Au Cambodge...

Cambodia... Very very different not only from Laos, but also from Thailand. In Laos, our clan could be heard chanting "woop woop" the second woop in a high pitched tone. In Cambodia, although the wooping continued, it just didn't quite feel the same there. The tone felt more sober, probably mostly because of the heavy recent history...

Our first stop was Siem Reap where we quickly discovered that one of the major differences with the other two southeast asian countries is how well Cambodians speak English. They speak well enough to joke around, actually understand sarcasm, and get into fights with tourists. Cambodians are characters. Our first tuk tuk driver attempted to scam us, and when I raised my voice, he raised his back (something I am not used to after Thailand, see my note on saving face). Finally, we just got into another tuk tuk.

We spent 2 days at Angkor Wat, which was incredible. We hired a guide, well worth it, if anything just to speak to a native Cambodian and for him to tell us about his country and its insane history. I don't really know what to say about Angkor Wat, apart from yes it's really impressive and yes if you find yourself in this part of the world, do not miss it!

On my last day in Siem Reap, we went and checked out the Floating Village. I have never seen anything like this place. It is literally a village floating on water. Houses , stores, and even schools are floating on the main lake in Cambodia, Tonle Sap. Cambodia is supposedly huge with fish and they mostly come from this lake.

After 3 days in Siem Reap where I spent some time with my long lost roommate Jen who happened to be there at the same time, I left from Phnom Penh. I temporarily separated from the clan, in order to make sure I would be back in Bangkok in time to meet up with my friends and to get an x-ray... I arrived in Phnom Penh and checked into Happy guesthouse, a very happy place indeed. The rooms were disgusting, but the back deck area made the place worth it. I met a whole new crew of wonderful people, including Darragh from Ireland and Ariane from Montreal. Darragh and I went to the Killing Fields and S21 together the next day... We had only just met, but seeing the vestiges of the tragedy that unfolded in Cambodia together definitely made us fast friends.


I'm not sure I have the energy to delve into the Cambodia's past, but essentially there was a mass genocide in the 70s, orchestrated by the Khmer Rouge regime headed by the tyrannical Pol Pot. Things didn't really get better until well into the 90s.
Anyone who was slightly educated was tortured and brutally killed. S21 is the prison where a lot of this was done. A very difficult day indeed.


A couple days later, my new friends and I went to a dump, where 150 families live, to feed the children. I met a French nurse and I helped her disinfect the numerous wounds the children had. When we arrived on our truck, the children were running towards us, they knew who we were. I mentioned that Cambodians speak beautiful English, even these children at the dump spoke well - arguably better than the Thai English teachers at my school - shocking. The little girls and boys were adorable and smiled the entire time. At one point, I was overwhelmed with emotion, but stopped myself from showing it, who am I to cry when these children live here and are smiling? Leaving was hard... We were there for an hour, but these kids live here indefinitely. I would recommend to anyone who is traveling to Phnom Penh to do this. You know and see your money going to the right place.
This was undoubtedly one of my most memorable experiences perhaps on my entire trip.




I said Cambodia was sobering and now you can understand why. My last stop in Cambodia though was much lighter. I headed down to the coastal town Sihanoukville. The coast was lovely, but skippable. I mostly enjoyed it because I reunited with the family and Ariane on my last few days and just relaxed, that's pretty much all I did.

My venture back to Thailand yesterday was of course not without drama. As my friend Ben wrote to me, I don't know what I have been doing to attract all this bad karma (he suggested I've been flushing puppies down the river every night) !? Ha, no I joke, I know how lucky I am, especially after being in Cambodia, broken hand and all, I wouldn't trade my life with anyone, not for a second...

Anyway, I had been told to enter Cambodia as a French citizen, because of Cambodia's relationship with France. I wanted to come back to Thailand as an American, because of my teaching visa. I was not allowed back in as an American, because I had been stamped out of Cambodia as a French citizen, and Thais were apparently not allowed to let me in on a different passport. It worked with Laos, but Thailand is apparently more serious, ha - who knew? So I found myself dealing with a lovely little fee to extend my visa, nice.

Back in Bangkok, it is seriously pouring! I thought this was the dry season? I went and got my hand x-rayed again today, and much to my dismay, my bone looks pretty broken still. The doctor reassured me "Don't worry!!" Apparently, it's all about the functionality of my hand, and my body is a magic machine, bla bla bla. Anyway, it is what it is , right?

These two posts have taken me forever to write with one and a half hands and I will likely not be doing this for a while again. I am heading to the islands for 3 weeks of straight beach bumming, jealous? Dominique arrives tonight (yay!) and tomorrow we leave. I'm so excited. So many people are meeting up including Mariel, Kirsten, Alicia, Marianne, Claudia, the list goes on and on...

I will be uploading my pics to facebook soon, so keep your eyes peeled!

PS: Tomorrow is April 1st, meaning my last month in Asia, meaning I get to see many of you again soon, I can't wait!!!!! Print this post