Cambodia

We flew into Siem Reap, Cambodia, the town that is the staging ground for visiting Ankor Wat. We had read a the Lonely Planet, and one of the guest houses stood out to us as a potential place to stay. When we arrived, we caught a taxi into town and of course he tried to take us somewhere else telling us that our choice was "dirty and expensive." We said no, luckily, and ended up staying in the nicest room of the year (outside of NZ and Oz) for a measly $6/night with all day bread, bananas, and tea and free bike rental!

We spent the next 3 days wandering around Ankor Wat. It rained sometimes, but we never got it too bad, and the experience was amazing. We saved the best for last, finishing with Ankor Wat itself (there are probably hundreds of temples spread over hundreds of square kilometers of jungle) and Ta Phrom (probably misspelled) the temple used for shooting Tomb Raider. The temples were amazing, and we were very glad to have a camera again. Some of them were enormous! Ankor Wat, built around 1200 AD is actually the largest religious building in the world! All of the buildings were covered in amazing sculptures, carvings and reliefs, and when the jungle had started to reclaim some of the temples it just looked magical. Our pictures don't do it justice at all, it's a must go! Two of the three days we biked which was great exercise and good fun. Another day so see a temple farther away we booked a tuk tuk for $20/for the day. Other exploring options are by horseback, and there is one temple on a hill that you can ride an elephant to!

At night in Siem Reap we went to see a free traditional dance show which was fascinating and excellent. The teens who were dancing were very good and you could tell they enjoyed what they were doing and their playfulness made it all the better. We found more great food, like fish amok. It's a baked fish curry in a banana leaf that's wonderful.

In Siem Reap we saw that there were drastic differences in poverty levels between Cambodia and the countries we had visited before. It was interesting to learn about the history through museums and reading various books, and learn that the entire country was devastated by the Khmer Rouge in 1975. They turned it into an idealistic communist "agrarian cooperative" with absolutely no industry or cities until 1979. All things industrial or "western" were decried evil and immoral. More than a quarter of all Cambodians were either starved to death or blatantly murdered during this brutal regime. Despite the poverty, it was impressive to see how far they had progressed in returning to "normality" in under 30 years.

After Siem Reap we headed to southern Cambodia to relax in Kampot. We wanted to visit the Bokor Hill station in a nearby NP, and relax in the area. We caught the first bus out of Siem Reap, but missed a connection in Phenom Penh and ended up taking our most classic "shared taxi" yet. After being gouged for the cost, we had our bags tied onto the back of the mini bus (we have a great picture), and then 23 people were loaded into the bus meant for roughly 11. For the first hour or so I thought there were only 22, but then looking out the window at the endless workers in rice paddies and other unique sights, I realized that there was a shadow of someone sitting on top of our minivan!

Kampot turned out to be OK. The Bokor Hill station was closed due to road construction. A massive resort is going to be built up there so they need a better road. As a result, we caught a bus, motorcycle ride, and boat combo to get to the remote Rabbit Island where we spent the day relaxing in the sun on a very secluded beach. The only other people on the beach were other travellers we had planned to go there with to keep the boat costs down. We played chess, read, and relaxed. Upon returning to Kampot, we found a little street stall selling drinks so we stopped and had two fresh fruit shakes for under $0.50 each and stared at the yummy looking desserts. We were trying to figure out which of the many desserts we wanted to try until we realized the locals were ordering a mixture of ALL of them covered in sweetened condensed milk, coconut milk and more! Needless to say, we ordered two! The lady laughed when she saw us smile with realization then happily point at what she was holding and hold up two fingers! We never did figure out what that was called...

After Kampot, we caught a more proper bus back to Phenom Penh, the capital, and again watched the country side slide by. I've realized that SE Asia is just covered in limestone walls. It's just logistics that keep them from being climbed. This time, I saw many many mini buses like the one we rode in that made our shared taxi experience seem empty. Once, I estimated there were up to 40 people in/on a single minibus with almost 20 of them on the roof! It's been fascinating to see the world and realize how much I take for granted living in the US.

We didn't have much time in Phenom Penh, but we managed to see a beautiful fountain/light/music show in a park, take a cooking class, and visit the museum at Tuol Sleng. The cooking class was amazing, filled with wonderful friendly people and we learned to make everything from various curries to fish amok. I hope that we can find good enough ingredients back home so that we can make some of these spectacular dishes for our friends and family back home.

Tuol Sleng was a somber place, to say the least. There were actually signs that said no smiling or laughing. The subject matter was definitely not funny. Tuol Sleng was a children's school until the Khmer Rouge victoriously marched into Phenom Penh in 1975. From that day forward, it was used as a detention center for the remainder of their control. Of the tens of thousands of people who passed through Tuol Sleng, essentially every single one was horribly tortured and executed. Only 7 people survived. The people executed were Khmer (ethnic Cambodians) who had lived in cities before the Khmer Rouge, previous government officials, people who wore glasses (they looked too intelligent), Chinese, anyone suspected of anything, and much, much more. The prisoners of Tuol Sleng were executed in the "Killing Fields" south of the city. We heard we should pass on visiting that one since the ground you walk on to this day is still a mixture of the remnants of bones and clothes of those killed. It was a somber way to finish Cambodia, but we both read the book First They Killed My Father, about a survivor of the Khmer Rouge reign and we were curious to learn more. We've learned much about world history on this trip, which has been another unique aspect I didn't expect.

After we left Tuol Sleng, it was time to head to the airport. We were headed back to Northern Thailand! Chiang Mai to be exact.