Last Days in Cambodia

Tuesday May 22 2013 9pm

Time is just flying by!  I can't believe how long it's been since I blogged!  

Thursday May 24

This ended up being our last day in Seim Reap sort of randomly.  We were going to just take a day to relax and chill out: shop and go to a pool.  We ended up shopping for like an hour and then N got bored and started asking random tuk tuk drivers for prices to some remote temples.  He quickly bartered one driver down to $23 to drive the two of us 2 hours (one way) to these random temples.  And so without really thinking about it, I was like, "okay let's go!" So we bought some toilet paper and a big bottle of water and we were off! 

It turned out to be a very long, very dusty ride in a tuk tuk but every moment was worth it!  We passed about a dozen village weddings, one blasting Gangnam Style.  We laughed so hard!  And we got to see some rural Cambodian life, including their very interesting stilt houses.  Not totally sure why they build them in stilts, my guess is during rainy season housejs on the ground flood.  

The temples ended up being totally worth the journey!  I would highly recommend it!  It was one of the coolest things I've ever experienced.  I think this is much more what they would have looked like when first discovered by Europeans: covered in fines with trees powerfully charging through the walls.  I can never get over these trees!  They just grown on and through the rock like its clay, as though it is not even there!  It's just amazing!  No description and no photo can do it justice, I just think everyone has to go!

A guide took us all though it and helped us get up into the vines, to sit in them.  Unfortunate in the photos they don't look as up as they are.  The one was like four feet up over the rubble and I was nearly in tears by the time he got me down.  Ugh hate my fear of heights!  

After that we kind of felt like we'd seen what we wanted to and didn't feel the need for another day of temples.  We decided to take a night bus, which I wasn't thrilled about, to Phnom Penh (pronounced Puh-nom Pen not Fnom Fem...took me a while to get that).  The bus ride was unpleasant.  It left at midnight and was chaotically "organized" with lots of yelling and little communication.  Once we did get going the driver blasted some loud local music and the locals were loud enough to converse over it.  I was so tiered and grumpy.  We made like six stops in the first hour and then I had to pee in a dark sketchy ally.  

We got to Phnom Penh at about 6am and the cute backpackers we wanted to stay in was full so we ended up on the third floor of the dingy one next door.  The hallways and stairs were about two feet wide and for some reason standardized step heights/widths are a foreign concept here, which makes a third floor room a new adventure every day.  

I was pretty worn at this point and got kinda sick.  Fortunately we didn't have much planned here so I laid in bed and watched the one English tv channel and barfed and slept and enjoyed the various other joys of travellers tummy...sigh.  Though I love travelling my body really seems to not.  I have been avoiding local food and seem to be on the mend now, thankfully.  Although this whole trip flights have really been doing a number on me. I've cuddled a paper bag on every plane!  

The architecture here is quite uniquely Cambodian looking and there a Buddhist monks everywhere in Phnom Penh!  It Is quite cool looking to see them next to all the exotic looking buildings.  They're very good about letting you take their photo, which is nice.  

We went to the Killing Fields the one day.  I did some reading on them before hand and was shocked that I hadn't ever heard more about this so recent and disturbing part of human history.  It was a very emotional trip.  I was glad we went.  They have done an amazing job of the memorial. It is very tasteful and respectful but really expresses the horrors of what happened.  I don't know how to write about it without writing a short story about.  It was very moving.  It is a very important place.  

 Pagoda with skulls of genocide victim's

Our driver offered for us to go to a shooting range, where you can shoot semi automatic weapons, on the way home.  N and I found that a pretty morbid combination.  

Today we checked out the Kings palace.  It was kinda cool.  There is a big gold Buddha in the one building that is like 90 Kg or gold and 2080 Diamonds.  We were expecting it to be more dazzling but it is pretty cool.  The floor of that building is made of silver tiles, they are mostly covered with carpets though.  You're not allowed to take any photos inside.  

Now we're in the airport. Waiting for our second of four flights to get to Gunung Mulu National Park.  It is in the jungle, kind of rainforest-like.  It has the largest public cave in the world!  And lots of interesting animal life.  Our time here is short so we have a lot to pack in!  I'm very excited for this Park! I think it's going to feel like some serious adventuring!