Cambodia

As Jon mentioned, we've been spending the last few days visiting the temples and historic sights around Siem Reap, Cambodia. I love Cambodia. There are extreme juxtapositions here, which became immediately apparent at the border--our border crossing experience was awful and hectic and confusing, but we made it here to Siam Reap just fine. I think our experience at the border was mainly the fault of the Thais selling us an overpriced visa at the border claiming it was the only place to receive them, but the whole scam began from the bus drop off at the border market, a tuk tuk taking us directly to the "border consulate" to sell us the overpriced visa and then a cab ride with another disgruntled German couple to Siem Reap. If you plan to undertake a land entrance from Bangkok to Cambodia, be sure to push through to the actual border at Cambodia before purchasing a visa. We only lost like $20 US, but it is just frustrating to be had in broad daylight. But in all honesty I am quite glad to be out of Thailand and in Cambodia. The Cambodians are an amazingly resilient people and have endured much intense hardship this century, including the horrors of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. Unbelievably horrible, but it is amazing to me how a community can prevail...can find strength to move on after such atrocity. And everyone smiles and is so friendly! It is easy to forget the power of a smile. (Speaking of the resilience of a people, how exciting for the people of Egypt! We were watching BBC and al jezeera every night, especially because we will be visiting Egypt in May. It should be a really exciting time to be there if things are a bit more stabilized. It is awesome to see the power of a people when they speak in a non-violent way...to see the strength of a community. It is so interesting to see the role that the internet and social media played in the whole thing...and to see how it has shaken the surrounding countries. I hope that it will help to shape the whole region with more power to the people....even the bloggers in China might have a chance to speak out! It is so easy to take our freedoms in the States for granted. Although things are certainly not perfect, we have a lot to be thankful for!! Traveling always makes me thankful!)

-Jesikah

Below: Jon at Angkor Wat
And young monks