The Culture Shock has hit me!

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Well over a month into our trip and the culture shock has finally hit me. We entered Cambodia! We were planning on going to Pattaya and Ko Samet but they turned out to be to expensive for us right now. Our journey to Cambodia began at 5am. We took a third class train from thailand the the border. When we crossed over to the cambodia side you could tell the difference right away. It looked like a Garbage dump would in Canada. They roads were not paved and had a million potholes and garbage everywhere! it was not a nice site. To top off the disgusting scenary it was horrible to see how poor all the people were on the streets and how many huge casinos there were for the others who wanted to gamble away their money. It is undescribable. There were children and adults everywhere begging for money one thing i had not seen yet on this trip. The journey on the Cambodian side was not half as bad as we were expecting. We hired a toyota camry to take us into Siem Reap. Luckily we found 2 other people to split with us to keep the cost down. On the way to Siem Reap none of the roads were paved and I was scared of what Cambodia had in store for us.

When we arrived in Siem Reap it turned out to be a beautiful city! I was shocked. There are huge resorts, fancy restaurants, bars and anything else you could imagine. Nothing what I was expecting. Siem Reap is the town where Angkor Wat is located which explains why it has money ..but not this much money! Angkor Wat is one of the 7 World Wonders. I did not even know about Angkor Wat before studying for this trip. After we settled in our hotel we set out to look for a driver for our next few days of exploring Angkor Wat. We found a friendly Cambodian named Bou.

Early the next morning we set out on our first day of Angkor Wat... WOW!! It dates back from the 7th-11th century. There are over 1000 acres of ruins, temples, pagodas and forests. During the first Day we explored all the major temples. It took a couple hours to go through even one of the complexes. Let alone 30 of them. Each one was sooo different so there was always suprises. If anyone ever goes to thailand I highly recommend a sidetrip to Angkor Wat. The only sad thing is all over the grounds of Angkor Wat there are children begging, people with missing limbs and signs saying beware of landmines. Its very hard to say no to over 200 kids but you can't give to everyone. We bought some postcards and books off a couple of the kids of course.

During the evening we went to a Cello concert that was put on by a European man. He has been working as a doctor in Cambodia since 1970 and has done so much for this country. He was even here when the war was happening. He also explained how the health care system worked and all the different problems with corruption that Cambodia has. It was very sad to hear all his stories about the disease and quality of life for the whole country. Even a doctor in Cambodia will only make 40$ per month. It was very interesting to hear all about this.

Today at Angkor Wat we arrived at 530am for the sunrise. Another Beautiful sight! I thought if we woke up nice and early it wouldnt be as busy. Well i was wrong...there was probably over 1000 people there! It was still amazing though. We then went through the remaining temples and different areas. Thank god we finished today before 1:00 it was so hot! We then just relaxed around our hotel watched a movie and booked a boat ticket for a trip tomorrow!

So far Siem Reap has been my favorite city. It is crazy to see how happy and friendly everyone is after the terrible things that have happened here. The people, the environment and everything is amazing! Anyways hope everyone is doing good at home..write some emails to let me know how things are going! miss you all

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Photos

Angkor Wat
There was too many people!

Angkor Wat
These stairs were crazy!

Incredible Trees
This is where the movie Tomb Raider was filmed! It is a crazy location..we got very lost in this complex

Angkor Wat
530am at sunrise!

Comments

[scott]

congradulations
Hi you two You are doing a remarkable job of retelling your adventures...It's a fun read...I'll send you an Email soon. Bye guys Scott

[Mom]

unbelievable!!! Great pictures! Missing you very much. Take good care of yourselves. Love you

[Dad]

Amazed
Hello again. I continue to be amazed with your trip. You have done a great job of keeping up todate and allowing me to follow along. Great Pics, and I am very jealous. Take care