Crossing borders is seldom a pleasant experience, and the gateway to Cambodia is no exception. Poipet is one of the worst introductions to a country I've ever seen - it's dirty, in your face, and full of casinos. Not representative of th the rest of the country in any way at all.
But they do have a great arch over the road.
We took a walk to the market the other day and came across this stall selling dried fish. At first we thought they were squid, but then we looked closer. Apparently in Cambodia they remove the bones and guts and cut the fish into strips. I have no idea why they do that, but it looks pretty intimidating.
These kids are riding on the back of the truckload of dirt the road workers removed from the road.
The roads in Cambodia are fucked up beyond belief, but it seems they have no idea how to fix them. These guys are busily digging new potholes in the main street, which they will then fill in with a mixture of broken glass and nails.
I'm kidding, of course, but today I actually saw a guy do just that. I was walking down a side street on the way to the bank when I came upon a guy with a pickup truck shoveling a massive pile of broken tile and bricks onto the middle of the street. Two of his friends were raking it into a nice, unsmooth surface which I expect we'll be driving over for the rest of our time here.
This is one of the girls who works at the Garden Village Guesthouse in Siem Riep. The puppy is about two weeks old.
Many families have these small pagodas someplace outside their house. Every day they make a sacrifice to Buddha in the form of a bit of fruit or a cup of rice. You may be able to see the small pink offering cup on the left side of this pagoda.
We're staying at the Garden Village Guesthouse in Siem Riep. This is the dorm room, where beds are $1 per night. You get a mattress, a pillow, and a mosquito net. What more do you need?
When we got to Siem Riep we decided to take a few days to learn about Angkor Wat instead of just jumping right into it.
Here Fiona is reading in the rooftop bar of our Guesthouse. It's a great spot to watch the sunset, but it's hard to ignore all the other beer-drinking, spliff-rolling foreigners who are constantly saying and doing stupid shit.
All they need is a couple of laid back bowling shirts and some nice smooth shoes...
This was the bullet hole we found in our window in one of the rooms we stayed in when we spent the night in Kratie. If you looked at the wall opposite the window, you could see the patched-over hole the shell left behind.
I'd be lying if I said I got a good night's sleep that day.
This lady simply cannot get enough of these delicious bugs. Look closely and you can see that her fingers are stained with the grease of fried grasshoppers. Yummy!!
A lot of the trucks you see driving around in Cambodia have been scrapped of sheet metal. I can only imagine that it's been sold for cash or something.
Or maybe they're just going for that wasteland Road Warrior look.
A typical morning commute in Phnom Penh involves at least four people packed onto a motorbike. And helmets? We don't need no stinking helmets.
The road from Kratie to Stung Treng was one of the worst roads I've been on in my entire life, and that's saying a lot. This photo was taken when we actually had to get out of the car and help build the road by putting huge rocks in the mud so the car had something to drive over.
How do Cambodians deal with a fallen bridge? Simply lash three canoes together, throw a few boards over them and drive your car onto the makeshift ferry.
Unbelievably, this actually worked, although I'm glad it wasn't my car.
About two hours into the drive, we came across this bridge that had fallen down. In some places, this might have rendered the road impassable, but Cambodia is not one of those places...
