Chill Out Cambodia!

Cambodia is truly one of the most beautiful places on this planet, and yet so marred with disaster, kind of like Alex right now!
We took a leisurely ''slow boat'' ride up the Mekong from the delta almost all of the way to Cambodia's capital Phomn Pehn. This ride, while being extremely long, has been one of my favorite parts of this trip. We finally had escaped out dreaded cities and were puttering up past the rural face of SE Asia. It was as if the facade had finally been removed and for once the harsh simplicity of these peoples lives was moving before us: the vivid green rice fields, the emaciated cows, the simple huts backdropped by massive temples. This pictureque scene was quickly engulfed with the huge urban sprawl of Phnom Pehn.
Phnom Penh is a city of much cheaper rooms, but more expensive pretty much everything else! It was on our first day that disaster struck bombombommmmmmmm (that's Josh's attempt at an epic sound effect -alex)! Alex and I being intrepid and obviously indestructible young men decided to rent scooters and brave the insanity of city driving! All was well as we headed towards the 'killing fields' until I once again lost Alex. I decided it would be best to simply meet him at the fields. When we finally met up he had a nasty limp and gauze on his foot and knee. It turned out that speed demon McGee a.k.a. Alex had decided that he should pass me because I was slowing down on our sketchy rural road. What he didn't know is that I was avoiding a crevase of a pothole which he then was eaten by!
Alex was a trooper though and we still walked all over the killing fields which were hard for us to wrap our minds around. The column of skulls almost 5 stories tall coupled with the hundreds of holes where they had excavated out the bodies was stunning. Alex even commented that who was he ever to complain about his foot in a place like that. We left the fields and we found an okay looking hospital where I watched them stab his foot 6 times with a huge needle and give him 4 stiches! The story doesn't end there though! On our way home we got pulled over by two sketchy cops because Alex had his headlights on during the day! They demanded twenty dollars or they would arrest us. We had spent most of our money on the hospital though and so we just acted like we couldn't understand them until they let us go frustrated! HA! Anyway, don't worry Barbara your boys being taken care of by a Pre-Med student!
We're now in a little seaside town called Kampot on the southern coast of Cambodia staying at the most amazing riverside hotel. It's owned by a crazy fun Aussie who threw us all a concert last night and drives us into town on his ski boat! We spent yesterday once again on motorbikes touring around the country side with our two new English friends. We went and saw these amazing temple caves, poor Alex had to stay behind because of his foot, toured the town of Kep which was almost totally destroyed by the Khmer Rouge, and had the most incredible seafood feast at this seaside bungalow! Tomorrow it's onto Sihanoukville down the coast. I love you all keep in touch/ get Skype Mom so we can chat!

Alex's Corner

Josh and I are reading quite a bit during our travels. I have been reading a book called "The Girl in the Picture" which is a biography about an individual who's photo during the war sparked the end of the American involvement with South Vietnam during the North's insurgence. Josh finished up his book about a girl living in Cambodia during the time of the Khmer Rouge dynasty called "First They Killed My Father". Both of these books have given us a glimpse of what these countries have been through the past 50 years that have led them to where they are now. However deprived Cambodia was even 20 years ago, it is amazing to see how happy and friendly many of the people are. They are two countries full of oppression and political turmoil but we are so grateful to be able to see these countries firsthand. as it would have been dangerous and a rarety some decades ago. Everyone asks us to tell your family and friends to come visit"", and I would definitely recommend it!

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Part of trip: Surfing the Orient

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