Cambodia

You know you are in Cambodia when everything costs $1 and there is no need to carry kip, the local currency. I am still trying to hash out my feelings on Cambodia. We got scammed into over-paying for a visa into Cambodia by Thai people when crossing the border and it left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Seeing Angkor Wat made the trip to Cambodia worth every penny, but the country as a whole in extremely third world.

If you are unfamiliar with Angkor Wat, like I was before coming to SE Asia, Google it! There is no way to describe the ruins without using flowery language: astonishing, jaw-dropping, amazing, unbelievable, awe-inspiring... I think you get the picture. Nathan, his dad, Mark and I spent two grueling days in the sun while trekking through the never ending array of ruins. They never stopped. I have seen ruins before in Mexico, Greece and Italy but nothing can compare to this. The temples were built by the Khmer civilization between 802 and 1220 AD and I cannot begin to grasp how it was possible. The ruins are sprawled out over several kilometers of land making it impossible to see everything without a few days and a reliable tuk-tuk driver. We spent two full days at the ruins battling the heat by drinking a ton of water, knowing our hotel had a pool, and anticipating the 50 cent beers on Pub Street in Siem Reap.

One of the smaller temples within the complex

We got a little too ambitious our first day at the temples and decided to spend about 8 hours touring. Lets just say we learned our lesson and toned it down a bit the second day. The heat was astonishing and left us all feeling a bit crazy and tired at the end of the day. The scene around the temples was fairly chaotic and extremely third world. As soon as a tuk-tuk pulled up women and children would begin yelling at you to buy something for $1. Everything was $1. It was funny at first to see how aggressively they sold things, but by the end of the trip it became rude and annoying. We understood how poor their living conditions were, but the people's selling tactics really turned us away from buying things.

"Lady, you buy cold drink. Lady, you buy pineapple. One dollar only."

Our evenings in Siem Reap were fun because among the poverty in the city there is Pub Street, solely visited by tourists. The street has many restaurants with cheap food and almost all have beer for 50 cents all night. One of the stranger things about the country was the complete disregard for its own currency. Most restaurants listed their prices in dollars, gave the bill in dollars, and didn't really want to accept kip. One night Mark and I set out to find an ATM and after going to about 4 different ones we finally found one that worked!! The ATM's don't even given you kip but dollars. I thought that was hard to believe.

If ever in SE Asia seeing Angkor Wat is a must! Unfortunately, I didn't get to visit any other cities in Cambodia but I still have lots of stories from just this one place. I didn't even get into the transportation...some of those stories should be saved until I get home :)