An open Paige in a closed book

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March 15th 2013

Published: March 16th 2013

March 15^th

I really didnt want to post this blog with out pictures because Cambodia is so beautiful there is no way i can do it justice in words. but the travelblog site is having issues with uploading and i dont know when its going to be fixed so im posting it anyway. enjoy...

Blogging is a new thing for me. I usually prefer to keep some mystery about myself but recording these events has been a great outlet for me. Sharing my thoughts, feelings and opinions about not just traveling but life is exhilarating and the amount of positive feedback I get from everyone drives me. I wanted to say thank you to every one who is following my adventures through my blog. It means so much to me that people are excited about my experiences as much as I am. I hope the culture that I experience gives you an incite to the beauty that our world possesses.

Cambodia

I wish I had a bigger vocabulary to describe Cambodia. Of course with traveling there are always ups and down, the down usually consist of bus rides but the ups take me so high as with my experience in Siem Reap.

As usual I had previously heard some not so awesome things about Cambodia, mainly that it was one big scam and to watch your back. So I was prepared to be stern and to hold my ground while still being respectful. What I found in Siem Reap which was the first place we visited in Cambodia was nothing but kindness and mind blowing historical sights including one of the 8 wonders of the world “Angkor Wat”. But I’ll come back to that. Lets start with the evening we arrived at 2am. I’ve experienced some not so easy arrivals at this hour but in Siem Reap the town doesn’t sleep so when our bus pulled up there were many tuk tuks to choose from. We got lucky as usual and met a man named Toy who took us to a lovely, cheap hotel that was open and available. This $10 hotel room with king sized mattress also had a lovely swimming pool out front that was a delightful addition considering the heat. Our original plan was to rent scooters to haul ourselves around in but we quickly learned that it was impossible due to the fact that no one would rent to tourist because they said Cambodians were crazy drivers and they didn’t want tourist getting hurt. The real reason is because of a little something called “the tuk tuk mafia” and yes this is a real thing. But our new friend Toy was going to take care of us and we weren’t allowed to take any other tuk tuk. We even made plans for Toy to take us on a tour two days from when we arrived, we told him to pick us up at 8, he was there at 7 and we didn’t wake up till 9, so he lightly knocked on our door till we woke up and then waited while we rallied. He was our man and that meant no matter what.

Back to day one, which also happened to be me and Jacobs 3 year anniversary. He said we would do whatever I wanted that day and I heard that there was some horseback riding near where we were staying. Because we had been so lazy in the morning we didn’t get to the stables till 2 and had to wait till 3 to ride because it was way to hot for the horses. Our guide was the nicest man in all of Cambodia, he was our age, a family man, and loved me and Jacob. He taught us lots of key words in Cambodian and every 5 mins he would turn around and ask us if we were happy, and every time we replied “Sabi na!” which meant very happy, and that we were. Just the 3 of us. We went riding through the countryside of Siem Reap, through vast fields of Rice patties and to a hidden temple at the base of a mountain. It was by far the best way to see Cambodia.

A couple notes about Cambodia, people speak very good English and also except American money so things tend to be more expensive but you can barter with anyone!

When we road through the villages small children would run up to us waving and saying hello, asking us what our names were and how old we are. When we replied in Cambodian they were elated! It was awesome, what was way more awesome was that Jacobs horse had a problem of lying down in sand. Every time we would hit a nice patch of sand the horse would just lay down, Jake would hop off and the horse would roll over on his back and wiggle around. We waited till he was done, readjusted the saddle and continued on our way. It was Hilarious!

We had a perfect dinner right next to the night market where I did a little too much shopping. My bag is officially bursting at the seams. I’m not allowed to buy anything until we get to Bangkok. I couldn’t resist though, and I found a new talent of mine called being awesome at bartering! I’m addicted, sometimes I didn’t even want to buy anything and I had talked down the seller so far that I couldn’t not buy a silk scarf for $2. Everywhere I went I bartered. I bartered the tuk tuks, food, lodging you name it, I was getting it for cheaper than any other falang in that town. BOOM!

The next day we bought 3 day passes to Angkor Wat because there’s no way to did it all in one day, and why would you, with over 150 temples Angkor Wat and surrounding areas will forever be one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen in my life. We knocked out 8 on the first day but retired to our pool around 2 pm because it was simply too hot to continue. Toy stayed close as always just incase we needed to go anywhere, we did more hanging out than driving. Because this world is so small it makes sense that who should I see at the very same hotel but my good friend Beckah that we parted from just 2 days earlier. She changed her mind about where she was going next and hopped on a bus they day after us. So we got to spend the next couple days with her smiling face again. Day 3 Toy took us 60km out of town to a place called the “river of a thousand lingas”.

The discovery if fairly new. A mountain hermit told some village people of this place he had been living with ancient carvings in the river. Just like the temple, no one knows why these carvings and cities exist, or how old they are or who built them. In the dry season when the river disappears carvings reappear in the boulders under the water. Sleeping Buddha mermaids cover the bottom of these sacred grounds while frogs and crocodiles line the rock walls. This place is very special and I suggest you ask Jacob about it when you encounter him because he will tell you everything there is to know about this place and Angkor. After the river we saw more temples, each one different and more amazing than the next. Our fourth and final day was my favorite. We told Toy we wouldn’t need him this day but we were accompanied by Beckah. We woke up at 4:30 am and took off on our cruiser bikes to catch the sunrise over the biggest temple. This temple is actually called Angkor Wat, the others all have different names, Angkor Thom, Byon, Tha Prom and so on… google that shit. But this is where the King was said to live and by far the most elaborate.

I cant explain what we were feeling as the sun rose. I brought my boom box of course, our playlist consisted of Bon Ivers album “for Emma forever ago” the The XX. It was perfect for this sacred moment. We ate pineapple and drank coffee and just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, a small boy ran by me giggling and holding a lotus flower. Mental picture “click!”. Also real picture…. As we sat by the lake and enjoyed our surroundings, we talked about all the things in our lives we were grateful for, including but not limited too each other…. and Oswald. We spent the whole day hiking and biking back and forth a total of 30 km. We ended this perfect day with a perfect beer by the kings bathing pool which was basically a big lake in the middle of the city. I could seriously go on forever about these temples but this blog is already a little long due to me trying to fit all of Cambodia into one blog. So please ask me about it when you see me because its worth hearing more about.

Having Conquered Angkor Wat and Siem Reap we said goodbye to our new friends. I wish we had more time because toy wanted us to have dinner with him at his house and meet his whole family but we had to take a rain check tell him next time. We took a bus to the capitol of Phnom Penh in order to catch our flight the next morning. This is where we ran into some of the shit that we were warned about. Scams scams scams and ones you couldn’t talk your way out of. People here are just trying to screw you. Period. And we got screwed several times. I’m not even going to go there because I'm in to good of a mood to talk shit. But I will talk about why I'm in such a good mood! I am currently staying on the island of Ko Penang in southern Thailand with two of my favorite people in the world Seth and Jordyn our friends from Kauai. I’m on the beach relaxing and loving life. So much has happened in the two days since we’ve been here…. But that’s another blog.

An open Paige in a closed book

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