Kuala Lumpur/Cambodia

We jumped on the night train to leave Singapore bound for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and were greeted with the fact that although we were told that we purchases sleeper car tickets, we were sitting in the regular cars. After some debate with the crew (not much due to their lack of English) and paying a little bit extra we got in a sleeper car just after crossing the border into Malaysia. It was also the bumpiest train ride I've ever been on by far, so I got about 2 hours of sleep before arriving in KL at about 6 AM. Our first day there we walked around the city and different markets and everything before heading to the Kuala Lumpur Communication tower to go up to the observation deck to view the city. It is the 4th largest in the world, but because of the fact that it was raining we actually put that on hold and opted to do it the next evening to watch the sunset and see the city at night. If you don't know Kuala Lumpur is home of the famous Petronas Towers which are the twin towers connected by the bridge in the middle, and up until a couple of years ago were the tallest buildings in the world. They are an architectual beauty and are very photogenic. Our second day there we explored the towers and were there both during the day and at night time and got some great pictures. The KL tower was kind of a let down as the observation deck wasn't that big, and was cluttered with souviner shops and packed with quite a few people. The following day we had a 7 AM flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia, and had another interesting airport experience. KL has 3 different airport terminals which are all a good distance away from each other. The only stop that the train has is at the international terminal so we thought we were in good shape. It was the international terminal for elite flights though, and we had to catch a ride over to the other international terminal. We got to the airport at about 6, and the check-in counter closes at 6:15, so we quick grabbed a cab to the other terminal before running to the checkout counter and made it there JUST in time.

Cambodia was in some ways much different then I expected, and in some ways it was sadly what I thought it would be. Suprisingly they use United States currency, and of all the countries we've been to I would say they spoke the best English too..probably including Australia ;) One of the first things that hit you was how it is a country that is struggling to obtain its identity after several years of terror and war. You could still see the pain on the faces of a lot of the people caused by the Khmer Rouge. This was very evident in the number of people on the streets that were missing arms and legs, and asking for money. It was so sad to see the destruction caused by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, as they killed nearly 2 million Cambodians with most of the deaths coming in the form of starvation and disease. At the time that was approximately a quarter of the entire population. The people missing limbs that we encountered most likely lost them due to disease or even land mines that are still around the countryside, and we probably saw close to 10 people in one afternoon while eating lunch and walking through part of town. The majority of the streets were just dirt roads with enormous pot holes that made riding down them in taxi's, buses, or tuk tuks extremely uncomfortable.

Aside from all that seeing the temples at Angkor Wat was a great experience. We were only in Cambodia for a few days to see them, and bought our day ticket the evening before so we could get in for free to watch the sunset from the top of one of the temples. Apparently everyone else had the same idea as it was packed with people. We got to bed early that night as the next day we left at 5 AM to watch the sunrise over the main temple, Angkor Wat. That was really a great experience to see that, and its also the first time in a while that I remember being up for a sunrise! Throughout the rest of the day we were wandering around and exploring other temples. Also while in Cambodia an ATM acted up on me and I never recieved the $200 that I took out, yet it was charged to my account. I've already contacted the bank about it...too bad it wasn't First National Bank of Michigan since I feel I might have some more leverage there. But if anyone wants to send me a check to help fund the rest of my trip I wouldn't be opposed! The next morning we had to get up early AGAIN to catch our bus from Seim Reap to Bangkok which was a whole nother adventure.

The bus drove around to all the different guesthouses that had people that booked tickets to pick them up. Keep in mind the roads I mentioned earlier are extremely bumpy, and narrow with street vendors, motorbikes, people, stray dogs, etc. The bus was about 2/3 rds full by the time we got to the station where there happened to be about 12 more people waiting to get on. There was room for at most 8 more. So the driver stacked all the luggage to the roof just behind the back row of seats, as well as to the roof in the very front seat next to the door. This didnt take care of all the luggage though, so there were bags laying down the entire isle, and stacked up in front of the door. A couple people had to catch the next bus, and they even brought a lawn chair on the bus because we were still over loaded by one person. They elected to just sit on the floor though as it was easier. We stopped twice along the way to the border to use the restroom once (which cost money) and to eat lunch at a restaurant the second time. I'm sure the driver gets paid by that restaurant to bring a bus load full of people, as our bus was the only people that were there. Once we got to the border around 1 we switched buses and got on another one which drove us about 2 kilometers to the border. From there we had to go through Cambodia customs, and then walk about 1 more kilometer to the Thailand border and go through Thailands customs. After that we were taken to get on our 3rd bus which was more of an excursion van...which again was overloaded with people and luggage, and the ride from the border to Bangkok was about 3 and a half hours. So we got into the city at about 5:30 after bordering the first bus at 7:30 AM. Needless to say it was a long day of traveling that always consisted of an overcrowded vehicle. We're now in Bangkok and have been here for a few days and are next heading south to Phucket and some islands of the west coast of Thailand. I'm running out of time on the internet so will post pictures of this portion of the trip soon.