Whirlwind Asia adventures

This week has been such a blur there hasn't even been time to attempt to write it all down. I've been in SEAsia for less than a week and it feels like months. We haven't stopped moving since the minute we stepped onto the train at Penn station. After a 24 hour and 20 minute multi-plane ride, we arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Now I have to say, before I even left the airport I realized the desperate need to make my travel site come to fruition. The notes I had were thrown together bits and pieces from emails from friends who've been to the area, and crossed out itineraries that others informed me made no sense. My vaccination doctor graciously informed me that my trip was backwards since I was in and out of Malaria zones and had to keep going on and off meds (oops).

So we arrive in Phnom Penh, after taking way too many Cambodian Reals from the ATM and finding out they are actually on the US Dollar. We checked into our hotel and went straight to the Killing Fields. Sounds like a somber way to begin a trip, however Cambodia has a sad, recent history of genocide by the Khmer Rouge and the Killing Fields is now a memorial to the 3 million Cambodians who were slaughtered in the late 1970s. It was awful to see up close; I felt terrible for not knowing more about it but truthfully it just want really covered in school. This is part of why I love traveling, learning more about the world and history of different regions. We

went from there into the town centre, found someplace to eat, and then jet lag got the better of us. I'm pretty sure we slept for 18 hours but with the time difference I can't even be sure what time my body assumed it was. We wanted to be refreshed for Angkor Wat, and truthfully since I eat practically nothing, skipping dinner here isn't the worst thing in the world.


In the morning, we flew to Siam Reap, home of the Angkor Wat temples. This was one part of the trip that everyone yelled at me I screwed up. My most trusted travel advisers swore I would need 3 full days in Siam Reap. We had 23 hours, due to mine and Becca's combination of a tight timeframe (until I quit and had all the time in the world) and our ADD. We rented mountain bikes and set off for the temples. Angkor Wat was breathtaking. The temples were spread out for miles, which is where the bikes came in. There was so much attention to deail in the carvings and images, we were in awe. Now I did comment on Facebook that Angkor Wat rivaled Machu Picchu to me. I have to make a correction here. Machu Picchu changed my life. It seems tacky, but I never cared about history or foreign civilizations until the enigma of Machu Pichu was laid out before me after our 4-day adventure where I physically, mentally and emotionally challenged myself, and met my travel guardian angel who opened up my eyes to all the possibilities I has before me but was too blind to see.  It started to downpour while we were there, so we ended up hiding near one of the 'restaurants' I.e. shacks which chickens running around that small Cambodian children assumably killed in the back to serve in our curry dishes. I've heard claims that Cambodian children will melt the heart of even those terrified of children, and safe to say the stories are true.

I fell in love with a 4 year old Cambodian girl who could count from 1 to 10 to show us all of the dirty postcards she had for sale. Becca gave her 5 real - 25 cents more than the asking price -and she ran back to her sister elated at her newfound riches. The smile on her face both made me smile and return but also feel a pang of guilt, because this child was doomed to poverty and 25 cents was really a small fortune to her, and here we are on the other side of the world just taking another extended break from our not do unfortunate lives back home. But I don't think I'll be adopting any Cambodian babies anytime soon, despite my little epiphany that some kids are alright.
We spent the rest of the day riding through muddy puddles from ruin to ruin and exploring the temples. One was where they filmed Lara Kraft Tomb Raider. Another had monkeys on the road there which made me jump off my bike in the middle of the road screaming in joy. I freaking love monkeys and after seeing Cohen's 8000 pictures of every monkey species in all of Asia it finally convinced me I had to go! We loved Angkor Wat, pictures to follow if I ever find a computer.
The rest of Siam Reap was quite nice. We went to the night markets and I had a 'massage' where little fish came and did something along the lines of bite you. I had no idea if this was a good or bad idea but it was $3 and came with a free Coke Zero.
The next day we were off to Kanchanaburi. This place I should have realized was far when the hotel quoted us a price of $180 to have a taxi pick us up at the airport. And no one I know has ever been there except Adam who thinks he has been but isn't really sure and doesn't remember it. We got in a cab ready to go on our 2 hour journey. 4.5 hours later we were still in the car, completely lost, and accidentally drove over the border to Burma. We had arranged to stay the night in a floating hotel, which cost us more than our entire trip combined, but it sounded amazing so we tried in our nonexistent Thai to explain where we were going. Eventually we got dropped off at a dingy dock, where someone called for a canoe to bring us to our hotel boat. We were at the end of the world (I mean, BURMA?!?) but the hotel was pretty and since we were in the middle of nowhere we had to accept it. My debit card didn't work at the airport which was slightly concerning since there was no wifi to contact anyone, but it all got sorted out. We were able to do the Treetop Adventure, which was a series of zip lines/swings/wooden bridges through the woods at the Burmese/Thai border.

The next day of Kanchanaburi we spent hiking through Erawan National Park to the waterfalls, petting tigers at a Tiger Temple, and riding an elephant (reminder to self, google what it means when an elephant vibrates. We're pretty sure he didn't love me sitting on his head like the guy forced me to do for a 'good photo'. We were meant to stay in a tree hotel the second night, but since the 'quaint' town of Kanchaburi was actually larger than the state of NY, we said f it and hopped on a bus back to Bangkok. I have nothing to say about Bangkok because all I've seen of it is the worst traffic in the world and the inside of both airports. Their taxis are pink,  which is great, but I'm fairly certain after the islands I'm going to head straight to Chiang Mai and avoid Bangkok entirely. We are currently in Railay beach which was voted one of the top 10 most beautiful beaches in the world, which it is, but I'm too tired to write about it now. I have to go back to my research on if I should spend the week I had allotted to heading to Kho Tao to get scuba certified, or skip it, hike a bit in Khao Sok national park and add a couple days in Malaysia. Big decisions here. I wish I could stay longer than the 6 weeks! Maybe I can figure something out for after I get back. I wish I hadn't bought this stupid apartment and could just teach English for a while in Buenos Aires, or just keep traveling. Bad move trying to be a grown up :) off to bed, more pristine beaches await us at the Kho Phi Phi islands tomorrow!