Welcome to Crazy Dream-Land

According to my trusty hand-book, "If you like adventure and don't mind people waving guns in your face, this is the place to be. There are no Holiday Inns or Pizza Huts or McDonald's in Cambodia...although it's special hazards include bandits, mines and unexploded ordnance." Sounds perfect. So after a 12-hour ride in a drunken jalopy of a bus, we (15 suckers) arrived in Siem Reap, the tourist hub for Angkor Wat, the "largest temple in the world." This place is rad. Everything you imagine in an Indiana Jones film is here, complete with jungle-locked temples, hidden corridors and doors that seem like they'd open to the proper ancient command (below). The Khmer, who built the massive temples and palace complex, definitely knew what they were doing.

Despite Angkor's wonders, you can see Siem Reap becoming another tourist trap, complete with luxury hotels and stupid t-shirts. All around Siem Reap you see silly people wearing shirts proclaiming "WARNING: LAND MINES," like some kind of cruel taunt to the Cambodian people, although they surely see it very differently. I tried to take my own touristy shot, to "prove I was there," but I think I need more practice.


Allegedly, Angkor and the next six weeks are Malaria Zones, which means I get to start taking mefloquine, the only pill I've ever taken that warns of "anxiety, depression, paranoia and psychotic episodes." The most common side effect, however, are the vivid dreams, ranging from gremlins robbing you through a secret trap door in your room to more enjoyable inventions of incredible athletic competitions. I'm looking forward to another two months of them, it should make the trip much more interesting.

I wish I could have spent more time in Cambodia, but all of a sudden, it's late July, and I have two countries between me and China. Fantasies of a triumphant return to the Khmer Kingdom will have to do for now. Hopefully on Tuesday I'll be northbound to Laos, which I think has a lot of potential to be excellent.