Out of the Thailand, into the highway

The next leg of the trip was to find a way to Cambodia, and preferably to Siem Reap. I was aiming to avoid the border crossing at Aranya Prathet, mainly because that border is a shade-less wasteland with hundreds of thieves and scammers. Turned out it was the slightly less sketchy option, primarily because it's widely used by Western tourists, so I took the 2-3 hour bus ride down to the border, then a tuk-tuk ride to a place where they scam you into overpaying for a Cambodian visa (though not nearly as bad as they scam you elsewhere on the border, which I knew when I accepted this particular scam). After gathering together with a Brazilian woman and a Hawaiian-German couple, we managed to take a taxi for only $3 more than a fair price--and about $11 less per person than the driver originally asked for.

Bargaining in Southeast Asia is probably the best training I could get before going into Harvard Law: they're rigorous, they know how to read you and you have to know how to read them, and they'll fight you on ever last point they can muster.

After a 3 hour ride over the dirt roads, we arrived safe and sound at a decent guest house in Siem Reap, ready to lounge and read and rest up for the next day's whirlwind around some of the most famous ruins in the world.