it was a busy and eventful 28 hours. allow me to explain.
and go grab yourself a coffee for this.
oh, and mom, make sure you're sitting down.
dont get angry.
love you. :)
..
at 2pm, a taxi came to pick us up at idc on ko tao. we said our final goodbyes to the instructors and managers that were around, threw our bags into the back of the truck, and headed to the pier. our boat was scheduled to leave at 2:30.
au contrare.
thai time is late. always. our two-thirty boat didn't even reach the dock until somewhere around three-thirty. as we were sitting in the waiting area, a familiar face sat down next to us. it was paul, alex's open water instructor at idc. he's from england, which is a relief. english as a first language is always nice. with the rest of the mass of people waiting, we scurried on the boat, understanding that we were already going to be over an hour behind. we threw out bags in the pile and sat in the very front of the boat to watch the point slice the water as we made our way toward to the mainland. it was going to be a three hour boat ride. the sun was high, but with the passing time, it sank to the horizon line and the breeze from the ocean kept us cool.
we arrived at champorn on the mainland somewhere between six-thirty and seven, only to hear that our bus wasn't going to arrive to pick us up until half-past nine. wonderful. we sat down at a table with urska, a girl from slovenia, and made ourselves comfortable. knowing we had almost three hours to waste and only a night-bus to sleep on, we figured, what else to do? paul grabbed the first round of 40-ounce chang beers as a refresher, but it wasn't long after that we needed another round.
to supplement our game of asshole, of course.
i had bought a deck of cards in ko tao knowing they'd come in handy at some point. we tried to teach the europeans asshole, but it was too difficult. instead, they tried to teach us shithead, but this too wasn't ideal. we settled on kings, writing out all of the rules. as we went through them chronologically, their eyes brightened. "this game is god! everyone drinks all the time!"
yeah. it is the college staple card game for a reason.
paul with his head on the table after saying "drink."
we continued playing, shortly disrupted at one point by nearby thai children ranging from about five to nine years old. "farang! farang!!"
they smiled for the camera, arm wrestled paul, repeated everything we said, and looked through our pictures.
they fought over our stuff, looking at the ko tao postcards. i didn't think i'd get them back.
this little guy was my favorite. obviously the youngest, he was more obnoxious and much more daring than the other kids. he pulled my asia on a shoestring book out of my bag, sat down, and started looking at the foreign letters.
we all had our cameras out, taking pictures of the boys. they were a little confused with the size of alex and i's slrs, so she showed them the screen on the back. fascinated, the scrolled through the pictures of themselves. we kept a close eye on them and our stuff, egging them on, amused. a few minutes later, they scurried back home. after 2 hours, the bus finally came. it just so happened that there were 2 floors, but only 8 seats downstairs. the four of us quickly grabbed seats in the smaller room to continue our fun. after all, how else would we sleep on the bus? they're uncomfortable and we knew we wouldn't have the chance to sleep again til the next night. we made friends with two of the other four people in the room with us, but the last two girls wanted us out.
i'll allow alex to explain that one.
sharing the last of our beer with our two new friends, we ran out rather quickly. we sent urska with her suave negotiating skills to talk to the bus driver. after a bribe, he stopped on the side of the road when most people were asleep. she, paul and alex scurried off to buy more beer. i, on the other hand, helped the poor sick girl from upstairs as she threw up beside the bus.
whatever.
once back on the bus, we continued our game. it wasn't long after this that i fell asleep. for the entire rest of the drive up to bangkok. um, about six hours. i was awakened suddenly when we stopped at the bus stop in the city at 5am. confused and having to pee like i've never gone in my life, i grabbed my bags and got off the bus. at this point, i had no patience. my head was still spinning, as i'm still partially drunk. since we were only at the dock in champorn, all i had gotten to eat were pringles in a 20 hour period so the beer was still doing me justice after my sleep. i got off the bus in a daze and rather frustrated.
"dammit. why. the hell. am i still drunk. i dont want to be drunk. i wanted to sleep and wake up sober. what the hell is going on here?"
as i step down, i'm bombarded with taxi drivers, as usual.
"taxiiiii, taxiiiii, where you go? where you go?"
i've got no smiles to spare right now.
"no where. no, i dont want your damn taxi."
as i walk by the first one, another asks me the same question. "taxiii, i take you, where you go?"
"god. i'm not even staying in the city. get away. i dont want your freakin taxi. i want a toilet. do you have a toilet in your taxi? no."
i'd pee there anyway at this point.
i look back at alex, urska and paul. "guys, what the hell. this is ridiculous. why am i still drunk? im tired. im hungry, god i'm so hungry, and i have to pee so bad. why is everything spinning, this... is bullshit... dammit..." i ramble and complain, still not sure of what's going on.
another taxi driver offers me a ride.
"shh. no, dont talk, you just watched me tell that guy no, and that guy no, i dont want your taxi, toilet, toilet!"
sensing my frustration, paul and alex led the way to the police station where our bus would pick us up. in two more hours. at 7am.
we found a toilet on the way. thank god.
..
there was a 24 hour subway right next to the police station. we went to town on two italian subs. once we finished, we sat our bags outside of the station, only to lay down on them, and fall in and out of sleep. on the sidewalk of khao san road. in the middle of bangkok.
this was our view before we closed our eyes.
..
the bus eventually picked us up and alex andi eventually lost our buzzes. just in time to be cramped in a minibus with little ac and make way for our headaches of so many moving vehicles again. cursing ourselves, we shared the buds to my ipod and reminisced about american music and how much we missed it. i stared out the window, watching as palm trees grew taller and skinnier, with their leaves becoming smaller and more rounded. land became flatter, and the trees became more scarce.
we arrived at the border around 11:30, and our driver hooked us up with some cambodia government workers to take us across the border. this was another painful experience, as there were 30 of us in the group-- however, this is what lonely planet suggests you do to cross, so our frustrations were calmed by knowing that we were in good hands. but with so many people, the crossing took three hours. and probably a few gallons of sweat per person in the dry heat. the thought of a shower was the only thing that helped us through the journey.
it wasn't until 3:00 that we were transferred to our taxis that took us directly to siem reap. from there, a tuk-tuk brought us to our first-choice guesthouse, where we were given the last room, which is literally in the attic of the guesthouse, through the laundry room and into the back corner. there are no windows, except for the cutout rectangle in the door to our room's private bathroom.
yeah that's right. we can watch each other shower if we want.
..
let's talk currency.
1usd = about 4200 riel, the cambodian currency. since it's such a high number, cambodians wanted an easier way to deal with money.
so they actually adopted the usd.
when i went to the atm today and withdrew money, it spit five pictures of andrew jackson into my hand. at the local store, i bought $3.10 worth of merchandise. i handed the woman a twenty, and she asked me if i had the ten cents because she didn't have ninety to give me. i shook my head, so she asked me for riel. "uh, just give me five hundred," and she shrugged. i was able to pay for my items in two different currencies, including one from the other side of the world, estimating the exchange rate to be on their behalf.
who knew.
..
we ended our evening with dinner and relaxation. we're not doing the temples tomorrow, as we want to make sure we can get there early in the morning, and we need time to sleep right now. i'm sure we'll shop and find ways to occupy ourselves, and maybe see one of the smaller temples. we'll keep you posted.
..
Y rae. racho. d.
