Still, Through my mother's eyes:

best night ever. Best khmer food, family and fun. Went to Girl's chinese school. Now back on road. Hope to be in Siem Reap by tonight. Text you tmr night. Miss you!

So it goes without saying that the evening with Borey's family went awesome. to awake in the morning at 5.30 am to the life of a typical cambodian village, complete with the singing and outhouse bathingg, is the experience of a lifetime. It also exemplified the beautiful of life and travelling, that the kindness of strangers and the goodness of human spirit is worth risking for. And on that note, I've been inviting all other random backpackers I've met out here to stay with me in Singapore. I hope my parents were ok with that.

In Siem Reap saw ankor wat. Both sick today cos over exerted yesterday. Thi taking VERY good care of me. Will stay till 6. $10 a day budget not possible. But love it!

I never told my mother this, but the reason why we fell sick was fear. We reached Sisophon at 5 pm the evening we left Borey's house and were immediately swarmed by insistant "taxi" service men who followed us everywhere and waited outside the washroom. They insisted we take their "taxi" to Siem Reap and when we refused, threated to cause trouble.

YOU CAUSE TROUBLE! And so we entered the 'Taxi' (an unlicensed car ) and started down route 6 to Siem Reap. We were so sure we were being kidnapped and spent the 3 hours in the car in complete terror. I was frantically studying the map and checking of possible towns to get help and making sure that our driver didn't veer off the hightway (which is really a dirt road). Thi had my swiss army knife ready and was hiding money in his underwear. My hand was gripping my cell phone with an emergency SMS to mother that read: "Call police, In strange car: Blue Toyota camry with Ankor Wat picture on back windows" ready to send at any moment. The night was pitchblack and the rains had started. Lightning scratched the sky every so often, and the road was dotted with epic detours that made my heart lurch at every turn.

I tasted fear for the first time in my life that night. It's cold and dry and sits on your lips like poison. It didn't let me go till 2 hours after we were safely in the hotel room (nothing happened at all) and I had spent a good half of that time shaking on the bed. No more travelling at night.

So the next day, Thi and I fell sick, and I still cough a little now.
The adventure was all in our minds, but still and Thi says, better to err on the side of caution.

Got to go, it's 11 and i'm In vietnam. Will continue later. Suffice to say, taht I am in love with this region.