Although rejuvenated, the realization hit me after the massage that I was bungee jumping off of a 150 foot tower that afternoon. Although excited, I was way nervous. When we arrived I gazed upon a tall tower next to a big pond- presumably for the purpose of dipping in when you jump. I watched nervously as 5 other people in our group did the jump. When it was my turn, I got weighed and my feet were bound together in preparation. The elevator ride up could not have taken longer, and when I thought it might stop it would just keep going higher. When it finally stopped at the top, the photo guy took a couple pictures of me and there I stood at the edge. I had to discipline myself to not look down, everyone was telling me it made it worse. On the way up I told myself I had to be pushed off, so I told the guy to do it at the top. Just like that, I was falling towards the earth. My head and hands dipped into the water a little, and the recoil launched me back out pretty high up again. After bouncing around for a while, I was lowered down to the ground where I received my certificate of courage, haha. It was the most thrilling sensation ever. I had to do it, it's just something that needed to get out of the way. Looking back I'm glad I did, it was a blast. The camera guy took some great, hilarious pictures of the jump. I was able to load a couple on Facebook, but most are on a CD.
Later that afternoon we spent our last couple of hours at a quaint tea house in Chiang Mai. I got a delicious crepe with caramel and banana.
The rest of the day we spent traveling. When we got to the airport we had to say goodbye to our amazing tour leader, Milk. After our flight to Bangkok, we had to say goodbye to all the UK people in our group, since they were taking a connecting flight home. In Bangkok we stayed in the same hotel we stayed in the very first night of the trip. it was very nostalgic. It's funny, everything that was so strange about that hotel the first night in thailand, ie. the strange showers and roaming cats and lizards, are so second nature to me now.
Once I slept a couple hours, I woke back up again at 4am to say goodbye to the rest of or group leaving for their flight back home. It was sad to say goodbye, we had all bonded so much. Anything but hanging out with the usual gang is just weird.
I went back to sleep and woke up again at 8 am, and checked out at 9. We met our Cambodia tour leader, Chad, and we headed to the border in vans.
Immigration at the border took forever. When we finally passed we took a 3 hour bus ride to our hotel in Siem Reap. The Cambodian country side struck me on the way. It's very green and beautiful, yet eerie when you think about if there's land mines somewhere in there.
Our hotel is the best I've stayed at on this trip. All the rooms create a courtyard around a nice swimming pool. Our room has two floors, with a deck overlooking the pool. Im writing this post from an awesome, bouncy chair hanging from the ceiling of the deck, it's fun.
For dinner we had delicious cambodian food at a non profit restaurant.I tried some frog, it tasted like chicken. All the money goes to Cambodian kids; to get them off the streets begging and into school. The restaurant also helps with micro credit, and the owner has a school of 72 kids, some who have gone on to go to universities. Chad gave us a brief recent history of the genocide that occurred in cambodia. It was hard to listen to, it made me feel better about eating at a restaurant making a difference in a country that has had such a devastating and heartbreaking history.
Just like Thailand, everything Is really cheap here. US dollars are accepted everywhere and people drive on the right side of the road. In an odd way it feels slightly same same but different to home.
Really excited for tomorrow. Tomorrow we our touring the Angkor temples by bicycle, including the much awaited Angkor Wat I've been so excited to see.
Sorry about the lack of photos, tomorrow should make up for that:)
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