Angkor and food adventures

So we woke up very, very early this morning and got to Angkor Wat in the dark so we could watch the sun rise over the temple. The place is really cool, and in a great state of preservation. Some of the carvings are practically good as new, which is pretty amazing considering the fact that they're actuall 1000 years old. Really beautiful and impressive. We had a guide and a driver (talk about traveling in style...), and they took us to a whole bunch of other temples. My favorite one was this Tomb Raider-y one that was half collapsed and overgrown, although I must confess that having a guide really cut down on my ability to pretend that I was having a fabulous archaeological adventure...
But the big news of the day is for people who knew me as a kid: I can now call myself an adventurous eater. It's been a big day for the girl who ate peanut butter and apple jelly sandwiches for lunch every day of her primary school career. For lunch today, we asked to go to a kind of locals-only place where they don't pretty up the food for westerners, and they brought us to a great little place where each table was on the floor of a little open air platform bungalow. There were three hammocks to swing in, which we thoroughly enjoyed while our driver ordered his favorites for us. We ended up with wild boar, venison, and roast chicken..."where's the adventure in that?" I hear you asking. Well, the chicken came with, get this: ant sauce. Yes indeed. Red ants fermented in a jar underground with a chunk of fish for three months until it forms a gray paste with little ant parts in it. Guess who tried a little. Me! I ate an ant on purpose! It was surprisingly sour, and I didn't really like it so I didn't put any more of the sauce on the chicken, but hey. I had a bite. Then for dinner tonight we went to a Khmer barbecue, where we had snake (really chewy), crocodile (not as delicious as N'awlins alligators), and kangaroo (decidedly not Cambodian, but still exotic). I am so proud of myself right now. And I think my parents are going to tip over from surprise when they read this...

Safe and sound

Well, first and best news first: my cousin Erin and her husband Seth just welcomed their son Joshua into the world this morning. Congratulations guys!! I can't wait to meet him!!!
Second of all, happy Thanksgiving to everybody. Gorge yourselves on Turkey for me! I had fish and lemongrass, which totally counts right?
Third, as you may have gathered, my land-crossing was relatively uneventful. I managed to connect with a freelance photojournalist (who happened to speak fluent Thai! How lucky am I??) and had been through the border several times before, so it was smooth as silk and we split the cost of a cab to Siem Reap, which beat the heck out of taking a bus. And he is a total character so I had an excellent partner in conversation for the 3-4 hour ride. So life is good. I've arrived safe and well, if a little tired and sniffly. The hotel is gorgeous, dinner with Josh and Chris was excellent, and tomorrow morning we'll be watching the sun rise over Angkor Wat! Life is good again.

Today's plan

Well, it appears that neither prime minister nor protesters seems to have any intention of budging on the matter of the airport, so for the time being, there is no hope of my flying out of there any time soon. So I'm left with the unsavory option of the overland crossing through Poipet, which is notorious for scams and hassles (my favorite two parts of traveling...with my cold, I'm sure that some tout or corrupt visa agent is going to get a taste of my evil twin). It's not dangerous at all, but what a pain in the caboose. It'll take 9-12 hours to get overland to Siem Reap, but it's better than staying cooped up in Thailand for who knows how long.
So here's the plan. Bus to the border station, autorickshaw to the actual border with all the luggage I'd planned to leave at the Bangkok airport, deal with the Scam-bodia border scrum, then get a share taxi (or not shared, but I'm not taking any 15 hour un-airconditioned bus in my current state) to Siem Reap. If all goes well, that should put my arrival around dinnertime tonight, just as the guys get back from their temple tour.
I'll be sure to post to let you know I'm safely arrived.
In other news, the Mumbai bombings broke my heart this morning. How very sad. And scary. I traveled through the train station that got hit several times, and one of the hotels is right around the corner from where I stayed...I hate terrorists...

Update on the current situation

Ok, troops, here's the latest.
The border with Cambodia closes at 5PM today, so by the time I make the 4 hour trip to the border, it'll be closed and I'll have to sleep on the frontier. Not exactly ideal, obviously. So tonight I'll stay in the nice hotel Thai Airways has put me up in, and if by tomorrow morning the airport has not been reopened, I'll make the crossing overland.
Needless to say, the sooner I get out of Bangkok, the better, both in terms of avoiding any unrest and in terms of getting to see friendly faces from home. I have to say, though, I'm kind of relishing being caught up in world events. If I didn't have anyplace to be, I'd really be enjoying this, ironically enough. It's a pretty low-risk insurrection, which is the best kind...
But for now, I'm safe and well, except for the fact that I think my second bout with the rhinovirus is about to start...most inconvenient.

I'm OK, don't panic

Good morning all. I'm sure you have turned on CNN by now and seen that the Bangkok airport has been occupied by antigovernment demonstrations, and has been shut down. I was on one of the last flights that was allowed to land, and we were stuck on the tarmac for 4 hours (in a plane load of middle schoolers....so much noise, so little space!). They finally let us out and are putting us up in a hotel overnight until they can figure out what to do. But have no fears. Bangkok itself is totally stable, there's no rioting in the streets, and there was no time when I was not completely safe.
Gotta figure out how the heck I'm going to get to Cambodia...

Health recovered, arrived in Delhi

I was feeling much better yesterday, so it was an epic shop-fest (you thought you were the only ones Christmas shopping right now?). I got up, ran around town, made up a dance class, ran around, again until my second makeup class, then ran around again until it was time to go. But it was terribly productive. I have a giant bag of junk that poor Josh will have to bring back from Thailand with him after our swing through S.E. Asia. And it's heavy, too...
I actually ate yesterday, and nothing horrible happened, so I take that to mean that I'm better. I had this awesome soup at this cute little Tibetan place that was so nice that I went back for dinner and had these Tibetan dumplings known as momos for dinner. Tasty.
The big thing yesterday was my departure from my temporary family at Saraswati, which was really sad. My teacher sent me off with a set of bangles that jingle when I move...and they're green! How did he know? They'd all been so great to me, especially looking out for me when I was sick and miserable. It was like staying with old friends, so it was tough to say so-long. Except for the dog. He sent me off in the same fashion he welcomed me - fangs bared. But even with Big Mean Leo sending me off with a snarl, I'll carry lots of fond memories of Pushkar.
But not of the bus. I got stuck in a seater bus for the ride to Delhi, which is not ideal, but I figured how bad can it be? Apparently pretty lame, because the guy in front of me reclined so much his head was practically in my lap, and I had nowhere to go because I was the back of the bus...and there was no place to put my feet because some dude was sleeping in the aisle. I wish I was him, he looked a lot more comfortable. But I made it, I survived, and I got to my hotel in the backpacker ghetto of Paharganj in time to have a shower and a nap before I head for the Lao embassy...as soon as I figure out how to get there...it's really far and there's no subway, so I have to ask around...wish me luck!