So the rest of my time in Bangkok was great, I met up with the group I will be traveling with for the next couple weeks. The group consist of mostly young people from Australia, Ireland and England. My roommate is a ex pro surfer with lots of tattoos and every sentence includes the word "Dude", "Shocking", or "Unreal."....it's quite funny! Also there are three Irish guys, all of which have super strong accents that no one can understand.
Anyways, we traveled by van to Cambodia on Friday. We crossed the border of Cambodia at Poi pet and took a dirt road to Siem Reap (a five hour trip). To say that Cambodia is poor is an understatement. The majority of Cambodians live on 1 dollar a day...I had no idea what that really meant until I crossed the border on Friday. The road is a major road that connects one of the biggest border crossings in Cambodia with the second largest city. So you would think it would have proper pavement, but it doesn't, just huge potholes and lots of mud. There were times when I thought for sure the van would break down or pop a tire. There are rice paddies on both sides of the dirt road, in which people are harvesting rice. Kids are running everywhere, along with chickens, dogs, cats, water Buffalo... the houses are really shacks made out of palm leaves and bamboo with lots of garbage everywhere. The dirt road was so busy the entire time we were on it...tons of motor bikes, beat up cars, bikes...all on the road in some kind of organized chaos.
Kids are everywhere, with no supervision, either trying to sell something or just begging. You have to understand that these kids are the cutest kids I've ever seen! It's no wonder Angelina Jolie adopted Maddox! Anyways, the hard thing is when they beg all the money goes back to their parents or overseer and is not spent on the children at all. They are not educated and most end up in the child sex industry or prostitution once they get a bit older...it's so horrible. So the long story short is if you give them money it makes the problem worse, but it's so hard to see them in poverty and just turn away.
Yesterday we went to the Ankor Wat complex, of which the Ankor Wat temple is one of the seven wonders of the world. We watched the sunrise over the temple this morning which was so breathtaking...It was one of those few perfect moments in life. I took so many pictures and when I find a better computer will share them.
Well gotta go, as internet is a bit expensive and the connection is so slow. Will write more once I get to Pnom Penh.
