Cambodia

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Upon departing Bangkok, Christine and Tracy went directly to Siem Reap, the town outside of Angkor Wat. Meanwhile, Johnvey and I flew to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Phnom Penh, unfortunately, reminded me of an impoverished Mexican city, but french style. And without chicle. It was not very clean. That's a bit of an understatement. We spent a day there visiting the palace, the national musuem and the museum where Pol Pot kept prisoners during his reign of terror (this last part being particularly depressing). One funny observation - when we took a repose in the huge air conditioned mall, we couldn't help but notice how dressed up the young people were and man, is there an epic of asian boy band haircuts!

We spent one night in Phnom Penh and in the morning, took a speed boat up river to meet the ladies in Siem Reap. Once there, we freshened up and started our tour of the Angkor Wat area. Angkor Wat is more facinating than I can put into words. The shear enormity of what the Khmers built without machinery is mind boggling and at times, I found it impossible to grasp the size of their endeavors.

I will tell you this - if you plan on ever going to visit the ancient ruins of Angkor Wat, GO NOW! The place is already swarming with tourists. Tour buses and tour buses loaded with visitors. And mostly Asian tourists. The westerners don't seem to have discovered the place yet. And Siem Reap, where people spend their time when not at the ruins is like Las Vegas of the far east. Hotels and hotels going up everywhere yet in the middle of nowhere. Angkor Wat is essentially in the jungle and then there is Siem Reap with its magnificent hotels - so many that the local tuk-tuk drivers can't even keep up with which one is where. It's insane, truly. This is the one area I was most concerned about things being unhygenic and due to the growth of the tourism industry, it was probably the cleanest. Additionally, everything I'd heard about the Cambodian people being extremely nice is entirely true as far as I can tell. My only regret is that we had so little time to spend there. I would love to have had a couple of weeks to travel into the other provinces.

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Photos

Cambodian vendor at ruins
10 postcards, one dolla

Bayon Face
One of the faces at Bayon

Monks in Phnom Penh
Outside the Royal Palace

Young Vendor...
...trying to sell Johnvey and our guide water outside the royal palace.

Phnom Penh
Ariel view with Royal Palace in the far right corner

Life on the River
View from the speed boat from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap

Life on the River, part 2
View from the speed boat from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap

School house
kids cooling off in the river in front of their school...boat?