I write this from my $3 hotel room in Siem Reap.  Actually, they call
it a "guest house", not a hotel.  I'm not sure what the distinction
is, other than that hotel rooms never go for $3.  My room has a
ceiling fan; for $12 I could have got a room with "air con" -- that's
what the Euros, and the locals, call it.  But I was comfortably cool
with just a fan last night, at least after the power outage ended.

When last we spoke, I was about to catch the bus out of Bangkok.  I
was expecting to be on a bus full of Thais, maybe even with a chicken
or goat on board.  Instead, I was on a beautiful air-conditioned
double-decker cruise bus full of Euro backpackers.  I don't know how
Thais go when they have to make the same journey.  The highways were
incredible -- well-maintained multi-lane divided highways almost all
the way to the border.

At the border, they just put a piece of blue tape on all our shirts
and sent us across on foot, carrying all our belongings.  I felt like
a Palestinian!  Half a mile later, as we emerged into Cambodia, we
hoped the Cambodian half of the bus company would see the blue tape
and shepherd us in the right direction.  It worked, but I couldn't
help imagining various failure scenarios.  The "truck" I'd heard about
turned out to be a decent, but by-no-means nice, 20-seat bus.

Things changed at the border.  Thailand is a poor country, but it's
Mexico-poor.  Cambodia is Africa-poor.  In fact, what I've seen so far
reminds me more of East Africa than of any place I've been in Asia.
Lots of human- and animal-powered carts, lots of shelters built out of
local trees, and dirt everywhere -- dirt streets, dirt parking lots,
dirt yards.  The road quality also went way down.  I was thinking the
Cambodians should make the first mile or so much better than the rest
of the road, to ease you into it.  Then, I realized they *had*.  About
a mile out of town the pavement became sporadic and the potholes
started.  For the last two thirds of the 100-mile trip there was no
pavement at all.

What they lack in infrastructure they make up for in personality.  I
hadn't really thought about whether or not I liked the Thais I was
meeting, but in retrospect they were all kind of dull.  The Cambodians
smile and laugh more, and like to sing when they're not doing anything
else.  I also find the Cambodians, both men and women, better-looking
than the Thais.  There were plenty of beautiful Thais, but I find even
the average Cambodians very beautiful.

In addition to the driver, we had a "guide".  This turned out to be a
very outgoing and enterprising young man named Chia.  He isn't paid by
the bus company; he's part owner of a guest house in Siem Reap and he
gives up his Thursdays to ride the bus and try to talk the passengers
into staying at his guest house.  I think all of us did.

The first thing I noticed when we arrived at Baphuon Guest House was
that reassuring scent of bug spray.  My mom always worries I'll get
killed when I visit poor countries -- I don't think that's very
likely, but each visit probably does take months off my life due to
exposure to carcinogens and toxics.

Siem Reap appears to run on a patronage economy.  This morning I had
to change rooms due to a faulty lock; and it turned out the guy
helping me move my bags was actually a motorbike taxi driver who hangs
out at the guest house all day.  I hired him to take me to the ruins
in Angkor (5 miles away).  I told him I wanted to go to a store before
we left Siem Reap, but he said I could get better prices at Angkor.
He wound up taking me to a little cafe where he knows the owner, and
lots of other guys hanging around whose business I couldn't discern.
The cafe had hammocks sat up for these guys to spend their down time.
In fact, my guy would send me off into a ruin (he didn't buy a ticket
for himself) and nap while I was gone.  Then I'd wake him up, and we'd
drive to the next one.

I wasn't blown away by Angkor but it was pretty fun.  The most famous
structure, Angkor Wat, is fully restored; but most of the sites are
falling down with piles of rubble here and there.  And they let you
crawl all over it!  This could never happen in the U.S.; it's a
lawsuit waiting to happen.  At one of the sites there were several
trees planted on the top of walls, with massive roots snaking down the
walls and into the ground.  I don't know how they got them to grow
that way.

I made a short day of it and was back at the guest house by 1:00.
Then I went for a walk around Siem Reap, but it was depressing.  About
70% of the businesses are hotels; and 70% of the rest are
restaurants.  And they're building more on every vacant lot.  By the
time I got back to the guest house I had a sun headache, so I didn't
feel like reading.  I couldn't think of anything interesting to do, so
I just lay on the bed all afternoon and wished I didn't have a
headache.  I fell asleep for an hour about dark, and woke up feeling
much better.

I went to a little restaurant down the street, where I was overwhelmed
by service.  When I arrived, 5 or 6 people crowded around me -- one
gave me the menu, one put ice in my glass, one set a fan to blow on
me, and 2 or 3 didn't appear to be doing anything.  Then for 20
minutes while I waited for my order, 2 girls stood and watched me and
added an ice cube to my glass every five minutes.

I leave at 6:30 tomorrow morning for Phnom Penh.