit products, which will pretty much wrap up my trip.

1 comment:

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