Cambodia
First of all, I would like everyone to congratulate Paco for finally putting something up on our blog. Nice work, Pacster!!
Ok, so after trials and tribulations we made it to Cambodia. Upon arrival, we were forced to pay more for our visa than we were supposed to, and then forced onto a free bus to take us to the bus station, except the bus says on it "tourist shuttle"and the bus station is labeled "tourist lounge." It was all a bit dodgey. Then we spent the next two hours negotiating with people to get a minibus ride to Siem Reap, which is where Angkor Wat is located. Our reward for that: a six hour ride on the worst road ever. Seriously, the worst road I have ever been on. Asia Airlines paid off the government to not fix the notoriously bad road, which inspires people to buy plane tickets. On the way, our driver stopped to get drunk. Seriously. We stopped and he downed about four beers (at 8% each) before continuing on the worst road ever. Somehow, we made it to Siem Reap.
We rode bikes around Angkor Wat the next day. There are all of these amazing ruins and lots and lots of tourists. It was a pleasant day biking around, getting lost, and watching tourists do stupid things- like taking posing for pictures with a sword on a horse. My favorite part was watching the eight year old girls selling things mob Paco. I don't know why she claims that she doesn't really like kids, because the is the biggest sucker for them and they know it. They practically attack her when she walks by. I walk by and nothing happens. Paco walks by and it's a mosh pit. They try and sell you all sorts of things, and they are scary. Seriously.
After the ruins, we traveled to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, to visit some Australian friends from our TEFL course who are teaching there. They have been showing us around the city and giving us all sorts of useful information. One night we went to this amazing bar that looks like a tropical resort with a pool. It was pretty sick dog (that's right Chris, it's sick dog not bird). Last night we went to a place where you cook your food in a pot or a barbaque at the table, which was interesting as well. Yesterday we saw a very depressing side of Cambodia from the Khmer Rouge. In case you don't know about it, in the mid-1970's, Pol Pot wanted to make Cambodia a communist nation and so he decided to exterminate all of the intellectuals and their families (about two million of them). We went to the Killing Fields where they brought people to execute and bury in mass graves. While walking around, you stumble across torn shreds of clothing poking out of the ground, and then you realize that there is a human bone inside that clothing. then we went to Toul Sleng (S-21), which is an old school where they detained and tortured people. It was not an uplifting day.
Now that I have written all of this, I realize that I may not have painted the best picture of Cambodia so I need to inform everyone of how much I love this place. Sure the city is dirty, and the taxi drivers are pushy and constantly harrass you, and the sidewalks are not for walking on, and I was inches away from being run over by a motorbike the other day, but this country is amazing. People are so friendly and wonderful. The guy who owns our guesthouse drinks beer with us and tries to use as much slang as he can, which makes us giggle our Wilma and Betty giggle. We really do love it here, but tomorrow we are headed to Vietnam.
First of all, I would like everyone to congratulate Paco for finally putting something up on our blog. Nice work, Pacster!!
Ok, so after trials and tribulations we made it to Cambodia. Upon arrival, we were forced to pay more for our visa than we were supposed to, and then forced onto a free bus to take us to the bus station, except the bus says on it "tourist shuttle"and the bus station is labeled "tourist lounge." It was all a bit dodgey. Then we spent the next two hours negotiating with people to get a minibus ride to Siem Reap, which is where Angkor Wat is located. Our reward for that: a six hour ride on the worst road ever. Seriously, the worst road I have ever been on. Asia Airlines paid off the government to not fix the notoriously bad road, which inspires people to buy plane tickets. On the way, our driver stopped to get drunk. Seriously. We stopped and he downed about four beers (at 8% each) before continuing on the worst road ever. Somehow, we made it to Siem Reap.
We rode bikes around Angkor Wat the next day. There are all of these amazing ruins and lots and lots of tourists. It was a pleasant day biking around, getting lost, and watching tourists do stupid things- like taking posing for pictures with a sword on a horse. My favorite part was watching the eight year old girls selling things mob Paco. I don't know why she claims that she doesn't really like kids, because the is the biggest sucker for them and they know it. They practically attack her when she walks by. I walk by and nothing happens. Paco walks by and it's a mosh pit. They try and sell you all sorts of things, and they are scary. Seriously.
After the ruins, we traveled to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, to visit some Australian friends from our TEFL course who are teaching there. They have been showing us around the city and giving us all sorts of useful information. One night we went to this amazing bar that looks like a tropical resort with a pool. It was pretty sick dog (that's right Chris, it's sick dog not bird). Last night we went to a place where you cook your food in a pot or a barbaque at the table, which was interesting as well. Yesterday we saw a very depressing side of Cambodia from the Khmer Rouge. In case you don't know about it, in the mid-1970's, Pol Pot wanted to make Cambodia a communist nation and so he decided to exterminate all of the intellectuals and their families (about two million of them). We went to the Killing Fields where they brought people to execute and bury in mass graves. While walking around, you stumble across torn shreds of clothing poking out of the ground, and then you realize that there is a human bone inside that clothing. then we went to Toul Sleng (S-21), which is an old school where they detained and tortured people. It was not an uplifting day.
Now that I have written all of this, I realize that I may not have painted the best picture of Cambodia so I need to inform everyone of how much I love this place. Sure the city is dirty, and the taxi drivers are pushy and constantly harrass you, and the sidewalks are not for walking on, and I was inches away from being run over by a motorbike the other day, but this country is amazing. People are so friendly and wonderful. The guy who owns our guesthouse drinks beer with us and tries to use as much slang as he can, which makes us giggle our Wilma and Betty giggle. We really do love it here, but tomorrow we are headed to Vietnam.
What is going on with all of the sepia pictures? I don't really know. For some reason both of us started taking them quite frequently. I can't explain it.
1 comment:
Cute baby! That looks like exactly the kind of thing Max would like to do to his Auntie Rachel if he were in the same country with her.
The contrast between this group of photos is unsettling. I glanced from babies to human skulls too quickly. When I saw the photo of the tree growing over the ruins, I hesitated a moment, thinking that it was in fact some kind of melted metal covering a building devastated by the war. Your trip makes me want to dedicate more of my time to peace and justice work.
Emily
Post a Comment