Our favorite time of day in Siem Reap is shortly after sunset, when the trees, buildings and power poles stand out as black silhouettes in front of the dark blue sky, before it turns into black night. This is the time when the bats leave their sleeping-places in the branches of the tall trees and majestically ascend into the sky. Bats as big as eagles that let our Dracula-hearts leap for joy.

But farewell came closer. From Cambodia, the children and the bats. A goodbye that‘s hard, especially when 150 pairs of glowing children‘s eyes look up to you - which is why we‘ve decided to stay at the orphanage a little longer. But bureaucracy and it‘s visa regulations can‘t be fooled by pretty eyes (or by an euphoric explanation from our side, about how much we like the bats here). We had to leave Cambodia.

The ride to the Thai border was as expected, well, let‘s just say tough. A few nuances paler but bravely smiling we left Cambodia on foot through the departure gate. On the other side of the bridge we filled out the Thailand Visitor Cards and passing the passport control successfully the officer saw us off with a friendly „enjoy your stay“. A few Thai-breaths later we went through the Thailand departure gate, walked back over the bridge, back to Cambodia, where the only welcome we got was a ugly rip-off, when getting our new visa. Welcome back!

Yes, welcome back. Back with the friendly Khmer people (except for the border officers), back in the orphanage and back in Siem Reap, where we spend our evenings looking up into the sky again, following the trajectories of the bats.

More pix under ‚pictures/cambodia‘.