MeaganClem.com

Grapejam was really great this week. We had a lot of new people and a lot of great music. It was really encouraging to have so many people there, as there have been less people due to midterms. One friend, Black, was there for his second time and brough 3 friends who really enjoyed it as well.

On Wednesday I got to spend the afternoon with Dtaan. I met her at the Thammasat campus in Bangkok, and we did some sightseeing after lunch. she took me to the Golden Mount, which had a beautiful view of Bangkok, and then to another temple. The second one was made entirely of metal and had a 5 story spiral staircase that we had to climb. We climbed so many steps that day.

Tonight we will be tutoring SIIT students for their TOEFL exam. TOEFL stands for the Test Of English as a Foreign Language.

I’m looking into the Volunteer club, as they have 2 trips to the Chiang Mai area over the October break to build houses. I haven’t found a lot of information yet, but it sounds like a lot of fun.

Miss you all!

Actually, a whole lot has been going on, but I haven’t had time to update. It’s mainly the same stuff though, so you just get to hear about my exciting trip to Cambodia.

We set out for Cambodia Saturday, August 12th at 2:45 in the morning. We took a taxi to the Mo Chit bus station and bought our bus tickets to Aranyaprathet, Thailand’s border town. The bus ride lasted about 5 hours, I believe. Once we got to the border we were being charged 1000 baht for the 20 US dollar visa into Cambodia. That’s $27 dollars instead of the clearly posted $20. I argued with the officer, but he said that if I want to be 740 baht that I’d have to wait 3 hours to get my visa. They’re basically just skimming money of the top. We gave up and headed to the other side of the border, into Cambodia with our new $27 visas. Scams were on the other side as well, as we had trouble getting a taxi for a decent deal. After an incredibly long taxi ride on dirt roads full of holes, and by holes I mean it was an earthquake for 6 hours, and getting stuck on the side of the road in the heat for almost 2 hours, we made it to Earthwalkers in Siem Reap around 6:30 pm. We went out for dinner and headed to bed fairly early.
On Sunday morning we woke up at 4:00 to be at Angkor Wat for sunrise. It turned out to be overcast, which was nice during the day, but kept us from having an actual sunrise. It was still amazing though, because we got there when it was still dark out and watched as the temples slowly appeared in the light. We spent 4 hours exploring Angkor Wat and taking tons of beautiful pictures and goofy ones as well.

After Angkor Wat we headed to Angkor Thom and the Bayon. We explored the surrounding temples for the rest of the afternoon, including Ta Phrom, a temple covered in trees.

We stayed at the temples until 7 pm. When we returned to Earthwalkers for dinner, there was Aspara dancing. The children were adorable and I really loved watching them dance. There was this one little boy that was smiling so big the whole time and was really into the dancing.

It was an amazing weekend! There are many more pictures on my Flickr page.