Discovering Cambodia Part 2...

After Siem Reap I was a little bummed because I didn't imagine my trip could get better than that. I did mention before I think, that Siem Reap, specifically Angkor Wat and the floating village, were my favorite parts of the trip. However, at this point I still had a lot of amazing experiences ahead of me.

So......back onto the bus we went (did I mention we took a lot of bus rides???), leaving Siem Reap and heading to a town called Kampong Cham for the night. We were only staying here one night...I had little expectations, but it was awesome! We took a bike ride across the river on a bamboo bridge that was pretty damn long actually! We visited a local school where children of all ages were learning English and we had dinner at a tuk tuk driver's house with his family.

First off...before living in China I didn't realize how much I love riding bikes! I mean, really it had been since my childhood that I had ridden a bicycle. But I gotta say, I think it's my favorite way to get around and see the sights! Moving on....









 Starting out, heading across the bridge in full day light. The bridge is rebuilt every year and it was made with a lot of bamboo, strong but it was still rather rickety. I figure though...they drive cars over the thing, so I should be fine on my little bike. :)




















Imparting my wisdom on the kiddos. :) I have to admit actually...just a few minutes trying to teach them English and I was questioning my skills! No me gusta! It was very different than teaching my kids and a good eye opener!

We left Kampong Cham the next morning....back on the bus. I guess at this point I should share with you that my feet, specifically my left foot, did NOT appreciate all of the bus rides. The heat combined with my feet hanging down for so many hours, led to....ummmmm....how shall I put this? Fat people feet? Geriatric feet? I'm not sure...they're both pretty mean and terrible (I'm aware), but that's exactly what they looked like! I had some serious edema in my left foot....you couldn't see any of my ankle bone. It was highly depressing. Thankfully, it didn't hurt. But I just started to imagine the rest of my days when I travel, wearing compression socks with my sandals!!!! Must find out why this is happening and put an end to it...immediately. Not okay Molly, not okay.  

So anyway, back to much more important things. Off we went on the bus, headed to Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital city. I think I'd like to go back to Phnom Penh sometime, because some friends of mine from school were also there and they loved it! I think I was annoyed to be in a city at this point, or something like that, so I wasn't terribly excited about much of it. However, we did take a nice tuk tuk ride around the city at night. I tried to get a picture to capture the traffic in the city but it was terrible, so I'll try and describe it. I think the best way I can put it is....there are soooooo many motorbikes driving around, it feels like each one is a bee, and you're in the middle of the hive. They swarm all around you, not necessarily moving in a unified direction, just absentmindedly, dodging this way and that with almost no rhyme or reason. If you close your eyes and just listen....it almost sounds like a swarm of bees. It really is so different than what most westerners are used to. I'm a little more accustomed now since living in China, but even here it's different. There are a lot more bicycles here and the motorized bikes here are electric...not nearly as noisy. Of course the Chinese make up for it with the horns...but so do the Cambodians. :)

Phnom Penh at Sunset 

Early the next morning, before leaving for our home-stay in the country, we went to visit the Choueng Ek Killing Fields and the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Choueng Ek & Tuol Sleng are the largest of the killing fields and prisons used during the Khmer Rouge regime, which led to an estimated 2 million deaths. It's honestly kind of hard for me to write about this because I don't really even know what to say. It was horrific what happened, and going to these places, seeing the mass graves where 400+ bodies were thrown in, mass graves where children were thrown in, pictures of the people etc. it's almost too much to comprehend. It was, to say the least, a very sobering experience. I took only two pictures (I felt weird even taking those), but I'll share one with you. It's always good to be reminded how fortunate we are.

Driving to the home-stay

After our humbling morning it was hard to carry on about the day and be chipper. But after lunch we headed back on the bus, had a nap and then eventually got to our home-stay in the Cambodian countryside. This was a very cool experience and I'm so glad we got to do it! Seeing the kids at the home-stay was definitely my favorite part. I know I've said many times how beautiful these kids are, but it's true! They are beautiful and they are so friendly! As soon as we got to the village area we were staying in, we started to see houses and in each of the front "yard" areas, there were just kids! Tons of kids! And dogs too, but wow...lots of kids!!! They would run out to the street and wave...say hello even. :)

So interesting that they're just hanging out, playing with a fire. A bit different than what I'm used to! 

These 2 cuties were total hams....LOVED getting their pictures taken and then looking at the pictures afterward. I wish she had smiled because she had a really pretty smile, but this little boy is pretty damn adorable himself. 

Our sleeping arrangements. It was really not that bad, but regardless...I slept about 1 hour...MAX! 

 The food while we were at the home-stay was...eh...not my favorite. Not terrible, but a lot of strange meats being thrown our way. Haha! But for me, definitely the worst part was the huge red ants that seemed to follow me everywhere I went. I'm sure they were harmless enough (actually I'm not sure about that at all!!!!) but they freaked the crap out of me. I wished so badly I'd had my camera because I was walking through the "yard" of the place we stayed and some clothes were hanging on a branch of a tree drying and oh my gosh............the clothes were absolutely covered in these red ants! And they were big! And scary! And fast! After that it was all over for me. I itched and scratched all night long and instead of sugarplums dancing in my head, it was big, red, fast ants crawling around my body from head to toe.

The next morning we took a hike to a waterfall before heading to Sihanoukville...the beach! The waterfall was pretty and all, but really at this point I was ready for some of that, laying on the beach with a yummy drink in my hand kind of holiday I had previously referenced. I felt like I had been dirty for days and now I just wanted to lay in the sun, get some color on my winter skin and read a book!!!!

Sihanoukville isn't known for being the nicest beach in Cambodia, but it was perfect for a couple of days. We found all the touristy crap you could want, restaurant after restaurant plastering the beach...different names, same menus. There's a saying they use in a lot of SE Asia and it's this, "same same, but different" and I think it's used a lot for very good reason. :) Pretty much everywhere you go that's touristy is the same...but it's different. :) Very logical!

While it wasn't the nicest beach ever, Sihanoukville gave me everything I wanted. Yummy drinks on the beach, sun on my skin and....oh yea....the freakin Seahawks won the Superbowl which I watched in this little beach town in Cambodia at a bar called Stars & Stripes. I can't complain! I was drinking my 3rd bloody mary (which was not bad at all!) by 9:00am.




After burning our skin just the right amount, maybe just a "tech" more (that's for my dad) we headed back to Phnom Penh for one more day in Cambodia. Then the next morning we headed to Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. Our tour ended here, but Dae Hee and I still had a couple more days of our holiday. We headed out of the city for a little more beach time in Vung Tao, which was a big tourist destination for the local Vietnamese people. I laid by the pool and finished my book on and off for two days. It was a great way to end the holiday. Before heading to the airport on our final night, we wasted some time in Ho Chi Minh people watching. It's a very bustling city...lots going on. We found a great place to eat, drink and take it all in before heading home.

So far, my time traveling around SE Asia has been more amazing than I ever imagined it could be. I have met amazing people, experienced bits of culture that I knew absolutely nothing about, saw beautiful natural landscapes that are so different than what I've been around my entire life. I am so unbelievably lucky to get to do all of this and in about a month I'm going to be even more lucky. March 28th I head to the beautiful island of Bali....cannot wait!