Thailand

Im in Thailand now, although yesturday I had a tad bit of a hard time getting across the border. My 4 hour journey to Trat, took 12 hours and I ended up in Bangkok....At 6:30 in the morning took a share taxi from battamabang to the Pailin border crossing to Thailand, its open to foreigners but not that commonly used, I paid so much money for this car that they crammed full of supplies and people, that Im sure I paid far more than all the others combined. I arrived at the crossing and the Cambodian border guard showed me a new regulation, keep in mind he spoke barely any English. The sign said that in order to cross into Thailand you needed to have travel arrangements or a bus ticket. It was unclear, so the Cambodian officer drove me to the Thai side, who didnt speak any English, because I didnt have the documentation they wanted and they wouldnt take a bribe?!!? I couldnt get across. Ahhhhh. So they let me know that there was another crossing that a motorbike could take me to, where I could buy a bus ticket?, now this border crossing was 2 hours away and NOT on the map...so I hopped on the back of the bike and headed through the middle of nowhere. At the time I arrived I saw a group of foreigners and I was shocked....so I ended up having to pay a huge amount of money for the cambodian side to print me a fake bus ticket, just to prove that I had travewlled in cambodia I guess?! They told me that there was a mini bus heading to Bangkok and that it was leaving right away and if I didnt take it he couldnt help me....which was true. I went through the border and hopped on a bus to Bangkok full of tourists, eventhough trat was only 45 minutes away there was NO one to take me!!! Turns out that the driver, a lovley german man, has a business of doing visa runs for people living in thailand but from other countries, and it just so happened that at the exact time I was there he had brought a group of people to re start their visas and had he not been there I would have been up shit creek with out a paddle. Once I found this out I understood why the thai border officer called over the other officer to tell her that it was my 1st time in Thailand and he shared his food with me :) Claudio told me that NO ONE uses that crossing!!!

When I arrived in Bangkok I was unprepared because I wasnt expecting to end up there....Claudio invited me to stay with his family for the night and it happened to be his sons birthday party, I met a whole house full of amazing thais and ate the most amazing food!! Today Im heading to Koh Samet for 5 days before meeting up with Ash again Bangkok!!!! Later, megs

Its sunny again!!

Well Ashley and I spent 5 or so days down south at the beach where it rained the whole time. We went to a national park just outside of Kampot (a really cool little town)....hopped on the top of a pick up truck and headed on our way....6 hours in total on a rocky, bumpy dirt road dodging trees!!! My backside was so bruised the next day!!!next stop Phnom Phen(my 4th time visiting)where we chilled out for a few days!!! It finally got sunny yesturday and I think it will probably stay sunny for the rest of my trip?!!!???!! Off to Thailand in 2 days to chill out on the beach and drink coconuts!!!

Lost shoes

Hello everyone!! Today Ashley and took a bus to Shinoukville in the south of Cambodia. We are staying in an amazing bungalow on the beach, it is heaven. I did however have quite an adventure....On our way to dinner I fell in QUICKSAND....seriously, right up to my stomach....quite a shock.....I was able to get out, but not with my shoes and I have forever lost them!!!! I think I am going to go back to the spot and do a reinactment for a photo ;) I was laughing so hard...I wish it was on video!! I still cant believe that I fell in quicksand!!! Oh but I miss my shoes, they have been good to me. I said to Ashley "how many people can say they have sunk in quicksand!!!" Oh it was priceless!!!! Well Im heading back to my bungalow now...I borrowed a flashlight so that I dont fall in quicksand again!!!!

W

Hello Everyone (I am unable to write a title for this blog...so its titled W??).....I have had enought adventures the past five days to last hmmmmm a life time :) Five days ago I met up with Ashley in Phnom Phen,who is from Kamloops, so exciting!! and we decided to go on an adventure. The next morning we hopped on the bus to the mondokiri province in the far east of Cambodia (If you google it it wont come up because I dont know how to spell it!!!) The roads were said to have been built by the bastard child of the devil himself, and that wasnt even in the rainy season, which it is now!!!! So we prepared ourselves for a hardcore 5 hour journey to where very very few backpackers go, 13 hours later we arrived in Se Monoram! The 1st leg of our journey was on a local bus, part way we switched to another small bus and headed down a road that was the worst I had ever seen....until the torrential rains came (also the worst I had ever seen) and we had to hop into the back of a very full land rover to slip and slide through the meter(s) of red mud. Trucks were stuck the whole way along the road...I have amazing pics and videos as it was so so unreal, but the connection is so slow in Cambodia I cant download pics, 3 times the roads were so bad that everyone had to hop out of the truck in the rain and tramp through the mud!!!! We laughed the whole time, even when the driver had a flat tire and when he kept having to stop and check under the hood!!!!

We arrived to a lovely village amongst green rolling hills, we are staying in a lovely little bungalow and it is so so peaceful. Chilling out in the hammock and reading book!! Ah its the life. Yesturday we went to a minority village where we went trekking through the jungle on the back of an elephant!!! She was destruction elephant!!! She pulled out anything in her path....bushes, banana trees and as we were walking she walked over to a very large ancient tree and began to pull off a branch. I said "wow, she is so strong, I cant believe she can pull of that branch," as I said this she grabbed a hold of the trunk of the tree and pulled the entire tree, roots and all, out of the ground with her trunk........unreal. If this was a touristy place there would be NOTHING left of the jungle. Nothing!!! It was uber cool and uncomfortable being on the back of an elephant!!

Ashley and I ended up getting a ride home with the director of the Red Cross in Cambodia who invited us to have dinner with him and his friends!! A free meal, who could say no!!!! Now I have eaten some really gross things so far...spiders, silkworms, snake, scorpions etc....but what I ate last night still turns my stomach and makes me cringe when I thik about it!!! We had a 'buffet' of minority food that you can only get in this region that consisted of ground bird, literally, feathers, guts, beak, bones...the whole thing, a very strange liver dish that just looked so so wrong and a minority soup which was made of congealed cow blood, blood and was full of all the strange bits of animal that you would NEVER ever eat at home the bits that would go in the garbage...furry bits, crunchy bits, chewy bits....oh and it just tasted so wrong!!! We couldnt refuse as we were guests and the food was served onto our plates for us....poor Ashley was given 2 bowls of blood soup!!! I only had one....

Tomorrow we are heading back on the same road we came for our '5' hour journey!!!! Off to the beach soon!!!! Later megs

Riding in the Rain

Oh how I LOVE Cambodia, it really is my kinda country!!! Yesturday I cycled 30 kilometers(on a bycicle)through the amazing temples of Angkor and only 6 kilometers of that was spent riding through torrential downpour in winds so strong that we (Nichola and I) could barely stay upright, rain so heavy that we were in tonnes of pain, and water up to the pedals of our bikes...oh and in addition to that my bike kept breaking until it was completely permanently broken 3 or 4 kilometeres outside of Siem Reap!!!! It was so so funny, I took a brilliant video.....normal people pulled over and waited under trees, but not us, we were already wet and thought why not keep going!!!! Ended up having to load both bikes onto a tuk tuk to get back into town!!

I am in Siem Reap, the town near Angkor Wat...it is such a lovely place...quite touristy but in a brilliant yet expensive way!!! If you imagine the coolest, trendiest coffee shop, gift shop or restaurant you've ever seen or been to and then combine a whole bunch of them into the centre of a small town and then add jungles and the most amazing temples in the world (and the slowest internet) that is Siem Reap. Its just perfect!!!

Can you believe I cycled 30km????

Creepy Crawlers....

Tonight I ate a spider the size of my hand, a grasshopper and a frog and since travelling I can now eat olives, tomatoes (I know its a miracle)and mushrooms!!!!
And Just so everyone knows spiders do NOT taste good :)

Im in Cambodiaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!

Well I have arrived safely in Cambodia...took a bus from Saigon this morning, paid extra for the special express bus with a toilet, however the roads were so incredibly bad that I was afraid the toilet would spill everywhere if i used it!! ha ha!!!!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE Cambodia, eventhough I've only been here 8 hours. Its very different from Vietnam...Im staying in a little room overlooking the lake with the mangiest shared bathroom i have EVER seen....but its only $3!!! I made sure that the first word i learned was 'it's too expensive'!!! which i've come to realize is the most important phrase you can ever learn in a language!

I read a book before coming here and it has changed how i look at life...its called 'first they killed my father' and if any of you get the chance you should read it. After reading that book I have so much admiration and respect for what the people in Cambodia have been through.


Well thats about it for now....I cant believe any of you actually read my last post..impressive, it was so long and really didnt make much sense!!!

Later, megs