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.
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