Out of Cambodia and into paradise....

Well I left Cambodia, a little later than I had planned on... The problem was getting a visa... So I get 15 days on a land crossing... Not enough time... I would get 30 days if a flew, but being here has turned me ubercheapskate.... So I tried to get a visa from the Thai embassy... Refusing to go through the proper channels (in this case the guard outside who if I gave him 20 bucks and my passport would get me q visa in a day) I stupidly tried to do it myself believing ignorantly that legitimacy was the right way of doing things... Wrong... It took me three days just to figure out the rules of getting in the embassy door.. And once I did, do to "holidays" and other such things, my visa would not be ready until... u guessed it... 15 days before I flew out of Bangkok back home... Sooo I decided to silly cross by land, get a 15 day visa and the. Pay the overstay fine at the airport when I left... Yet, since the fine is per day, I decided to head down to the south of Cambodia for a few to lessen my overall fine... So I went south to Sihonoukville, which was a very strange place indeed, water like a warm bath 80-90 degrees... For Real... It was a really nice beach with wooden huts along the length of it for around a mile... But I soon left heading down to the boarder town of KoKong... Which I really liked... It sits right on a river and is only about 1 mile from the ocean... So the port is a rather large influence on the town... This is a Cambodian port, not like the port of Oakland, we are talking about boats I wouldn't get on for fear of drowning even if it was in a dry dock... I spent a few days there enjoying the vibe of the place spnding the evenings with a few people from an NGO after I watched the sunset with the little kids fishing down at the pier... Then early one morning I crossed the river and made my way by moto to the boarder... Which was amazingly easy because I was one of the few people there that early.... 

Seeing how this ends my account of Cambodia, I feel it is an apt time to make some final impressions of the place... Ok, yes it is poor as shit, yes there is virtually no infrastructure, and yes corruption is rampant; but, despite the fact that your chances of moving up in the world are very small if you don't have cash (yes I realize the paradox here, that is the point), despite the fact that I on many occasions climbed into the back of a camary of Toyota pickup parked alongthe side of a dirt road only to have a small child placed in my lap and have some sort of bodily fluid come out of said infant all over me, despite the fact that I had to pay traffic "tickets" of q few bucks which went directly to the pockets of the nice officer... I say despite all these lovely qualities... "The Bodge," as Xpats call it,  still has it's charms... In the words one Peace Core Officer... "It was "F"ing, disgusting, I loved it!" it was a great place, many parts are beautiful, the people are extremely happy despite the fact that they have been kicked around by pretty much everybody for every, and these factors mix to create this feeling which haunts you everywhere you go, from the truly epic ruins, to the tiny villages, the relaxing shores, to the killing field where the paths are literally lined and in some places paved with the bones of murdered innocents... I would not change my time there for anything...

I'm in Thailand now as The title implies... I made it, that's all I am saying for now, more to come soon...