Staying in Siem Reap has been a wonderful experience. There are so many things to see that we would have spent another week exploring the area. Unfortunately, we are rushed by our Chinese visa that expires on the 18th of April.
Leaving th temples, we decide to make a last stop at Ukdal Spean also known as the 1000 tingas river, a stream in the mountains where a thousand phallus have been sculpted in the rock under the water in order to give fertility to the lands where the water eventually ends up.
The area North of Siem Reap is very poor and signs on both sides of the road are constantly warning us that mines are surrounding us. Children are still welcoming us but this time they look much skinner.
Taxi in Cambodia
After a painful climb to the Choam-Sgam border, we are back in Thailand but not for the best. For the second time of this trip, the border officer tries to steal us some money. Going down the hills, we meet Mhee, a rubber plantation owner who speaks very good English. She invites us to stay at her place for the night. Next day, we bike to Surin. We are pretty tired of Thailand, of its unfilling and uninspired food, of the people who think we are millionnaire because we are white. We are also tired of the landscape that didn't changed much since Krabi. So we decide that it would be better to use our last month outside of China exploring Lao instead. So we took a train from Surin to Nong Khai which ends up in a nightmare, each train officer trying rigourously to get some extra money out of our pockets.
After two days, we finally cross the Friendship bridge to Lao, very possible to cross on bicycle despite of the signs clearly prohibiting bicycle on the bridge.
People in Vientiane are much nicer and we instantanously love the atmosphere here. At our guesthouse, we meet three cyclists. Hendric who is going to China like us and a couple from Holland who pedaled all the way to Lao.
Vientiane
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