The wheels on the bus go round and round...



Buckets of fried tarantula's - yumm

No Grenades Allowed

Hello all our loyal followers We now have our full team together (waltons arrived from hong kong, michaela and our new team member Naomi (Stephanie boags cousin) from London last evening) - 19 in all including our local guide socheat and our wonderful field coordinator Lisa McCoy. Many of us went to foreign correspondents club for dinner where we started with happy hour with jugs of mojito, piña colada, margaritas and Singapore slings for 1/2 price ($7.50)! All of us on the bus by 8 am for the long bus ride north to siem reap 410 km but quite a bit of bumpy dirt road washed out by the floods this fall. Very interesting countryside and small towns and lots of dirty looking rivers and rice fields. Saw many brahma bulls and water buffalo roaming loose. Stopped for "bathroom" break - the always challenging squat type! Met by many beautiful young children selling fresh fruit - they had all the best selling lines and knew us by name before we left. Bought little bananas, pineapple and some strange, tasty fruit that the Rickards had eaten before. Walter, Rick and Dave ate deep fried crickets but they left the tarantulas alone! So far they are not complaining of any stomach issues... Our lunch stop by the highway was beautiful next to a river, open air seating with great views and very good mainly vegetarian meal. This suited Naomi since she is a vegetarian. Lots of good conversations and laffs on the bus - got caught up with michaela, got to know Naomi, and engineers speculating on sewage, electric and water supply, and land ownership (saw no for sale signs). Arrived in siem reap (pop 194,000) earlier than expected. U Dara guesthouse very nice and clean. A sign in the room cautioned against bring in guns, grenades or drugs.  Short break then back on the bus to drive to Angkor wat ticket office to get one day pass. We plan to be at the site tomorrow morning at 4 am for sunrise - early to bed tonight guys! Angkor wat is the largest religious site in the world and a person could spend one week to see it fully. We will see the highlights I guess. tonight we will have dinner with some rotarians from siem reap. The club only has five members! En route today at our lunch stop we met some Aussies from Perth who were in Cambodia to build toilets at schools...think I prefer the bicycles! Over and out for now - I promise to get another team member to post soon! Our work commences soon don't worry. Linda