Before I get you into a deep philosophical thought process like my blogs usually do.  I want to let you know that a largely populated country on this side of the world has taken steps to disallow access to a lot of online journals like this one you are currently reading.  I just want you to be aware of this as my access to this site may be put on hold indefinitely in the near future.  Four of the people here have already had their sites banished form the realm.  I will always have email but my access to update this site may be stopped without notice.  Not that any of you have been expecting prompt updates on the hour or anything. 

 

On to better things.  Cambodia.  After spending a few days in Siem Reap, where we tasted excellent Mexican food (in a city of 15,000 there was delicious Mexican food, it is hard to come by in my city of 10 million) met some North Koreans, and stepped in the footsteps of Angelina Jolie (a new mother of an adopted Vietnamese boy) we woke up at 5:30 in the morning to pack ourselves into a truck with at least 10 other foreigners and luggage to head to a boat that would take us downriver to Phnom Phen. 

 

After jamming ourselves and our belongings into a very small Mazda'ish truck we took off.  Only to stop and to pick up two more people and three bags.  My friend Derek rode the rest of the way on the cab.  He left a dent.  And the two new people had to lay themselves two deep on top of the luggage.  It was pretty rediculous.  But after a short 35 minute drive we were there so it wasn't so bad.  We got to watch the sunrise for the second day in a row. 

 

We stopped in what is pretty much a squatter community on the banks of a very small tributary.  Everything was on the water.  Except for all the people trying to hawk their wears to the travelers.  The main commodity was the baguette.  For the next half hour after getting off the truck and onto the boat all we heard was, "Sir, baguette.  Baguette Sir?"  (I hope you read that with a second language speakers pronunciation and a french accent.)  The french had a lot of influence in Cambodia.  And their baguettes have remained.  It was weird because you felt as if you were being forced to buy them.  Nevermind the fact that it was 7 am and I would be on the boat for 6 hours.  "You will never make me buy one of these "baguettes!"  That is exactly when Aaron says, "Wow, these things are awesome."  So I bought one, the boat left, and I wished I had bought five.  They were awesome.  Almost worth the whole trip.  As we left we started to realize how vast this waterworld was.  We started to see shops along the way.  We saw a school floating on the river.  We saw a church on the river.  It was pretty amazing.  After about 30 minutes at 10 mph we were pretty frustrated even though there was a lot to see.  But then we hit the open water of the lake and we picked up speed.  While we were traveling we were able to go out on the deck of the boat.  The boat itself was the loudest thing I have ever been next to.  If you went to the back it sounded as if you were standing behind the engine of a jet. 

 

After six hours, four cokes, sadly one baguette, and a couple of sunburns later (Aaron's was noticably worse than mine) we arrived at out port, Phnom Phen.  We got off the boat to the cat calls of the took took drivers who would take us anywhere in Phnom Phen for a dollar.  We grabbed the first guy and told him we wanted a hotel, hostel or whatever.  He gave us the dollar ride to pretty much the nearest hotel he knew.  We got a good deal for two beds and took it.  We enlisted for the next day's journey to the killing fields and wherever else we may want to go.  Everything was set.  A place to sleep, a ride wherever we wanted.  Even with a sunburn life was looking good. 

 

Check out the boat ride photos.  I will get to the next day in the next day or so.  :)