siem reap, cambodia – day 1

I fell asleep on the bus! This was an achievement.

If you’re traveling by land from Bangkok to Cambodia, it is important that you have luggage small and light enough to lift over bumps, because you will be walking from the bus stop to  the border.

The phrase “the border” has such dark connotations, thanks to Hollywood portrayal of the Mexican border, but our crossing over to Cambodia was rather uneventful. We walked through a dusty road and entered the Immigration Office, with wooden floors and creaky wall fans. Immigration officials were jolly. This office, strangely, was not located directly on the border, so that means you would be walking in the Kingdom of Cambodia visa-less for around five to ten minutes, passing by casinos and souvenir stores.

After having our passports stamped, we were given a free ride to the tourist lounge in Poipet.

The lounge looked deserted.

We hired a van to take us to our hotel, Bou Savy Guesthouse.

My friends with cold towels, writing their names in the tourist registry.

I like Bou Savy. It’s homey, the people are nice, and the food is affordable. Order their curry! It’s so good, and not very spicy, perfect for spicephobes. (I made that word up.)

Iced coffee! Finally!!!

Thank God for this quiet first day. We just stayed indoors until it was time to go to the night market.

We also tried their sidewalk massages.

See the fishies in the aquarium there? That’s a Happy Feet station, except that tilapia ‘ata yung kakain sa dead skin cells mo. (Seriously, the fish were big.)

Sarap.

I would have wanted a longer back massage, but I didn’t have any more dollars.