Siem Reap - Cambodia

Cambodia is a magical place that took me a full month to think of the words to blog about it! I think Lonely Planet guide book has the perfect quote, "Cambodia, an intoxicating place with a tragic past, a glorious present and an unwritten future." This place was enchanting and you could feel its energy all the way from the temples to the people. Cambodia was probably the poorest country we have visited but the people were the richest. Its amazing that a country that has been through so much war and genocide over countless years doesn't come out completely broken, but Cambodia is still standing with its magnificent temples and smiling people.

Jason's Mom came out to visit us in Singapore and after a few days there we all went to Siem Reap, Cambodia together. We were greeted at the airport by our smiley, enthusiastic tour guide, Pheng, that stood no taller then myself with an infectious energy about his country. He took us to our hotel, the Sofitel which we loved, and we made plan for the next several non-stop days of temple trekking, market haggling, local eating, local marketing, floating along small villages and one epic rainstorm.

Our first day we saw four temples, including my favorite temple Bayon that has 216 carved faces everywhere you turn! We also got to climb all around, up stairs, over rocks and through windows. We were amazed that they let you still climb all around it, but you know safety first in Asia :), especially on narrow stairs no wider then 4 inches that dart straight up! Here's some temples from our first day:

Our fearless leader Pheng :)

Yep I did it "Singapore style" and sported my pink
umbrella on a hot hot day and shared it with Debra.

Fishing in the river

That's an understatement!

This little girl wanted Jason to buy some bracelets for "just one dollar" and she
chanted this all the way to our van. All the other girls gave up but she persisted and
yes she did end up getting "just one dollar".

Her beautiful smile after her well persisted sale.

All that morning trekking made us hungry for some Amok, a local Khmer favorite and
Jason's too!

The "Jungle Temple" Ta Prohm

There was only way up to one temple - via our favorite animals!

Love this shot that Jason got! All the people look like they are part of the temple itself.

Gorgeous sunset followed by....

So I think I'll insert our epic rainstorm story here. We got to the top of Phnom Bakheng temple via elephant to find an entire Japanese tour bus or two or three had landed in the same spot. We hiked around them up the narrow stairs and sat at the top with a few hundred to watch the sunset go down over Siem Reap. Jason and I were snapping away with our cameras as the clouds seemed to get closer and closer. Debra was worried about getting down the stairs with all the people when it started to rain so she went down and told us to meet her right at the bottom of "the stairs." I nodded and kept snapping photos, until sure enough buckets of rain started to come down on us! Jason and I got to the bottom of "the stairs" and I said we need to find your Mom. He said, "no she is meeting us at the bottom of the stairs at the entrance." I said, "no she is meeting us at the bottom of the temple stairs." Meanwhile this whole discussion is happening under the elephant loading dock with spiderwebs and who knows what hanging over our heads. Finally we agreed to disagree and figure that before the rain gets worse we should get down the hill. So we run down the hill as fast as we can while trying to cover our cameras with our t-shirts. Jason passed a couple on the way down and tried his bartering skills for an umbrella but they wouldn't part with it, so we kept on running. I found a burlap bag on the side of the hill and draped that over me and my camera to keep dry. We finally got to the bottom of the hill where Pheng was waiting for us with some pink umbrellas that had already flown inside out when Jason tried to open it right before I got there in front of a bunch of Asian girls that put their hands over their mouths and giggled at him, rightly so since he was no longer wearing a shirt and was trying to wrestle a bright pink umbrella to the ground. When we got to the bottom there was no sign of Debra - with panic Jason ran back up the hill to find her. Finally she came to the bottom leisurely in her poncho and umbrella that she had wisely packed! She said she was waiting at the bottom of the temple stairs as she told us. And since Jason is not writing this blog I get to say Ha I was right!! We all had a good laugh and made it back to the van before we had an even better laugh, Pheng told us that one of the other guides told him he thought his tourists were coming down the hill and they were wrapped in the elephant poop burlap bags! Well I guess it will be a story to tell the kids someday :) and boy did we sleep good that night, once I got the elephant poop off.

The next day we were up bright and early - 4:00am actually to watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat come up. Here's some photos:

After the sunrise we enjoyed some breakfast and then spent the rest of the day
exploring Angkor Wat, which we practically had to ourselves:

I almost took her home along with 20 other Cambodian kids...

One of my favorite shots of kids playing in the river.

After a quick rest at the hotel we decided to go into town and explore the marketplace a little. It was full of souvenirs and local merchandise and we thought that was it. Um boy were we wrong, all of a sudden we start to smell this strange smell that sort of reminds us of raw fish and meat and sure enough in the middle of the marketplace that was just clothes and souvenirs turns into a food market with beef and chicken and fish and pork all laying out to be sold. Enough of the description, a picture says a thousand words, see below:

In our tuk tuk on the way to the market

He was the ice delivery man

She needed a nap after all this and we needed a beer! So we headed across the
street to settle our stomachs and our minds.

Tuk tuk!! Jason's favorite quote of the trip, "Lady, hello, lady...you like tuk tuk?"
That was the question they all wanted the answer to in Siem Reap!

After the marketplace Pheng took us into a village just outside of the city to show us how local life was, here are some photos:

Our busy day was followed by dinner in town at Khmer Kitchen Restaurant - probably the best Amok in town, Jason became a connoisseur! We wandered though Pub Street (Yes this is the name of where all the bars and restaurants are) until we took a tuk tuk back to our hotel.

The next day, Pheng took us to his local market and I'm pretty sure we were the only white people there. The "wave to the American's" was off the hook there. We sampled a few things that we weren't sure what they were and then we were off to explore the floating village of Tonle Sap.

A bitter fruit of some sort...

Buckets of fish paste - we think?

Pig's blood

The boat that took us out to the floating village couldn't go through the village itself because the tide was too low so Pheng asked one of the local boys if he wanted to take us on his smaller boat. He agreed for $5 to take us through the shallow waters of the village. The heat that day was incredible so I got out my hat and Jason got a new local style that sometimes I still see him wearing around the house. We set out in waters that if we stood up only came up to our knees. Debra stayed on the floating dock waiting for us and she said what we couldn't see was that they were bailing water out of our small boat when we took off! I'm glad I heard about that after the fact. It was amazing to see this tiny village all on the water where kids went to school, people had businesses, gardens and homes and we even saw a pig farm!

I think this lady had a crush on Jason

Our 15 year old tour guide for the next 15 minutes

Duck farm

At one point we got stuck so our guide had to push us out

We really fell in love with this amazing country and we are going to go back this fall again to see more! When we went to the local village Pheng showed us how the family had a well for their water supply, he also said that many families still do not have wells and they are still drinking, bathing and doing all of their business in the rivers, clean drinking water is still hard to come by. We have asked Pheng if we could donate a well to a family and help build and document it, he has found a family for us to help and we are excited to give the gift of water, something that we take for granted each day, to a family. We will also be giving a donation to a family and school children while we are there and if anyone is interested in donating I have set up a PayPal account for Cambodia. Just click the button below if you would like to help and all the donations will go directly to the people there.