From Bangkok to Siem Reap

We got up redinkulously early at 6am to go grab a taxi to the bus station. We made the 7.30am bus to Aranthya to cross the border into Poipet in Cambodia. There was only one other gringo couple on the bus sitting in front of us. The bus journey wasn’t too bad and was only about 5 hours.

Upon arriving at Aran, we could see the Tuk Tuk drivers lining up for business. We jumped out and the other gringo couple asked us if we would like to share a taxi from after the border to Siam Reap – the town in Cambodia nearest to Angkor Wat etc.

We thought the other couple were a bit odd, the guy seemed kind of grumpy or shy (I dunno) and the girl was worried about the mud on her shoes (she was wearing Crocs with socks!!) (and worrying about mud .. in Cambodia.. Haw HawHaw HAW)
But the more the merrier in border crossing and avoiding scams, so off the four of us went. We went through Thailand’s exit point, entered Cambodia’s visa-entry point and made it through to Cambodia immigration all accompanied by Cambodians giving us free advice. (hee hee hee)

Then on the other side we agreed on a price for the taxi to Siam Reap ($50 bucks for 3.5 hours on the worst road in the world – no messing). The guy of the couple, called Kyle, refused to pay until they got to their destination, so we agreed with our taxi driver to pay half now, half later. (this was in case he decided to drive us around the corner and dump us out the door). But I couldn’t see that happening, our taxi driver was a jovial fellow who called the road (the definitive WORST road in history) “the dancing road” and offered to get us massages for our weary arse bones afterwards.

All was going well in the cab for a while. After conversing with our two new ‘buddies’ – Stacey & Kyle from Texas & Oklahoma respectively, I noticed a few weird things dropped into conversation. Stacey was blathering on in a loud voice (choosing to talk even louder whenever our taxi driver was on the phone – which I thought was a bit rude) about Dallas & Fortworth and their rivalry etc etc.
She went on to tell us all the places she had been. We noticed she said that when she was in high school, she had gone to Honduras to do mission work.

Fair enough, I thought, she must have been forced into that.

Then she mentioned she went to Mexico to do mission work. Hmmm, I thought, she must have gone to a Holy Joe school.

After that she then went onto say that her husband hadn’t been to too many places and that she’d like to bring him somewhere. I thought this was weird on a few levels.
A – she looked about 16
B - we got the impression they were a couple, so if she had a husband then surely that would mean he was the guy in the car with us (especially as she put her hand on his knee while she said “my husband”), so then why refer to him as “my husband” if he is Kyle – the guy sitting next to her…

So that was enough for me to think they were slightly odd. Then
C- they mentioned that they had met in a Christian school. (uh oh). They had studied together, then married as soon as they left college and travelled together to China, where they now taught English. (in a Texas styleeE)

Stacey was yaparama and talked about China for nearly the whole journey. She asked me (accusingly I thought) if we were Christian, I said I was a lapsed one and avoided her glare. :/

She went on to say that they were Christians (really?). Stacey was hoping to bring the Christian Faith to the Chinese students they were teaching. She told us that she had told her students they had no human rights or freedom of religion there and it was up to them to seek the truth. (ahahahaha) At this stage we could tell Kyle was squirming in his seat a bit and we reckoned he just married her to get his end away and was probably regretting it right now.

When she said that her “heart was breaking at the sight of seeing the Chinese worship little statues (AKA BUDDHA to you and me), I was thinking ‘what a loony’.
What makes her think that her religion is the correct one??
What about EVOLUTION for one thing.. lol.

I know myself and Jim have some blessed Buddha beads, but we both have some holy Jesus stuff with us aswell, just in case (we've been worshipping the wrong one all along)

But I continued to look out the window, and as her stories went on, I interjected with “Jesus that’s crazy” and “Holy Moly” and that sort of thing. Not really on purpose, everytime I said something slightly blasphemous, I was thinking ‘Shit!’ lol

Anyway it cheered up the three hour journey (on the worst road ever) no end. I nearly said “Keep the Faith” as they got out of the car, but decided to shut up.