Phnom Penh and Home

We've been home for about a day now.  We landed yesterday at 10am at Dulles.  I tried to stay up for a bit but by 2pm I was exhausted (we had been up for over 36 hours I'm estimating) and took a nap that turned into sleeping until 7pm!

Anyway, I'm pretty amazed that we traveled through Cambodia for so long without any serious complications.  We didn't get seriously ill or have anything stolen and so far neither of us have Dengue fever or malaria!  We did get a couple bad sunburns but that's okay.

So I should talk a little about Phnom Penh.  We got there around noon on Sunday and our hotel was nice enough to let us check in early.  We splurged and got a room with a small private pool.  The small pool turned out to be mostly shaded and by 6pm it was freezing.  We did swim in it every day though but probably won't indulge in that extravagance again.  That afternoon we went to the Tuol Sleng museum which is the prison that victims were taken to and tortured before going to the Killing Fields to be executed.

The museum is really powerful but not as moving as the actual Killing Fields.  We went to the Killing Fields the next day and I think it really helped splitting them into two days.  I think many people go to them in the same day which would have been too intense for us.  After the Killing Fields we went to the Russian Market in the afternoon.

By this time I think we were a little worn out/overwhelmed by how dirty Phnom Penh was and Cambodia in general.  I was frustrated that it was hard to walk places because of the huge trash piles and how terrible they smell!  We went to a bar (the Zeppelin Cafe where a man plays old rock records all night) about a 10 minute walk from our hotel and considered taking a Tuk Tuk back because of the dirty streets.  Phnom Penh also had a neighborhood that was full of bars that were either strip clubs or brothels (or both?) that was in a touristy area by the river.  That was pretty discouraging since most of the restaurants were in that area and after dinner we certainly didn't want to walk around a neighborhood like that.

Our flight back was at midnight so the day we left we didn't do too much.  We went to a hip antique store and while I got a pedicure Brandon went to the National Museum.  We got delicious Mexican food for lunch (Cambodia has really good chimichangas!) and then relaxed before our flight.

I had set a goal for myself that during the 24 hours of traveling I wanted to finish the 2 books I was reading, catch up on Serial and beat Brandon at Tetris.  I finished one of the books and listened to 4 Serial episodes but didn't beat Brandon at Tetris despite playing 10+ games.  A couple of games we were a little confused why I didn't win so I think the in-flight system is rigged.  Having a list of things I wanted to accomplish during the day of traveling I think helped the time pass but I'm sure it also helped we had our own row of seats in the flight from Seoul to Dulles.

Here are a few random thoughts I had while traveling.

Things I brought that I didn't need:
- gym shoes and socks.  I thought these would be good for long days of walking but I just wore my sandals (Chaco X2) the whole time and got impressive sandal tan lines on my feet.
- hair spray and dry shampoo.  No explanation needed.
- antibiotics and ambien.  Was very glad I had these but didn't use them.

Things I wish I had brought:
- nail clippers
- tweezers
- anti-itch cream for big bites
- antibiotic cream for small cuts

Things we brought and used a lot:
- bug spray (100% deet)
- sunscreen
- laundry bags. Laundry is CHEAP to do there at $1 per KG but often takes 1 day or more so plan ahead even at places that say they have 2-3 hour turnaround times.

Other things of note:
- wifi is really easy to find.  Almost every restaurant has it.
- Everything is pretty much cash based using the US dollar.  Even if your hotel tells you it takes credit cards it may not.  ATMs are readily available but they will give you most of your money in $100 bills which are hard to change.  Our hotels were usually able to change one or two $100 bills.  I would say this was the biggest annoyance of our trip since some stores and tuk tuk drivers can't even change a $10 and occasionally have problems with a $5. I'm not sure what the way to get around this is other than bring tons of cash in small bills with you (but obviously traveling with a large amount of cash is an issue) or perhaps find a bank that doesn't have foreign ATM fees?  Canadia Bank ATMs there did not charge a fee.

Goodbye Cambodia!

We leave in about an hour for the airport and we are sitting here musing about it favorite and least favorite parts of the trip.   I thought I would write a post while it's still on my mind.  

Favorite parts:

- 4 rivers lodge on the Tatai.  The staff were so nice and helpful and it was peaceful and relaxing (also beautiful!)

- We were at a bar in Siem Reap for an open mic night and no one was signing up so the house band kept playing and they were terrible.  Eventually a Cambodian woman signed up and sang a bunch of 90s hits (4 Non Blondes, The Cranberries) and she was amazing and I wished she would sing all night.  

- The Killing Fields here in Phnom Penh of course not a "good" moment but a really emotionally intense moment.  The area also now has a lot of birds, butterflies and other wildlife so it's heartening to see life in a place so filled with horrific deaths. 

- Rikitikitavi our hotel in Kampot.  Kampot itself wasn't my favorite but the staff was wonderful there was one specific woman who was hilarious and told us about her garden where she grows carrots that are too small.  We told her to keep waiting and that it takes many months to grow carrots.  

- The fish massage in Siem Reap was so funny because Brandon had a mild freak out when the fish started biting him and it was tickling him so people on the street were stopping to watch him.  You're supposed to get 30 minutes with the fish but then across the street an electrical pole started to catch fire so we got out of there!  Eventually someone climbed the hotel balcony and put it out with a fire extinguisher. So it wasn't a big deal but I guess there's no organized fire department in Siem Reap. 

- Overall the temples at Angkor were really amazing. There are so many. We spent 4 days and didn't even go to the outlying temples.  They all have different styles and vibes and it's just awe inspiring to be able to walk around and see these structures that were built over a thousand years ago.  

- cheap beer, cheap food and being able to use only US dollars! Also everyone speaking English was pretty helpful!

We need to finish packing and head to the airport so I think I'll make a post with least favorite parts later.  

Koh Kong and our first day in Kampot

Right now we are in a taxi on the way to Kampot.  This morning we checked out of 4 Rivers Resort on the Tatai River in Koh Kong. I really can't say enough good things about it.

The rooms are actually tents on a floating dock and I don't mean small camping tents these are huge African Safari type tents with a king size bed and enormous bathroom.

There are 12 tents and ours was the furthest west so the shower had a fantastic view of the sunset.  You can step out the front door of your tent and jump off the dock into the river. It was such a breath of fresh air (literally) from the dirt and noise of Sihanoukville. 

The food was also delicious.  Each dinner is a four course feast and they designed a special vegetarian menu for me!  During  the day on Tuesday we  went to the Tatai waterfall and swam, jumped off the rocks and laughed at a monkey.  Wednesday we just relaxed in the sun and swam. I got a traditional Khmer massage which was interesting. Mostly we just read and relaxed.   It was a great experience and I would recommend checking it out if you are in Cambodia. 

Wednesday evening we took a boat ride to see the fireflies.  I expected fireflies flying around lazily like they do in the US but here they hang out in the tree together and blink in unison. It's like Christmas lights!  It was such a fantastic thing to see!  On the way back the sky was so clear we saw a few shooting stars.  Once we got back we had dinner and my main course was stir fried vegetables with Kampot peppercorns which were so delicious.  I'm definitely going to have to get some in Kampot.  

P.S.  I started this yesterday and of course forgot to upload it so I'll keep going and talk about what we did today. 

We knew we wanted to go to Bokor Hill Station.  So we asked our hotel about a tour group and they said they could put us together with one that would be $25 each. We decided to walk around town and see if we could get a cheaper deal.  After looking around and seeing nothing we decided to go for it.   But, this time the bartender at our hotel told Brandon we could rent a scooter for $5 for 24 hours and go ourselves and do whatever we wanted on our own time.  

I was nervous about this idea.  We had rented a scooter in Cozumel and had fun but there was a lot less traffic there and going around the beach is different than going up and down a mountain.  Brandon felt confident about it so I decided to embrace adventure and try it. Later that evening we talked to a couple at a different guesthouse we stopped at for dinner and she said it was fun and they had no issues so that made me feel better.  

Well they dropped off our scooter this morning and off we went!  Brandon drove the whole time and it was pretty great.  The drive is up a mountain through Bokor National Park and was just beautiful.  

At the top is an abandoned hill station that was built by the French in the 20s then taken over by the Vietnamese and the Khmer Rouge during the civil war.  Now it's just abandoned and super creepy looking.  The main building which is a palace and casino is the most interesting. Unfortunately the blog publishing app won't let me post pictures right now so I'll have to fill you in when I'm back. It's mostly concrete but there is still some original tile. You can still see bullet holes in the walls from the shootouts between the Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge.  Tomorrow we will keep the scooter I think and check out some salt fields and caves near Kep. 

Island trip and GOODBYE Sihanoukville

We leave around noon today for Koh Kong. It's a district in the southwestern part of Cambodia in the Cardamom mountains. I'm told that wifi and cell service is spotty at best there so you might not hear from us for a few days!  We are staying at a floating lodge on a river and I think it will redeem our Sihanoukville experience. 

Our boat trip yesterday was great.  We had booked tickets on "The Party Boat" so we were a little nervous that the crowd would not be our style but it turns out the party boat doesn't really have much partying on it which was fine with us.  

The boat left around 930 and went to a small island where you could jump out and snorkel.  The water was rough and there wasn't much to see so that was a bummer but jumping off the top of a three story boat was fun.  Brandon has pics so I'll post them later when we have better wifi.  It's so slow here that even emailing pictures to each other takes an hour.  

The boat went to the island of Koh Rong Samloem  next which was beautiful.  Pretty much a post card picture of paradise.  When I was researching Sihanoukville I had read you could rent beach bungalows there but I thought we would like the city life of Sihanoukville more.  Well I was wrong!  We met a nice couple on the boat that were staying in the bungalows for 3 nights and we were very jealous. 

We got to swim around and lay on the beach for a few hours then it was back to Sihanoukville.  

I'll end on a high note. Below is a picture of Koh Rong Samloem.  

Sihanoukville :-(

We've been in Sihanoukville for about 24 hours and I wish we were leaving earlier!  It started off badly when our shuttle driver from the airport refused to drive us all the way to our hotel.  At the airport we didn't realize you had to exit the airport parking lot to find Tuk Tuk drivers so we paid to ride a shuttle that dropped off 4 other couples. He kicked us out about 2 blocks from our hotel and started taking out our bags despite our protests and there wasn't really much we could do. 

So there was that then we checked into our hotel and tried to use the wifi and it wasn't working. Someone came to our room to try to fix it but that didn't get anywhere. Apparently we were the ONE ROOM in the whole hotel where the wifi was sketchy.  We asked for a different room and apparently they were fully booked. We tried to ask for a refund (we paid at check in) and that wasn't getting us anywhere.  We became a bit more firm in our desire for a refund and then mysteriously they found another room where the wifi worked. 

After that it was about 5-6pm and the sun was setting. We went down to the beach where there's a boardwalk and there are restaurants that have chairs on the beach. We ordered pizza and beer.  The beer came quickly then after about and hour the pizza finally arrived and it was basically inedible. 

I liked the atmosphere of the beach at night. There were people selling fireworks so every now and then someone would set off fireworks. With the loud music and ample beer it seemed like a chill party atmosphere. 

Next we went to an Indian place we read about in the guidebook. Again we waited at least an hour and 15 minutes for our food. When it came it tasted good but we were super tired by then so we ate and went back to the hotel. 

In the morning we walked around for a bit trying to find a place for breakfast and I guess it had rained overnight.  The beach and the streets were FILTHY and smelled like sewage. I'm trying to think of a way to say this without sounding snotty but it was just gross. Siem Reap was a bit dirty but this is next level.  

We eventually settled on a place by our hotel where it took about 20 minutes to get a cup of coffee. Of course we just have different cultural expectations but it's just hard to get used to going to a place and having to order an hour before you want to eat.  For lunch we went to a new vegan restaurant here and had the same experience though the food was significantly better.  

I don't know I guess we are just really surprised by how different things are here. In Siem Reap the service was quick and food was delicious. Here it's the complete opposite.  I was looking forward to a chill beach weekend but the weather has been bad and the food is bad and takes a long time. Maybe I'm just whining.  

Another spoiler has been that many places we've been there have been old white dudes with very young attractive Cambodian women who I can only assume are prostitutes.  Assuming what I think is going on in these relationships is actually going on it's just sad to be confronted with it everywhere.  

One fun thing has happened though. We took a scooter back from the vegan restaurant and got caught in a downpour. We waited it out under an awning and then our driver took us the rest of the way in a light rain. That was pretty exciting and fun. 

Tomorrow we booked a boat cruise to some islands in the bay and hopefully the weather will be good for snorkeling. We leave Monday morning for an eco lodge in Koh Kong which I'm really looking forward to. 

Long story short, I'm not sure I can recommend Sihanoukville to you! 

Goodbye Siem Reap! Hello Sihanoukville!

Today is our last day in Siem Reap. We will be flying down to the coast to a beach town called Sihanoukville.  Cambodia Angkor Air only recently started flying there from Siem Reap within the last few years so people predict it is about to become a go to destination.  The flight is only about an hour but CAA still has some customer service issues to work on. With lots of stories about cancelled flights and ticket changes without informing passengers we asked our hotel to try calling them to confirm our tickets and it took a few calls but finally someone answered and confirmed our tickets. 

Yesterday was our last day at the temples. We went to the Roluos group (Lolei, Preah Ko, Bakong) which were interesting because they are some of the earliest Angkor temples (late 9th century).

For the last temple we stopped at a temple with a pagoda on the grounds about 2km from town called Wat Athvea that was totally deserted. Given how many people are usually around it was very peaceful.  One unique thing we saw there was a string that ran from the pagoda around the some mausoleums (is that the correct word?) then through the temple and ended being tied to a Buddha statue in the center of the temple. Maybe it was some kind of spiritual transmission line?  You can see the string in the picture below. 

Anyway we've kind of run out of stuff to do in the evenings here so I'm ready to move on. There are some other outlying temples I would have liked to see so maybe I would come back in a few years. There is definitely lots of development so I predict lots of change by then!

I leave you with a picture of my Angkor pass. 

The first few days

We've been in Siem Reap for three nights. We arrived around 11pm Sunday after 26 hours of travel so of course didn't do anything the first night. 

Since then we've been visiting the temples from about 9-5 each day then taking a nap. We're still waking up around 6am each morning and being out in the humidity here all day is exhausting!

I was pretty worried about the flight since I think the longest flight I've been on was 6-8 hours.  We left Dulles around noon for a 14 hour flight to Seoul. I can never sleep on planes so I had no idea what I was going to do for that long!  We played Tetris, ate two meals, watched movies and played more games. I got a little reading done and tried to walk around a bit. I was mostly surprised by the amount of food they give out!  Who wants to eat that much while you're sitting around for 14 hours?

The most notable thing about the flight was our very nice seat mate named Sun who beat Brandon at Tetris when I couldn't after many games. He would like me to mention that it was at the tail end of our 14 hour flight so he was probably a bit tired. 

Anyway, it really wasn't that bad and after landing in Seoul I wasn't too tired. Brandon wanted to eat so at a fast food place I ordered what was described in English as "sesame noodles with black bean sauce" thinking it wouldn't have meat in it but upon picking it up it had octopus and muscles in it!  Apparently if I ever decide to go to Korea vegetarian food might be a problem. 

Our second flight was 6 hours from Seoul to Siem Reap and I was much less comfortable. Unfortunately I was in a middle seat and definitely couldn't sleep and my meal was some kind of unidentifiable loaf. I started to listen to Serial though (a new true crime podcast) and that helped time pass quickly. 

I had prearranged for our hotel to send a car to pick us up from the airport and that was wonderful. I highly recommend doing that after a long day of traveling. We checked in and fell asleep immediately. 

The next day after breakfast our hotel set us up with a Tuk Tuk driver to take us to Angkor. A Tuk Tuk is like a scooter towing a pedi cab type thing with a roof that can hold 4 people. They don't go fast at all but it's a great way to get around and also see the city at the same time. 

We thought we would just buy our passes and see one or two temples but it ended up being a full day affair which was great so now we have time to see smaller temples or out of the way places at the end of the week. Our driver pretty much decided the itinerary for us so that was really easy. He doesn't act as a guide though but just drives us around.  

On day one we saw:

South gate of Angkor Thom

Bayon 

Baphuon 

Phimeanakas 

Terrace of the Leper King

Terrace of the Elephants

Ta Prohm

Angkor Wat

Day Two

Preak Kahn

Neak Pean

Ta Som

East Mebon

Banteay Kdei

Prasat Kravan

Day Three

Banteay Srei

Land mine Museum

Banteay Samre

Pre Rup

All the pictures are on my camera so I'll update this or maybe make a new post when I'm home. Tomorrow we have one more day of temples then Friday we head down to the beach and Sihanoukville. 

Surprises so far:

- Vegetarian  food is really easy to find. Even restaurants in remote areas will have noodles or fried rice. The food is similar to (American) Chinese or Thai food. 

- A bathroom with both soap and toilet paper is a luxury

- Most people speak some English so getting around has been easy

- The roads and traffic are insane. Most people are on scooters or bikes and there are almost no stop lights so intersections basically work like everyone going at once and if you're about to run into someone you slow down. No one ever gets mad or yells. 

- The neighborhood our hotel is in (Pub Street/Old Market) is mostly a tourist party area. There are lots of tourist bars and it can get pretty wild. I haven't seen too many Americans. There mostly seems to be Asians and Europeans here. 

Since it's not really fair to post this and not show any pictures here is a huge spider I saw in the bathrooms at one of the temples.