The KINGDOM of Cambodia

Are you ready? get comfortable, its a long one...
Wow!

We've been super busy the past few days. After crossing hte border we borded a bus that took us to our pick up point. We arranged a taxi in advance instead of taking the bus all the way to Siem Reap. The bus takes 5 hours and the taxi only 3 because the road are so awful. The airlines pay the gouvernment a lot of money not to fix the roads so that foreigners will fly into or out of Siem Reap or Phom Penh insted of going by land even though int isn't very far.

After navigating our way through millions of house sized pot holes we arrived in Siem Reap and found a nice (and more importantly Air conditioned)place to drop our stuff. We walked abound pub street to check out a tour for Angkor Wat as well as book our flight to Beijing. Both were suceesful so we were pretty happy with ourselves! We have it down to the night market which had beautiful scarves and jewelry and all the other things i've already bought too much of. I am now on a hunt for an extra bag to put all the things into!

The next day, our mini van picked us up at the hotel. It is difficult to get large tours, most guides only do private tours (which cost about $50 for the whole day) so we decided to give that a try since there is three of us and i'd imagine that temple after temple isn't very interresting in the heat all day when all you see is a bunch of rocks without knowing the history behind them. We lucked out because our tour guide was awesome. I think his name was Lynet (girls name??) but he was really interrestin gand informative and knew something about every topic we discussed. He was also only 28 so it was interresting to see what he was u to. He lost 10 members of his family during the genocide however he'was so excited to speak about his country.

The day was beautiful, overcast and not oo hot. I guess we just arrived the week after the two weeks of rain! It was fairly busy but nowhere near as busy as usual Lynet said. We walked around the ruins and he spoke to us about the inticate and detailed carvings on the walls of the Wats. It was insanely impressive and vast. It was also so beautiful because its a short distance from the city, in the middle of the forest (all of the wat sites are) which makes it easy to relax and appreciate the ruins. Like amny other things we've seen, it's difficult to really describe how cool the ruins are. Our guide took a lot of pictures for us though! We continued to a few different sites and by the end of the day we were whipped. Lynet arranged for us to have a buffet dinner and watch traditional Cambodian dances that told many of the same stories as the carvings of the Wats.

The next day (yesterday) we hung out at the town and took it easy, it rained most of the day but we wanted to go back to a couple of Wats that we hadn't yet seen. It rained quite a bit but it was acually really great because the last two Wats were pretty much deserted. At the last one we were the only people there which doesn't happen very often. It was really eerie to walk through long stone halls at dusk with trees growing through them and rain falling.

After a 5 hour bus ride today, we've arrived in Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia. I finished the book the Killing Fields last ngiht and we will be visiting the actual killing fields in the morning as well as S-21 (the highschool, turned prison/torture camp now a museum of the genocide). I'm sure it will be interresting to see however really sad as well. I glad that i had the opportunity to do a bit of background research before visiting the site however it will make it that much more real. Cambodia seems like such a peaceful place, i couldn't imagine the suffering the people have gone through. It's hearbreakign to see so many people and children begging and trying to sell things. Its so hard to say no and to see many missing limbs from the landmines that are still present in part of Cambodia.

I'll write about our experiences tomorrow i think,
thanks for tunning in.
Linds