Cambodia

11/3/02 - Siem Reap  We walked down the airplane stairs and across the tarmac to the small terminal building.  The first line was to apply for our visas, the second to pay for and receive them.  The third was immigration and passport control.  This model of efficiency took about 60 minutes.  A driver awaited us as promised and we were whisked off to our hotel.  The hotel was on the dusty and dirty main road and near many shops, restaurants and a shocking number of Internet cafes.  Our room was fine, with hot water, cable TV and a/c, the kind of luxuries only $20/night can buy.  After we relaxed we walked to the grocery store and bought a few staples.  We were constantly called at by hawkers selling everything, "hey mister...".  On the return trip we checked out the Internet and went to bed.   

11/4/02 - Siem Reap  Our car, driver and guide met us at 10am and we were off to the temples.  After getting our fancy 3 day laminated pass ($40) we drove through the impressive South Gate and to Angkor Thom.  It is a vast area full of Hindu and Buddhist temples form the 11th and 12th centuries.  There are also palace ruins form the Khmer Kingdom.  Multi-faced towers and enormous bas wall reliefs were everywhere.  If I knew how to read non-technical manuals, I could tell you more.  It was pretty cool, we definitively felt like we were someplace different.  We were taken back to town for a nice lunch.  Chicken here, well, it's not white meat.  Factor in the skin, bones and tendons and you arrive at my order: chicken curry, with no chicken.  Leanne ate something normal.  After a rest at the hotel we headed back out, this time to Angkor Wat.  Now we're talkin'.  Huge moat, impressive grounds and the obligatory reflecting pools.  We visited the area until sundown and then climbed a hill and looked at the area from afar.  On the way back to town we stopped at a temple/school area that had once been one of the countless rice paddy "killing fields" during the purges of Pol Pot.  Our guide's brother-in-law was one of the countless victims.  The discovered skulls and bones had been collected and are visible in a memorial on the site.  It was awful.  They dropped us off at the market near our hotel and we browsed the stalls and, of course, bought some more DVDs.  We had a nice dinner, I slowly ordered the curry-chicken-with-noooo-chicken.  We then checked email and Leanne read a message from her sister asking that she call home.  Well, her dad's sudden heart procedure had not gone well.  Several phone calls later we determined that we should head to Boston.  The very helpful staff at the hotel next to ours spoke English and arranged to get us a rental cell phone so we could better communicate and make our plans.

11/5/02 - Siem Reap to Boston  The morning was full of phone calls and planning as we tried to figure out how to get from here to there.  We settled on a 3pm flight to Bangkok, from which we would fly to London, then Boston.  We had a 6 hour layover in Bangkok where we went to a nearby hotel.  Leanne rested and I used the health club.  We showered and headed back to the airport for the big leg to London.  I was able to swing an upgrade and we enjoyed the relative comfort of British Air's "World Traveler Plus" cabin.  In London we relaxed at the BA lounge and watched a DVD movie on the computer.  From there it was a relatively short hop to Boston.