Cambodia is the place to be.

Jamie and I made it to Siem Reap, in beautiful, tropical, luscious, green Cambodia... with hardly a wrinkle in our journey. Our "bus" was actually a nice air-con mini van, then at the border we opted to grab a taxi with two German gals, which took us the remaining 3.5 hrs into Siem Reap. Excellent travel conditions for a mere $10 or so. The road was half paved, half red dirt, but relatively comfortable compared to some scary Himalayan mountain roads I've been on in India. (The drive is all flat through rice paddys.) We did end up paying an extra $10 for our visas, but that wasn't too bad considering we were getting them at the last minute.

We plan to stay here another 3 days and head back to Bangkok the day after. I am already planning my next trip back to Cambodia (and Laos and Vietnam); would like to spend at least a month traveling the countryside and poking around in the little villages. Most people around here live in thatched & woven raised houses on stilts, with coconut trees and luscious jungle foliage surrounding. Many people out in the rice fields working, or standing in the waterways throwing nets at the fish, or boiling the sugar from the palms. Amazing juxtaposition of textures and colors, with the bright red dirt weaving everything together into such a rich sight. Reminds me of the red sand on Prince Edward Island, for all of you LM Montgomery fans :)

Today we hired a tuk-tuk driver for the day and visited some of the outlying ruins outside of Angkor Wat, the last of which, Bakong, was the most beautiful place I have ever been... old stone temple ruins (this one built for Shiva in 877AD) rising up out of the jungle, with a water moat surrounding, and a Buddhist monastery nestled in among the palms and bouganvilla. We happened to be there at that time of the day around 4 pm when the sun is low and bathes everything in that warm, buttery pre-sunset glow... the blues are bluer, warmer and more rich; the reds the color of a hot brick oven.

Our German pals introduced us to the guest house that they were familiar with - it is nice and clean and friendly, with a lovely patio surrounded by foliage where we eat our breakfast. A mere $5 a night for our double room! Love it.

And it seems to be about 75-80 degrees here, although I haven't checked... Now we are off for some dinner and an evening adventure...