I woke up early this morning to pack, having fallen asleep last night instead of getting ready to leave. A minivan arrived at 6:40 to take me to the bus station, just late enough for me to drink most of a cup of really bad instant coffee. We picked up six other people on the way and arrived at the bus station just before seven. After checking my luggage, I had time to buy some water and baguette at a shot just down the street before we left.
The bus ride took a little less than six hours, including the stop for lunch along the way. I talked a bit with the young attendant working on the bus and her friend who was riding. At lunch I met the two Canadian women from Toronto who were riding just behind me and had a pleasant chat. Most of the time, though, I spent looking at the country side.
Almost all of the houses along highway 6, except those in the few towns we passed, were traditional Khmer architecture: on stilts about ten feet high with a staircase leading up to a door. They construction materials varied from brick and tile to wood to thatch. The towns through which we passed seemed very much like the outskirts of Phnom Penh with thin buildings three or four stories tall standing immediately next to each other.
Most of the countryside is dry and flat with a few scattered forests and hills. Even in the driest fields sugar palm trees seem to grow, a few to a group with fifty to a hundred feet between groups. Since their is so little elevation change, I haven't seen much of Siem Reap, just the road from the bus station into town.
We arrived at the bus station around one o'clock in the afternoon. Since I had taken a bus tour company instead of the public bus, the drivers at the station were orderly and only one approached me for a ride to my guest house instead of the usual gang of five or six. After getting a room at the Kagha Oudorm Guest House for six dollars a night, I set out to explore Siem Reap a bit before dark, which brought me to this internet cafe.
Tomorrow I hope to see several of the huge ruins that stand just north of Siem Reap.
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