Moving north

Alla fine un po' di sole c'e' stato e ne abbiamo approfittato per fare un po' di snorkeling, passeggiare, prendere il sole e cenare sulla spiaggia alla sera a lume di candela!
Sfortunatamente e' arrivato il momento di lasciare questa bellissima spiaggia e di dirigerci verso la nostra prossima destinazione. Decidiamo di andare in Cambogia a Angkor Wat perche' sembra che nel nord della Tailandia ci siano state delle inondazioni e non vogliamo rischiare di passare dei giorni sotto lo pioggia.
Scegliamo di viaggiare in treno la notte per essere a Bangkok il mattino seguente e poter continuare il nostro viaggio. Come si vede nelle foto, le cuccette non sono le piu' moderne, pero' devo dire che non si dorme poi troppo male!
Da Bangkok al confine con la Cambogia sono ancora 5 ore di treno in terza classe (eh si', qui c'e' ancora la terza classe!). Passiamo la notte in Tailandia e il giorno dopo ci svegliamo di buona ora pronti per passare in Cambogia. Ancora non sapevamo quello che ci aspettava... gia' appena entrati in Cambogia ci accoglie un paesaggio di polvere, terra e lamiere (sembrava essere nel far west!), poi aspettiamo 3 ore per l'autobus per andare a Siem Riep. Ma il peggio sono state le 6 ore e passa passate a sedere per fare 150km (fate un po' i conti a quanto andavamo...) in un autobus vecchissimo e scomodissimo con la polvere che entrava da tutte le parti e le buche per terra che ci facevano sobbalzare sui nostri sedili ogni 5 secondi!!
Alla fine pero' arriviamo, completamente ricoperti di polvere e tanto contenti di essere qui!

So our rainy days in Thailand are over. We've decided to leave to explore the North. All in all it's been veeeery relaxing here on the islands. Monica got to stay at the beautiful beach she had been dreaming about, I got to snorkel around a bit, we both got to read and relax loads and we can now confirm that Thai food is as good as they say... Although the whole tourist experience is a bit to pre-packaged for my personal liking. Everything is tourist-friendly and ready-made. You just need to pick it up and try to avoid getting a little ripped off in the process. A very recomendable place to visit when you're in need for relaxation and pampering. You'll get spoilt to bits here, but we're craving for a little more adventure and discovery so off we are heading North!
After all this easy tourism I was complaining to Monica how I didn't like having things the easy touristy way...not enough of the explorer spirit...it's like sterilised tourism... Little did I know how drastiocally things were going to change!!!
After our nighttrain to Bangkok we heard in the news that the North was very flooded and battered by recent rains. We decided to change our plans and visit Cambodia, or Angkor to be more precise. We also promised ourselves to travel with the locals and choose the cheapest travel-options available to us (something we have been doing already, but there is little you can do differently on the islands in Thailand). So we bought 3rd class tickets to the Thai-Cambodian border. The train was packed, with people, animals, plants, you name it... We had to stand for long parts of the 5 hour journey and after initial mischievieous looks from the locals we got drawn into conversations and discussion where we'll never find out what they were about...
At the border town (it looked and felt like you'd imagine and Asian 'El Paso' in the days of cowboys and bandits) we spent a night in a little hotel (Saloon :-) ) for less than 4E and a had our cheapest full meal, yet, for less than 2E.
The next day we crossed the border on foot. Also a strange experience...there's a duty-free zone with casinos and such, and then you're deep rural Cambodia. To get to Siem Reap, the city near Angkor, the cheapest 'organised' transport is a bus that takes you on a hell-trip lasting 6 hours (150 km; you do the math!) dodging potholes on the worst dirtroad we've seen here yet. Apart from the beautiful landscape, the smiles of people waving from their vehicles (scooters, overloaded pick-ups, tractors, bikes, four-legged animals of many a kind, etc.) and the thrill during the first half-hour or so the trip was utter pain in the bones! Oh, how I wished we would be back on a comfortable ferry full of foreigners hopping from an island to another....!