Bye Bye Temples; Hello Thailand!

We are writing this blog entry in Thailand! So happy to be moving onward with our holiday and checking out a new country.

We spent last night in Anlong Vien, which is about 150km from Siam Reap and 17km from the border crossing town of Choam. It was a pretty dusty little town, with nothing to recommend it except its proximity to the Thai border, and some macabre Khmer Rouge memorabilia, if one were that way inclined (including Pol Pot's cremation site and Ta Mok's old house).

To us, Anlong Vien was a comfortable place to rest, between two big days.

Today was spent crossing from Cambodia to Thailand, and hoofing it to the Thai town of Surin. Although we set off at the crack of dawn, the 17km up to Choam were slow, thanks to it being at the top of a small mountain range. In the end, we made it to Choam by 8am, and 45 minutes later, we were happily in Thailand.

Surin is 150km from Choam and, after cycing for 100km in the scorching heat, we decided to call it quits and try our luck at thumbing a lift to Surin. No problems - Thais are so friendly, the the first pick-up we hailed stopped for us! After roping our bikes onto the flat-deck, we spent the next 50km happily watching the world whizz by from the back of a pick-up truck. Lovely ; )

Although we did enjoy our time in Cambodia, it is good to move on. Thailand has been great to us already - better food, roads (and vehicle drivers!) and accommodation than in Cambodia, although it seems to be a little more expensive. We went for a cycle around Surin this afternoon, and it was nice not to be heckled by beggars and orphans, for a change. In almost every regard, Thailand is notably more affluent than it's poor neighbour.

Tomorrow we are on to Biriram, and on to Khorat a few days after that. No matter were we go, internet speeds (read: photo upload speed) seems to be a major problem, although we will continue to try to pop photos up.