hello ms. lady, welcome to cambodia

Hello lady, take a look. Hello lady, come inside. Hello lady, where you from? Lady, lady, LADY! Lord have mercy, the number of times we hear that in the day is out of control.  The word lady has taken on a whole new meaning to me now and I don't think I ever want to be called lady again.  Now that that's off my chest...

Cambodia!  We heard and read over and over again that the border crossing from Thailand to Cambodia is a nightmare so we were prepared for terrible touts, fake immigration officers, illegitimate visas, fake bus stations... any scam out there, we were mentally prepared for it.  And nothing happened! It was a breeze. We kept waiting for something terrible to happen but nothing ever did.  We went from bus to bus to shared taxi (from Bangkok to Siem Reap) without really any problems at all- guess we lucked out :)

Once in Siem Reap we headed out for dinner and to check out the night market...  upon which we almost immediately ran back into the guesthouse.  We managed to stumble upon a tourist street called "Bar Street" that we somehow hadn't heard about.  Man oh man, what a scene it was.  Vasae and I's natural reaction was to flee but we stuck it out to see what all the fuss was about.  We clearly don't get it... This street is lined with bars named things like Wats Up?! (a spin off the word for temple, wat) and a night club named TEMPLE and each place has Justin Beiber or Katy Perry blasting.  Every place was overrun with tourists either drinking or getting "fish massages" where little fish eat the dead skin off your feet while you hang out. Gross. (We'll try it at some point I'm sure but it will not be while I'm at a bar).  We sought refuge in a bakery and called it a night.  I love how we are both 23 year olds going on 87 :)

Tomorrow we'll start to explore Angkor Wat and all its famous temples.  We've heard you can stay here for a month and be entertained by all the temples so we know we have a lot to see in 2 1/2 days.  Should be great!

Here's an amazing glimpse into what every place- be it a restaurant, bus stop, drink shop, etc.- has mounted on the walls...  glamour shots of the family members.  I haven't figured out where this tradition comes from but I like it.