After a couple of days in Bangkok, we forced ourselves to become travellers again. We had it easy in Thailand, not really moving around much or doing any sightseeing. We needed the break, but it made it hard to get excited about a 12-hour (or more) bus ride into Cambodia. Woe is us, I know... We pulled ourselves out of bed at around 5am to try and make it to the bus station early--we knew we had a long day ahead of us. We traipsed outside to find a cab, but we headed towards the main backpackers' area. Big mistake. The cabs there all want to set a fixed price which is often as much as 10 times higher than if they use the meter. Not one of them would agree to using the meter! Not a good way to start the day. Finally we managed to get a tuk tuk driver to take us for a reasonable price and we were off. We weren't 100% sure what bus station we needed, but the driver seemed to understand that we wanted to go to Camodia. We put our faith in him and he didn't let us down! It took a long time to get to the station and we arrived at about 6:45 only to find out that the next bus didn't leave until 9:30. We bought the tickets and walked away, only to see another bus company that leaves from the same station had a bus leaving at 7! We luckily got our money refunded and ran to catch our bus. The ride to the Cambodian border was on a comfy air-conditioned bus that travelled on smooth, paved roads. We arrived and proceeded to meet a dozen people who wanted to "help" us cross the border smoothly. We had been warned about these people and politely, but firmly, said no. For example, there was one guy who would help us get a tourist entry visa into Cambodia. He told me it was $25 US, when the sign behind him said $20. He insisted that if we paid $25 we would get into the country in minutes, but if we only paid $20 we would wait for at least 3 hours. We decided to take our chances. Sure enough, less than 10 minutes later we had our passports back and were headed to immigration! The road from the border to Siem Reap was brutal. It rivalled anything we travelled on in Lesotho. The "bus" was a mini van stuffed to the gills with white people and their luggage. No air conditioning, no shocks and no hope of making it in less than 5 hours. ouch. We arrived late and found a place to stay. The next morning our first order of business was to get a massage. $4 US gets you an hour-long massage done by a blind person who has been trained in Shiatsu massage techniques. Wowsers. It was a beautiful thing for our sore bodies! And the money goes to help the disabled, who are at a huge disadvantage in Cambodia. Cambodia is a beautiful country with fantastic people. But the poverty here is almost unfathomable. It is right up there with Lesotho and the utter desparation is unlike anything we have seen anywhere else in Asia. We definitely feel a pull to help these people who are still so scarred from the civil war and its aftermaths. We've only been here a few days, so we will see what our overall impressions are as time goes on. -m&j