These temples better be worth it.

2 days of lonely and exhausting travel. A 7 hour train journey from Nang Khai to a city called Korat. It's the second biggest city in Thailand but tourists don't go there, in fact tourists don't got to the north east of thailand at all. The reason, it's really really boring, flat boring landscape with nothing to entice you to take your nose out of your book. I was the only westerner in my train carriage and as a result i got lots of unwanted attention from the really drunk guy at the top of the carriage who tried, i think to tell me that he was the coach of the thai national football team, well he told me that and he told me that had a massive tits, now he did that by using hand gestures that would have made Benny Hill blush. I think he wanted to touch, i think he realised from the pained and embarrassed look on my face that he darn't. Oh the joy, but when i told him that i didn't drink beer and was a lesbian he seemed to loose interest. Although i think his lack of continued interest had more to do with the four school girls who alighted my carriage and sat across from him, poor innocent things.
On thursday night i fretted as i hadn't a ticket for my bus to the border. So i decided to set my alarm for 7 and be at the train station at least 1 hour before it was to leave. When we left Khorat i had the entire air con bus to myself. Now i have never seen a Jackie Chan movie, and i don't really ever want to see one, if i turned on the tv and there was one on, i would probably switch over. On the bus they put on one of the rush hour movies, dubbed into Thai and cranked up the sound. I asked lady to switch it off on the basis that i was the only passenger on the bus and i didn't understand it but she said that she wanted to watch it. Liar. The bus stopped in between explosions, gun fights, sexy girls dancing in thumping nightclubs, fist fights, more car crashes and another set of explosions and before i knew it we were almost full, i couldn't sleep because of the noise nor could i listen to my ipod. it was hot the air con didn't work and again I was the only tourist. After 5 long hours i arrived at the border town. The bus was supposed to drop me off at the border but instead it dropped me a half a mile from there, and it was hot, about 33 degrees and the humidity is a killer. I walked down the dusty road ignoring the cries of Tuk Tuk Tuk tuk lady where you go lady and i found the border.
I was immediatly surronded by cambodian children with umbrellas, nothing is for free. They are not being kind to you. And men wanting to sell cambodian visas. 1500 Baht, that's about 50 dollars, i knew it should only be $20 so i like the piped piper lead a bunch of other tourists through all of the throngs of hawkers, shisters and swindlers into immigration having assured this random bunch of strangers that i had done this 6 weeks ago and you totally could get your visa at the border. Passed thorough immigration. I think some of my charges were begining to wonder if they should trust the sweating irish lady with madness in her eyes. We got to visa control and i saw the sign, Tourist Visa$20. I sat down and took a sigh of relief, i had managed to do the impossible, to pass through immigration into Cambodia without getting robbed or ripped off.
Poor innocent thing.
i walked to immigration, my $20, my photo and my passport in hand. Elated. Smug actually. No dollar, only baht, 1000baht, i'm like, what? That's $30 the sign says $20, old sign lady, no dollar only baht, But i got a visa six weeks ago and it was $20, look, i showed him my passport. different price for Vietnam, Liar!. I passed through the $20 he passed it back and shut the window, he had the visa, i had the money it was a loose loose situation ... for me. Here's your F#^king 1000baht, asshole. He smiled, thank you lady. Balls.
The whole immigration process took about 2 hours. All the officials were open to bribery to quicken the process, but i was so pissed off that i dug my heals in a waited.
I got talking to these two americans a father and son travelling together and we agreed to hire a taxi for the ride across to Siem Reap. It was the worst 3 hours car ride i have ever experienced, there was no road for the most part, just trenches, gullies, and gravel. I had to ask the driver to stop so i could throw up. We got a puncture and were convinced that we didn't have a spare. We did, the landscape was like nothing i have seen in Asia, barren arride and desolate. nothingness expect shacks on stilts and half naked children playing with sticks. The dust was a reddish colour which covered everything giving the landscape a very otherworldly feeling, and not in a nice way. almost like the heart of the heart was bleeding into the soil. Maybe it would be how it would be like to travel across the moon on a moon buggy. My entire body tingled for about an hour after i arrived. I was tired, dirty, and convinced that every one of my organs had moved at 10mm out of place.
I slept like a baby last night and woke this morning feeling truely rested for the first time in ages. I am going to see the temples tomorrow. They better be worth it.