Cambodia to Thailand

Noelle writes:

As Simon mentioned earlier we visited the famous Angkor Wat along with Angkor Thom and numerous other temples in the area around Siem Reap. We ended up just going for a day as with our 5am start to see the sun rise over Angkor Wat and touring around in our tuk tuk for 8 hours we figured we were all templed out and ready to move onto Bangkok the following day. (Pics to follow.)

Unfortunately we didn't stay in Cambodia for very long, only 4 nights in the end. It was quite depressing at times, more so than Vietnam. The gap between rich and poor was much more apparent. In Vietnam we saw few cars, even in the major cities. It was mainly buses, trucks and motorbikes. In Cambodia there were a lot more cars on the road but then you also saw lots of families sleeping on the streets at night and on our bus trip through the countryside we saw a lot of livestock that was just skin and bones.

Bangkok is a completely different kettle of fish altogether. After the bumpy, non-paved roads of Cambodia we walked across the border (our easiest border crossing thus far) and hopped in our people carrier van and sped along the beautifully paved roads. It was probably the fastest we've travelled since China (no one in Vietnam or Cambodia goes very fast, mainly because the roads aren't good enough to do so). Coming into Bangkok felt like we were coming into Toronto. So many highways, lanes and so much traffic! The only difference was that you still saw children riding in the back of pickup trucks, 3 or 4 people to a motorbike scooting along the side of the highway and the occasional small child wandering through the stopped traffic trying to sell roses.

We even got to pass the riot police (still around after yesterday's mass demonstration). Half were standing attentive, the other half were napping or eating by the side of the road. So no worries about things kicking off anytime soon.