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| Poipet Border Crossing |
After an interesting night, we took an early bus to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. It was crowded, bustling, and exciting... Packed with tuk tuks (Asian taxis), street food, and an amazing mix of architechture. Just what an Asian city should be!
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| Us, being adorable whilst sightseeing. |
Our first full day there, we decided to learn more about Cambodia. We are not sure how familiar you all are with Cambodia's tragic past, but here is a brief account.
The Vietnam War had devastating effects on surrounding southeast Asian countries, especially Cambodia. In fact, a full on civil war took place in Cambodia from 1970-1975. When the dust settled, a political group known as the Khmer Rouge ursurped power. The Khmer Rouge grounded its core principles in extreme Marxism, meaning they wanted a communist agrarian based society. They wanted to start from ground zero without any history or independent thought, so they shipped people from the cities to country farms, destroyed remenants of Khmer culture, and tortured and killed people based simply on traits such as being an intellectual or being suspected of having ties to capitalism. In 1975 through 1979, the group basically turned Cambodia into a country wide concentration camp, leading to the genocide of around 2 million people. Although the Khmer Rouge was overthrown by Vietnam in 1979, remnants from the ordeal are still evident throughout the country.
There are several museums in Phnom Penh memorializing the tragedy. We had a heavy day as we explored the Killing Fields and S-21, one of the most notorious prisons.
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| Skulls of the numerous victims kept in a mass grave monument. |
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| Clothing of the victims, along with bone fragments, continue to appear during rainy system. |
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| One of the prison cells where they kept victims for torturing. |
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| Very disturbing images from the day the Vietnam government came to the prison. |
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| The Khmer Rouge took pictures and bios of every prisoner they housed. |
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| Most of the makeshift jail cells are still intact. |
It was hard to see so many needless casualties and even harder to know that this was a recent event. However, it was important to us to know the background of the Khmer people and to be aware of how such brutalities came about, so that hopefully we can prevent them in the future.
Whew! That is a tough part of the journey! On to happier topics!
We explored the rest of the city and as always, went Wat hunting. We found the Wat that supposedly contains one of Buddha's eyebrow hairs. As part of the worshipping ritual, we lit incense at the alter, while an older gentleman chanted and splashed us with questionably scented water. Consider us cleansed!
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| The eyebrow is kept in this Buddah statue. Or so we were told... |
We also had the pleasure of speaking with a young monk for over an hour! He wanted to practice his English and we wanted to learn more about his culture. We ended up discussing food, specifically fruit. One of the most priceless moments came about as we discussed guavas. Katie tried to get the monk to pronounce the "va" in "guava", but he kept adding an "s" at the end of the syllable, making it sound like "vas". So Katie asked him if he could pronounce "ah". The monk said "ass, ass, ass".
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| We exchanged email addresses. How many of YOU have a monk for a penpal? |
Oh my goodness. There is nothing funnier in the entire world than hearing a holy man say "ass" over and over and OVER again. We tried to hold in our giggles because we didn't want him to think we were laughing at his English, but it was way too funny. Tears from laughter were streaming down our faces!
There is a huge river that flows through the town with a large stretch of sidewalk running alongside it. We enjoyed jogging along the path, as well as doing some major people watching, as the riverfront acts as a central hub of local activity. Soccer games and food vendors flood the asphalt, but the most noteable activity is the dancing. Huge groups of people dance in synchronized clusters, similar to aerobics classes. The music ranges from techno to Little Jon to traditional Khmer tunes. It was a lot of fun to watch.
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| The beautiful river. |
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| Just a small taste of the amazing street dancing. |
After a few days, we moved on to Siem Reap, a town synonymous with the famous Angkor Wat. You guys, we were in Wat hunting nirvana! These are the temples that make other wats look like everyday houses. Words cannot express the beauty of these structures, so without further ado, here are some of our favorites:
In typical Amanda and Katie fashion, we rented bikes for two of the three days we went to Angkor and biked around the temple grounds. We rode around 20 km each time, but the majority of our time was spent in the actual temples with our trusty guidebooks. It was very easy to spend 6-7 hours exploring the bas reliefs and admiring the intricate details.
On our third day, we decided to wake up at 4:30am and run 4 miles to Angkor Wat to watch the sunrise.
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| Yeah. We are crazy. |
It was absolutely stunning. The way the sun comes up over the temples brings out all of the unique elements of the structure. Amazing.
For our post run/sunrise breakfast, we hunted down a noodle soup stand. Along the way, Katie, our exotic food connoisseur, found some grilled snake. And she ate it. Of course.
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| An exciting food adventure, just waiting to happen! |
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| Mmmmm.... Chewy.... |
In case you are unaware, this was not Katie's first foray into exotic (and gross!) cuisine. She also ordered a huge plate of stir fried frog a night or two before.
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| Before |
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| After! |
In fact, Cambodia out-exoticed even Katie! Check out these foods...
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| Yep, those are roasted spiders. Next to a plate of frogs. |
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| Turtles cooked in their own shells. |
As much as we love temples, we couldn’t do them everyday. That much temple exploration leads to extreme temple burnout. So because we were lucky enough to have five days in Siem Reap, we went to the temples every other day, giving us two full days to explore the rest of the city.
On one of the days, we found a rehabilitation clinic for people with amputations, cerebral palsy, and polio. It was funded by a non profit organization called Handicap International. This program allows for all patients to get free treatment for one week, along with free prosthetics. Unfortunately, we were unable to take pictures because of patient confidentiality, but they did allow us to try out their rehabilitation equipment. Most of it challenged balance and used makeshift playground equipment, as well as rocks and sand.
Cambodia is actually a very poor country, with 90% of the population making less than $0.50/day, which is why organizations such as these are so important. We did our best to be sustainable tourists by supporting these programs and donating where we could. We went to a children’s hospital event one evening to watch a doctor perform on his cello. Dr. Beat Richner, originally from Switzerland, created a chain of these children’s hospitals to provide free health care to mothers and children who would not normally be able to afford it. Up to 95% of their support is from private donors. You can learn more about him and the program here.
Of course, learning about Cambodia isn’t always so serious. Per usual, we took a cooking course. It was a little bit more touristy than our experience in Thailand, but we also got to meet cool people and drink beer while we cooked. It felt like a big cooking party!
We also needed to relax after all of our hard work. What better way than to stick your feet in a tub of fish?
For around $2 each, these tiny fish nibbled off our dead skin and calluses, leaving us with feet as soft as a baby’s bottom. Yes, it is just as weird as it sounds. The sensation of the fish nibbling your toes is the most ticklish feeling in the world! It took us a good 10 minutes to stop laughing. Which made the experience well worth it J.
And of course, we went out. For some reason, we didn’t take too many pictures, but the important things for you too know are:
1) We danced (but, sadly, no pictures)!
2) We won a t-shirt!
3) We made more friends!
4) We drank a beer tower!
5) We had a blast!
Cambodia was a fascinating country and we are very glad we got to experience it. We are currently in Bali, enjoying our last four days abroad! We can’t believe it’s almost over!
If we do not get a chance to blog before we get home… We will see you all soon!!!
