Traveling takes a very special person as you never know what is going to be thrown at you and you must roll with the punches or you will drive yourself insane. The rules of engagement are different here and the entitled approach that many American take are out the window and you are at the mercy of the locals. For those who lack patience or try to forcefully talk to people will be in a shit storm of pain.

As soon as our bus approached the border of Thailand, we walked with our 45 pound packs in addition to our day bags strapped to our chests as we battle the smoldering heat.  The distance was significant between the Cambodian custom’s office to Thailand custom’s office where we waited nearly two hours in line.  Of course we were starving after the long morning and all there was to eat was KFC who did not accept credit card. So Jason went to hunt down a cash machine in order for us to eat. Moral of the story is you must have patience, not be picky and above all remain calm.

Our bus rolled into Bangkok in the late evening where “surprise surprise” into another concrete jungle where the heat radiated off the concrete streets, but it almost felt like a New York, Asian style. Hustle and bustle everywhere and it seemed as if the city didn’t sleep similar to the Big Apple. We had already planned our great escape from the towering buildings of Bangkok but first needed to acquire our China visas.

Happy 31st birthday to me as we spent most of our day painstakingly battling with the Chinese Embasssy. The requirements for our Visa were out of this world. They nearly wanted in detail what we were going to be doing in China from where we would be staying to almost what we would be eating for each meal! LOL oh and how we were going to pay for it all. Jason and I stuck to the arduous process and were able to get it submitted and hoped and prayed that our visas would be approved over the next couple of days. We were exhausted by the end of the day and treated ourselves to wine and pizza while we celebrated my birthday.

-Vanessa R.