Atleast the night bus from Chiang Mai to Bangkok looked like a club. The mini bus didnt even try to look good, I don't have pictures unfortunately!
So after the six hour mini-bus ride that majorly sucked we made it to the Thai-Cambodian border. Coincidently enough the mini bus drops you off at this "office" where there are Thai "unofficials" telling you that you have to buy your Cambodian Visa there and that it's your last chance to get it. Totally not true and they try to charge you $50 for it! Luckily Robby was Onto them and we told them to shove it. And so we walked to Cambodia and purchased a $20 visa there :)
Borderline! The Kingdom awaits!
From the border Siem Reap (where Angkor Wat is) was another two hours by taxi. But we made it! I had never felt more exhausted/disgusting/sick in my life. Or at least if I have I blocked it from memory. We got to our hostel and immediately crashed. Although it was probably in the 90s outside with 100% humidity I slept with full blankets on - I had major chills from a fever! Robby took care of me though and some how in the morning after lots of sleep we woke up feeling a little better. It was a good thing too because we only had one full day in Angkor Wat and we needed to make the most of it!
Siem Reap was absolutely incredible! You could bike around the whole day looking at all the ruins and temples but due to our current state we opted to have a Tuk Tuk take us. This guy chauffeured us around the entire day by carriage! It felt like the good ole days in our previous life when we were King and Queen of Malaysia.
Three major temples/areas make up the temples of Siem Reap. This one temple area Ta Prohm they also call Tomb Raider now because that's where much of it was filmed. Another temple called the Bayon (our favorite) and then the massive Angkor Wat temple itself. We wandered around all these places in awe - I totally felt like Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider. Except totally different. And just ignore the fact that I hadn't showered that day, we were both covered in sweat, I had a massive fro from the humidity, and we were just straight up nasty. Between being sick and the fact that Cambodia makes Thailand feel like a cool summer breeze with it's heat and humidity - this was full on brutality. But Who cares how we looked - we were just happy to be able to move that day considering how we were feeling. As we were exploring there were multiple times when both Robby and I would say to the other "hold on I think I'm gonna throw up" and then have to walk away and prepare for the worst. Miraculously neither of us did and we were able to see everything we wanted to see!
Cool ruins in Ta Prohm
The was all the tomb raider area, then we headed to Bayon. My favorite!!
Bayon! This temple had cool statues and faces carved inside. It had almost an eerie and super ancient feel about it! Definitely unlike anything we've seen. I feel like I keep saying that but it's true!
Then there was the huge Angkor Wat temple. This all probably looks the same to you, but each place had a little bit of a different feel!
At night there are a ton of night markets and some actually really cool streets with a ton of restaurants and bars. We could see how this would be a backpackers paradise! We roamed around and were able to shop for a while and even tried to eat our first meal in two days (I hadn't eaten anything but crackers and soda since we left Chiang Mai! And Robby was keepin it light too since he was starting to feel sick). My favorite spot in the night area is this street that has a ton of umbrellas tied to one another going all the way down! It looked so cool!! I Love little creative things like that that makes a city stand out :)
After that full day in Cambodia, the next morning it was time to take a bus BACK to Bangkok. I know, this was the fastest we had to travel the entire trip! But we were really able to see all we wanted to see there in one day. This time back we went on a big bus and after taking some drowsy dramamine and knocking out it wasn't too bad ;) we got to bangkok where we were supposed to take a night train to Phuket. Well, once we got to the station we were notified that due to high water all trains that direction were canceled!!! They didn't even know when the trains would be up and running. Both of us shuttered at the thought of having to book a twelve hour bus to get to Phuket now. I would've paid a lot more than $100 bucks for a direct flight from Bangkok to Phuket that night, but luckily that was all we had to pay for some last minute flights. And just like that our travel time to Phuket went from twelve hours to two. Although, we were actually really looking forward to the night train! It had beds and everything! Once in Phucket it was about one in the morning and since we planned to take a ferry to Phi Phi islands that morning at 8am you better believe we slept on the third floor of the Phuket Airport that night. This airport was my least favorite of all airport accommodations, but what kept us going was knowing that the next day we would be frolicking on a beautiful island!
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