Sorry it's been so long since our last post here. it's hard to find time to write down all of our stories in the hour time frame that we get every once in awhile, but we thought we should put up some highlights. (sorry in advance for the vagueness in the descriptions).
The day after the tiger temple we went with our newfound british friend (craig) to the erawen waterfalls. these falls were so gorgeous and there are 7 levels. every one was better than the last. To access some of the waterfalls we had to wade through knee deep water and climb over trees and up little waterfalls, but when we got to the top it was completely worth it! one of the most beautiful things i have ever seen in my life! Carson and I were both speechless for awhile.
That night we came back to town and walked on and took pictures of the historic "bridge over the river kwai"and came back later that night because we thought there was a light show and some excitment that was going to happen. we showed up and the only thing happening was soem thailand cheerleading practice... so we took that night off and enjoyed just sitting and talking, then returned to our bungalow and slept.
The next day Carson and myself took a bus into bangkok and then after a very confusing time at the bus terminal we made our way on another bus to lop buri, wehre we spent the next two nights at an OMF missionary guesthouse. the owners were so nice and coomodating and gave us soem good tips on where to go and just overall it was one of hte better guesthouses. The next day we went and saw the monkey temple in town and had monkeys crawl all over us, and one even tried to steal carsons toque. After that we made our way to the train station and took a train to the old capital city of thailand "Ayuthaya". spent the day there doing a tour looking at all the ruins around the town. By the end of the day we were both agreeing that "a pile of bricks is a pile of bricks", but we still managed to enjoy ourselves. we came back on the train and had a little bit of confusion with a motorcycle taxi bringing carson back to the right guesthouse, but it all worked out.
The next day we took a mini bus into bangkok. definitely not wroth the hassle.. it would have been alot easier to take a train. but oh well. we got there got to ride the skytrain and the subway around town till we got to an area of town called lumphini. (A huge thank you to Cynthia for showing us the ropes when we first arrived in this crazy town a month ago!) we got off and made our way to find a guesthouse, and we found one for surprisingly cheap for being in bangkok (only 160 baht) but it was 4 walls, practically a slab of rock for a bed, and a shared bathroom. but oh well we managed there for a night. that night we went out to see a traditional muay-thai (thai-boxing) match. the atmosphere was absolutely electrifying and crazy with the people betting and just the cheers and shouts of the crowd. It was like a mini BC place when the lions have just scored a touchdown. The experience was amazing... The next day we got up soemwhat early and tried to find the candian embassy to get our vietnam visas... after running into soem fellow candians from victoria we found the place and were told we had to go to the vietnam embassy... byt his time we were already pushing it to be at the airport 3 hours before our international flight to cambodia. so we just got a cab and told him to take us to the airport... For those of use who dont know, bangkok has two airports... we didnt know that, and guess what we found out the hard way. so we arrived at the wrong airport after telling our cab driver the right one and we thoguht he understood but i guess not. We had to take a bus from that airpor to the main one and we're already only 2.5 hours before our flight leaves the ground... so an hour later we finally made it to the right airport and got checked in an hour and a little bit before our flight left. grabbed some luncha nd then we were in the air off to phnom penh (the capitol of cambodia)
As soon as we arrived in cambodia there was a difference... the people here were all smiles and just a warm people. carson and i both love the vibe out here... we found a place for the night and then hit the sack. the next day we went to see the killing fields, the genocide museum and the royal palace... the killing fields were horrendous. jsut to think of all the horrors that happened there and just the anguish and pain of the cambodian people... it was heart-breaking for myself. then we went to see the genocide museum at security center 21 (s-21 / tuol sleng high school) a high school that was used to torture and brutally murder innocent cambodian people suspected of treason to the pol pot regime duing the 1970s... Again this epxerience was heart-breaking. Just walking down the street afterwards and having this new understanding of the people and where they are coming from and why you dont really see anyone over the age of50-60 around... after seeing these two places we finshed hte day by seeing the royal palace and the silver pagoda... The highlight of this sectio of the day was getting to sit down with some guys playing music and get to play with them on some form of xylophone type thing, but Carson and I were both too tired to really enjoy it... plus after seeing the royal palace in bangkok, this one didnt compare.
The next day we headed off to Siem reap to sepnd the next few days looking at the ruins of the Angkor wats. They were stunning! the ngiht we arrived we went to see a sunset and it wasnt actually that great but the following 3 days carson and I got to explore the other ruins and we had a blast. I dont htink we needed anymore time becaseu by the end we were getting templed out but just seeing these vast and amazing structures and the murals and sculptures. Amazing! The photos taken dont do it justice at all. And the feeling of being indiana jones... priceless! Also in our time spent in siem reap we discovered the cambodian version of the mennonite favorite "roll kuchen". Though no where near as good as my mothers, it was still a nice treat to have every breakfast.
Today we got on a bus and made our way back to phnom penh. WE had to stop about 25 km outside of the town becasue its so busy here for independance day (nov.9) and the water festival that accompanies it. There are dragon boat races going on right now ads i type. And tonight there is suppsoed to be a firework show that Carson and I are going to try to go to. And then tomorrow mornign we take another 6 hour bus to the city of Saigon (Ho Chi Minh) in southern vietnam, and we'll see what adventures await us out there.
-Adam
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