Bangkok (giggle) & Cambodia

So after our relaxing time in Ko Samui, we flew to Bangkok for a couple of nights before heading to Cambodia.  We arrived in Bangkok in the late afternoon and the first thing we did after checking into our hotel was go on a hunt for some Korean food which Sharon had been craving for some time.  After a quick internet search, we discovered that Korea Town was only a few stops away on the SkyTrain and off we went.  We found it with little difficulty.

Perhaps the most excited Sharon has been during our travels so far.

After checking out several restaurants, Sharon finally decided on one and we sat down and had a delicious Korean feast.  I had some 김밥 and some 됀창찌께, and Sharon had some 냉면 and some 생선.

After dinner we walked around Bangkok a bit and found a really nice park.  You can tell Bangkokians are pretty fit as the park was filled with people working out at the outdoor gyms, running, and playing sports.  We came across people playing a game which looked almost like volleyball, except they play it with only their feet.  I was mesmerized.  Sharon had to pull me away.

The guy's foot went over his head as he served the ball.  Crazy.

The next day we headed out to for some Bangkok sightseeing.  I've already forgotten most of the names of the places we visited, but here are some pics to fill you in on our day:

My first tuktuk ride since I was six.

We had our first of many tuktuk rides throughout SE Asia, which was my first tuktuk ride since I was last in Bangkok when I was six with my family.  On that ride our driver bumped into a motorcycle with a whole family of five on it, which eventually resulted in the father on the bike pulling a knife on our driver.  So fortunately, our tuktuk drive was much less eventful although Sharon was still scared for her life through much of the ride.

Who can resist a gong?  Not me.

Sharon & a giant reclining Buddha at Wat Pho.

High fiving it with some Buddhas at Wat Pho.

"Mix it up.  Give me ten!"

Taking a boat ride through the canals of Bangkok with gun drawn.

The highlight of Bangkok for me.  Sweet Blizzard how I love thee.

The next day we had to get up at 3am so we could make it over to the train station to buy tickets for the 6am train to the Thailand-Cambodia border.  The good news was that we had no trouble getting our tickets.  The bad news was that this was by far the worst train ride of my life.  First off, we didn't realize that you could board the train more than 40 minutes before departure.  So by the time we boarded the train, all the seats we already taken.  Thank goodness a train attendant took pity on us and found us some seats after telling a Thai family to move over to make room for us.  I think I would have jumped off the train at some point if I had to stand the entire 8 hour trip (which many people had to do).  Oh yeah, did I forget to mention the train was not air conditioned?  And the temperature that day was in the mid 90's with close to 100% humidity.  The only saving grace was that there was a fan directly above us.  Unfortunately, we got into a fan tug of war match between another Thai passenger who kept moving the fan direction away from us and on to him.  After many back and forths, I think he finally realized that Sharon wasn't going to back down and he finally gave up.  Yay wife!

"Will somebody please put me out of my misery????"

The trip was originally supposed to leave at 6am, but didn't depart until 7am, and then took an hour longer than scheduled to get to the border, so the six hour trip turned into eight.  The train was completely packed, with the aisle crowded with passengers making the trip standing up.  I had a butt in my face most of the trip.  At one point, this girl spotted an inch of seat next to me and decided to sit down next to me.  I was not amused...

Unfortunately my Superman shirt did not give me the power to shoot lasers out of me eyes.

The ride from hell finally ended though, and we found ourselves at the border, and after 30 minutes of waiting in lines, we walked our way into Cambodia.

Hellooooo Cambodia!

After crossing into Cambodia, we had to hop on a bus for another 3 hours of travel to get ourselves to Siem Reap.  Once we arrived at our hotel in Siem Reap I had one of the best showers of my life.

We stayed 2 full days in Siem Reap to check out all the old Khmer temples in the area including Angkor Wat.  The temples were all amazing, especially Angkor Wat.  We hired a tuktuk for two days to drive us around to all the sights, and hired a guide on the second day when we went to see Angkor Wat.  Too bad for us our guide's english was pretty bad so we pretty much just nodded our heads at him the entire time while having no clue what he was talking about.

Here are some pics of our Khmer temple adventures:

Real life Ents taking over a Khmer temple.

Sharon giving some love to a Buddha.

Good to know cock fighting has been around for over 800 years.

Just after sunrise in front of Angkor Wat.

Sharon contemplating life inside Angkor Wat.

While in Siem Reap, we also came across some interesting restaurants while walking around town one day.  First we saw this sign...

And then this sign...

And then finally this sign...

Our interest was finally piqued so we had to try one of these joy giving pizzas.  We opted to go to Happy Special Pizza and ordered an "extra happy" Hawaiian pizza.  While it was actually quite tasty, we didn't find anything truly "happy" or "special" about it.

A happy Sharon and our "extra happy" pizza.

After Siem Reap, we took a 6 hour bus to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.  Though there was nothing that stood out about the city, Sharon and I both really enjoyed our two days there.  So much so that we would describe our time there as Phnomenal (you can thank me for that amazing word play).  It was really easy to get around the city, everything was super cheap, and things were just really laid back there.  Our lone tourist venture of note while we were there was to visit the S-21 prison which was used as a detention and torture facility by the Khmer Rouge when they took over Cambodia in the late 70's.  Over 20,000 prisoners made their way through the prison, while only seven survivors were found when the Vietnamese liberated the city in 1979.  It was very depressing touring the place, but also very interesting.

Torture/interrogation room as it was found in 1979.

A sign forbidding laughing or smiling during the tour.  It gave us a good chuckle.

After Phnom Penh, we bused it to Vietnam for two weeks which Sharon will share with you in her next blog post.  Later.