Phnom-enal

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Firstly, I stole this title from my cousin's, Emily's, blog. I haven't blogged in nearly a month, so my entry today is lacking a quite important part of my study abroad experience. In the last month I have been lucky enough to have my Mom, sister (Erin), Michael (Erin's boyfriend), Harper (Erin's best friend and my third sister), Jen (my aunt), Emily (my cousin), Beth (my other aunt), Juliet (my other cousin), Ella (my Chinese Sister), and Lia (my new Chinese sister) all visit me in Bangkok. The first group of visitors (Mom, sister, Michael, Harper, Jen, and Emily) and I toured around Bangkok for about four days and then moved on to a nice long weekend in Chiang Mai. We had such a good time eating, visiting Wats, and enjoying each other's company after 3 months (or more) apart. After they left, my aunt Beth, cousin Juliet, Ella, and Lia came to visit a friend, Roger, and me. We had a relaxing couple days in Bangkok which was interupted by my finals schedule (who would've thought I had to take finals). The end of my time in Thailand was quite busy but allowed me to show some of my favorite people a country I have come to love and adore and found myself quite sad to leave.



Contrary to what my blog says, I am currently in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, but I will be writing about the five days I spent in Cambodia. The first day I woke up at 4:30am and said goodbye to Beth and Ella and left for the train station to meet Beka, Juliana, Madiha, Malhar, and Dennis bright and early for the long trip to Siem Reap. We made it in less time than last time, which isn't saying much, but all in all it was quite an easy trip. We found my cousin Emily and her two friends, Sam and Liam, pool side at My House Guesthouse in Siem Reap. I took full advantage of this pool while in Siem Reap and while everyone else treked throught the expansive Angkor Wat, which I did on my previous visit, I decompressed after a long (extremely short) semester and intensive (up for debate) week of finals. What I'm pretty much saying is that I did nothing besides sit by the pool and soak up some much needed Vitamin D.



After our time in Siem Reap, we moved on to Phnom Penh. I have heard pretty good thing about Phnom Penh and was excited to learn about the Khmer Rouge and more about the Cambodian government. The first day there we spent visiting at The Killing Fields where tens of thousands of Khmer people died under the rule of the Khmer Rouge during the 1970's. The experience was extremely impactful and was a similar experience to the time I visited Auschwitz. After the killing fields we went to S21 which was an old school that was turned into a prison during the reign of the Khmer Rouge. The energy in the buildings were palpable and the stories, heartbreaking. Only seven, known, victims survived the terror of S21. The final day in Phnom Penh we spent walking and exploring the city, royal palace (the outside at least), and the riverfront which was a refreshing change from the previous day. Our experience in Phnom Penh was lessened by our first night in the city. We had just finished eating dinner after a long day of traveling, and some of us needed to get cash from the ATM. Our group of six was walking to find an ATM, looking back now it was a poorly lit street, and a moto bike on the sidewalk (not uncommon) began moving towards the street. As it gained momentum it passed by my cousin Emily and the passanger ripped her bag from her shoulder (also her shirt). It made us all quite uneasy and Emily and I stayed up that night feeling violated. The experience, while scary, was a lesson to us on being more conscious and aware of our belongings and surroundings. Luckily for us, we had just left our Passports with our Hostel in order to get our Vietnam Visas.



We are now in Ho Chi Minh, a city that everyone scoffed at, and we are having a wonderful time. The city is cleaner and more interesting than Phnom Penh (in our biased view). Today we went to the War Remnants Museum...............Not the most proud time to be an American.



Love you all and hoping to see you soon.

Taylor Ann

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