Cambod--

Sterling got in to Bangkok at 11am on the 14th. Took us until about 1am to get bags, get back to the hotel, get some snacks, and get to bed. We had a 8am bus the next morning to Cambodia. You don't have jet lag, right Sterling? Good.

Headed out to Siem Reap to go see Angkor Wat. The site was cool, the city was bizarre. Really, the whole country is bizarre. Angkor Wat is one of those "must do" places in SE Asia, so everybody does it. Driving into the city we passed the highest concentration of high class hotels that I had seen to date. Who is staying in all these places? There must have been at least 20 really nice looking ones, then a lot of a little less nice looking ones, and even more cheapies. So many.

Couldn't get over the feeling that everybody in Cambodia was trying to rip us off. Promises that weren't met, tuk tuk drivers who would drop you off at their buddy's place no matter where you said you wanted to go, "services" being offered...it was a rather cynical approach but it was hard to shake. Couldn't walk more than one block without someone yelling "Hey lady! Where you go! Tuk Tuk!". Now granted, that is all of SE Asia, but it seemed more desperate here. It was unsettling. So we went to Angkor Wat (by tuk tuk), ran around (and climbed on) the temples, then pretty well fled. Things will be better in Pnohm Penh? Maybe it's just because Siem Reap exists (apparently) solely to serve (profit from) the tourists drawn in by Angkor Wat.

Things weren't all that much better in Phnom Penh. We didn't really like the feeling in Camodia, so we left the next day for Vietnam. It feels narrow minded to give up on a country after two days (two cities), but we don't have that much time. We spent our time in Phnom Penh visiting S21, the Khmer Rouge "reeducation center" (torture prison). It was really sad. Learned a lot about recent (shockingly recent) Khmer history, got depressed, and didn't take any pictures. On to Vietnam!