Ever since we booked our trip, we’ve been looking forward to hitting the beach. Fahrin has been waiting for 33 years! In Bangkok we decided to travel north to see our brother rather than south to the beach. Now it’s three months later and we’re at our last stop before the beach…and we’re STRANDED!!!!!
We’ve loved our time in Cambodia, but when we got to this country on March 20th we were excited to see it, but really focused on getting to the beach.
We saw what we needed to see along the way, with Angkor Wat as the climax. Everything was going according to plan (even better than planned, actually – we got to hang out with Alam here in Siem Reap). We’d seen Angkor Wat and all the Angkor temples, been to the floating villages, got a foot massage – and a fish massage (imagine putting your feet in a big fish tank and the fish nibbling on you).
We had our bus tickets to Bangkok, where we’d get the sleeper train south to the beach.
“We’ll be at the beach tomorrow morning!”
By chance, Fahrin noticed a document left open on a public computer: Flooding in Koh Phangan!
We checked in internet-machine and lo and behold, the whole region is in a state of emergency. Flooding, landslides. Fifty-one people dead. Some areas with no electricity or communications. They’re evacuating tourists on army ships.
“We can’t go there!! They’re evacuating people.”
So we went to the travel agency to try and change our bus tickets. No problem. But to where? We decided on Koh Chang, a Thai island only 8 hours from here – and still en route to Koh Phangan. We’d go in a couple of days so we could monitor the weather situation – we’d heard there’d been a lot of rain on Koh Chang, too, and possible flooding. It would also give us time to check out other options.
Sure enough, every beach on this side of the world has rain for the next week.
The strategy now is to wait it out in Siem Reap. It’s central, so it gives us flexibility to make our next move.
We got here on Monday, March 28th. Our original bus ticket out was for Saturday, April 2nd. Now it’s Wednesday afternoon, April 6th. It’s still raining at all the beaches. Our next bus ticket out is on Friday. Can’t complain, though. The weather here is gorgeous. We’re staying in our nicest hotel room yet, paying $10 a night. There’s a nice swimming pool. Decent restaurant on-site. The internet sucks, which isn’t ideal (no photos in this post, sorry!), but what can you do?
Glad you asked. We’ve been reading a lot (I just finished Island Beneath the Sea which was really good), watching TV and movies (they have cable here!), Fahrin has been doing some writing, and I’ve been writing music on the computer. Stay tuned to hear some soon…
2 Sides 1 Story 
Posted by Michelle on April 9, 2011 at 5:03 am
hope you have access to more good books 🙂 What else have the two of you read that you liked?
Posted by Stu Silverman on April 11, 2011 at 7:56 pm
We’ve got e-readers, so we have access to all the e-books on the internet. I just finished Island Beneath the Sea, which I enjoyed very much. How about you?