Cambodia, lovely Cambodia

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I am no longer in Cambodia. Unfortunately, due to time limitations, I was only able to be there for about 4-5 days. I would have stayed longer if I hadn't wanted so much to go back to Koh Tao to go scuba diving again. Cambodia was lovely. Of course, I only really experienced one city, Siem Reap, but I have heard lots of positives about other parts of Cambodia from other people. I don't know what it is about Cambodia, it was just a good place to be. It felt comfortable. Although I didn't see as much as I wish I had and did more sleeping in than I should have! But, sometimes you just need some sleep, right?
Okay, let me give a general update of my journey to and throughout Siem Reap. The journey to Siem Reap from Saigon was pretty awful, I have to say. It took 19 hours for the journey in total. I left Saigon on midnight and then arrived in Siem Reap at 7 PM. So, I had quite a nice sleep once I got in. I stayed at this really nice hostel with a pool and quite powerful a/c - only eight dollars per night! They use dollars in Cambodia. Which was quite strange to be using again. The thing about using dollars is, everything seems deceptively cheap. But dollars really add up quickly, don't they? I feel like Siem Reap was one of the most expensive cities to me.
So, the night that I got dropped off at my hotel, my tuk tuk driver (if you don't know what a tuk tuk is, just look it up, because it is kind of difficult to describe otherwise) asked me if I had anyone to take me to Angkor Wat the next day. I said no, so we agreed to meet at 5 A.M. the next morning to start out so that I could get there by sunrise. It actually wasn't very difficult to wake up that early. Unfortunately, however, the sunrise was not amazing. It was pretty, but it was rather blunted, mostly due to the low clouds. However, I was happy to be up early so that I could see plenty of the temples before all the crowds arrived, as well as the heat. Cambodia was really really hot, as well as full of mosquitoes.

Angkor Wat was beautiful. Unfortunately, it was under some restoration, which means scaffolding. I really hate scaffolding. It just makes everything unattractive. When I went to St. Peter's in Rome, it was covered in scaffolding. Angkor Wat wasn't COVERED in scaffolding, just parts of it. But still, it put a bit of a damper on the gorgeousness that is Angkor Wat. But when isn't everything being restored? Don't want everything to fall down, that's for sure. But, other than the scaffolding, Angkor Wat was quite impressive. It is hard to believe all that people were able to build even though it was what, the 12th century? They don't build em like they used to anymore either! I think that it would probably be too expensive today. But, anyways, my point is that I was quite awed by all the temples. And at one point, I became a spectacle myself. I was sitting at a temple and started to write in my journal when this Asian guy came up to me and asked, "Are you writing in your journal?" and when I said I was he said, "Backpacker?" and took my picture. Apparently just who I was was fascinating to him. He was a nice guy. Turned out to be from Taiwan - he was on a tour. When he found out how inexpensively I was traveling, he said, "Our tour is 1000 for only five days!" I told him that he should maybe try independent traveling next time. He took a picture with me and then was off on his way with the rest of his tour.

I got home that day around noon and was quite tired. So, I took a nap and then woke up to get ready to go and see my old college friend Megan. We went to Rice together - I was a freshman when she was a senior. She works for a non-profit organization in Siem Reap, and I had messaged her on facebook. It was great to see her again. She invited me to this event that she had organized around development issues, and I met a lot of ex-pats there. We then went out to dinner and then went out, because that night there was a block party going on in what they call "Alley West," which is a part of the bar/restaurant area in Siem Reap. I had a lot of fun. And, it seems like the ex pat life is great. I met people from all over the world, and they were really interesting. I also met up with my friend Lili, who I had met in Bangkok. That was so nice to see her again! I stayed out until around 2 and then went back to the hostel and slept in late!

The next day I slept in way too late and got a very slow start. I met a really nice girl from the states, Colorado, actually, and we biked together to the temples to see some more. She said that the temple, Ta Prohm, aka, the temple in that awful movie Tomb Raider (I actually started to fall asleep during that movie, which I never do unless it is REALLY BAD), was really beautiful - if you haven't seen Tomb Raider, Ta Prohm is the temple where nature is pretty much taking back over. Lots of tree roots destroying the temple structure. It is actually gorgeous. So, we got there and were able to look around when there were hardly any people there. Katherine, the girl from Colorado, said that she had been there earlier and it had been jam-packed with tourists. So, it was quite nice to have some quiet. In trying to find the gorgeous tree, I felt like we were almost in a labyrinth, and it was exciting to explore. I only wish we had more time to. Before we got to the temple, however, we saw all these monkeys! They were everywhere - babies and adults. And, the monkeys were quite cheeky! One of them jumped up on a motorbike to go through all the food and would bare his teeth at the owners anytime they tried to come nearby. It was hilarious!

I didn't do any more temple-ing. I wish that I had but I was frankly too slow-moving. Siem Reap was INCREDIBLY hot, and while biking there wasn't extremely far away, it was a bit of a process. The day that Katherine and I biked to the temple, I drank an entire big water, all within about two hours. The next day, I meant to go back to the temples, but got a bit distracted by having lunch with Katherine and Lili and then doing a bit of shopping. Oh, well, I still had a great time in Siem Reap.

I feel kind of silly for coming all the way back to Koh Tao just to go scuba diving, but I knew that I needed to get my advanced scuba diving course completed if I wanted to do a lot of future diving, and Koh Tao was the best place I knew to go. The other places were either too expensive or not good enough visibility, and I know the company here and I like the instructors. So, I am back! And then, I think I am going to go to Ko Phi Phi, because I saw Lili's pictures from when she was there, and they are just too gorgeous to pass up! Then, back to the Bangkok airport and then to Beijing and then home. I can't believe how quickly these two months have passed, I can't say that often enough! So many experiences, so many good memories! So many plans for the NEXT TRIP!

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Photos

Fish Pedicure!
These are cleaner fish, and they eat dead skin. It was kind of a freaky experience at first, but then I started to get used to it and after about fifteen minutes the skin on my feet felt baby soft!

Comments

[Laura]

Carolyn, your pictures look amazing!