Travel Break

Don't get me wrong, I obviously love to travel. But sometimes while backpacking, it's nice to have a few days off the road, and to enjoy some modern comforts. So when Nelson, my friend who lives in Phnom Penh, invited me to come spend a few days with him, I was happy to accept the offer. And to get to my next stop, I need to pass through PP anyway, so it worked out perfectly.

So for the past few days I've been doing a whole lot of nothing. But to me, it's been really exciting. I've been sleeping in, watching TV/movies/the news, doing laundry, cooking...I hadn't cooked a real meal in so long! And Nelson took me grocery shopping at a big western store, which was so fun for me! He got me actual cheddar cheese and honey bunches of oats cereal...the kind with vanilla bunches, arguably the best kind! This may not sound like much to you, but to me it's been so so nice. I meant to stay 2-3 days but its been almost a week! Oops. Nelson also cooked me an African dinner (he's Nigerian), which was delicious. We went to the gym and I realized that I actually missed working out, who knew?! Last night we got massages, I'm currently sitting poolside...not too shabby. I spent some time today with Nelson's friend wandering the city a bit and checking out a Wat and a pagoda, which was fun. But for the most part I've seen the sights I wanted to see in Phnom Penh already, so I've been fine just hanging out.

I can't believe that tomorrow is February 1st already (happy happy birthday Alyss!). Time is flying by! So I continue my travels tomorrow, ill be heading to the northeast. It will be filled with, hopefully: small towns, river cruising to see dolphins, trekking, ELEPHANTS, jungle...not a bad itinerary, if I may say so myself.

Kampot and Kep and a border run

My next stop was Kampot, a sleepy little town along a river. Mia, Kristine and I stayed in a small bungalow in a guesthouse set right on the water, which was really nice. The girls rented motos and we spent our first full day exploring Kep, a nearby "city" known for its fresh crab and pepper plantations. We ate at the renowned Crab Market and had fish as fresh as you can get--aka we ate while  sitting on the riverbank watching the fishermen at work! We also went to a pepper plantation and tried the different varieties that they grow: red, white, and black. I wish I didn't have to carry everything on my back, I would have loved to bring some home to cook with! And it would have made a great gift. Ah, well...
The countryside here is really beautiful so we had a nice time just riding around and taking it all in.

The rest of the time in Kampot was pretty relaxed, as the town is known to be. Another moto ride up through a national park, swimming in the river, a sunset river cruise, relaxing on rocks and swimming by some rapids, chilling at the guesthouse...just a nice couple of days.

We didn't know how long we would stay but we kept extending, and ultimately stayed for 4 nights. I could have gotten stuck there for longer, but my Cambodian visa was set to expire in a few days (I can't believe I've been here for almost a month already!! Wasn't it just New Years?!) and I already knew I wasn't ready to leave. I'm not too keen on overstaying visas, so I knew I needed to extend. Kep is pretty close to the Vietnamese border, and my Vietnam visa is still valid, so I decided to do a quick border hop so I could get a new visa for Cambodia. So this morning I came back to Kep,
found a place to stay for the night, dumped my bags, hired a moto driver to take me to the border and back, and off I went! It was actually really painless, and $20 and an hour later I had my new Cambodian visa! I'm really falling hard for this country, and I'm so glad I have more time to spend here.

Tomorrow I'm back to Phnom Penh for a few days, then I think I'll head to eastern Cambodia next. I'm looking forward to it all and I'm having a really great time. Thinking a lot about what comes next, post-travel, but also trying to live in the moment and enjoy the time I have here.

Ill leave you with this gem from my evening. Adding salt to the wound, this is the most money I've spent on a room in weeks and I was SO looking forward to my own room, big bed, and private bathroom. A splurge for one night, right?

A Tale of Horror and Devastation:

Wait weeks for hot shower.

Acquire guesthouse with hot water.

Euphoria.

All day anticipation.

Evening comes.

Enter bathroom.

Turn on shower. 

Watch approximately 10 cockroaches scurry out of the drain.

Feel, and then see, the largest cockroach run up leg.

Exit bathroom.

Im still waiting for my hot shower. 

Beach Bum

For a very long time, I was looking forward to this part of my trip. It was a vacation within a vacation, and I was so ready for it. I could spend my life happily on a beach, and I always feel rejuvenated and relaxed after a few days of sand and sun. And I won't belabor the point, but it's not a bad feeling knowing that its winter back home while you sip a mango smoothie in a bikini.

Justsayinn.

I started in Sihanoukville, on the southern coast of Cambodia. I opted to stay a few kilometers outside of town, known to be a bit trashy and full of young, drunk backpackers. I stayed on Otres beach, a strip of white sand, clear blue water, a few guesthouses and restaurants/bars, and not a whole lot else to do. I was a complete bum for 3 days there and could have easily spent more time. I met some great people, some of whom came to Otres for a few days and ended up staying 3 weeks! I got a massage on the beach ($5 full body, heaven), watched beautiful sunsets over the water, swam, read, tanned...just enjoyed myself. I spent a bunch of time with 2 Canadian girls Mia and Kristine (part of the 3 week group) and with Nelson, a guy I previously met in Phnom Penh and who came out to the beach for a few days.

After a few days on Otres Nelson and I headed to Koh Rong, a small island off the coast (about 2 hours away by boat). So from one small, rustic beach town to a smaller, more rustic little island. It was so gorgeous there! There's electricity for a few hours a day at most places, the wifi worked for like 30seconds a day, there is just sand and water and places to eat and drink. It was such a nice little getaway from the rest of the world! I got my first real stomach rumbles while on the island, but I just relaxed on the beach or in a hammock until I started to feel better (maybe it was the sea air,
possssibblyyyy the antibiotics I started taking, but I managed to feel better quickly which was really nice).

I got back to the mainland and spent another 2 nights on Otres. That brought me to a full week of beach bumming, so I knew it was just about time to move on. Luckily for me, Mia and Kristine had the same gameplan as me for the next few days, so we decided to travel together for a bit.

I'm going to try really hard to update the blog more regularly. Hopefully I live up to the task!

Angkor What?

Angkor Wat. It's going to be really hard to do this part of my trip justice, so I'm not even going to try. Ill keep this short and sweet, and if you're interested definitely research more about this incredible place. The temples here are unbelievable; you really feel like you've been transported back in time.

The world's largest religious building, Angkor Wat literally took my breath away as I watched the sun rise over it on the first day of the new year. What an incredible start! After the sun rose and we took tons of pictures, we explored a bit more then had breakfast. Followed by a full day of temple exploring! There are tons and tons of temples to see, it would take a very very long time to see them all. I think in the 3 days we saw a total of 20 temples! In terms of architecture and creativity I think I was most impressed with Bayon, famous for all of the faces carved into the walls/towers. For ambiance and "Ohmygod I'm discovering hidden treasure" and "Woww I'm filming Legends of the Hidden Temple," Ta Prohm wins the award. If you saw Tomb Raider with Angelina Jolie, Ta Prohm will look familiar. It was just incredible. So we're the other temples, but I can't describe them all here! So ill be boring and leave it at that. But let's just say we had a few wonderful, tiring, awe-inspiring days. It's one of the wonders of the world and if you ever have a chance to go, I cannot reccomend it enough. It's really not to be missed.

While in Siem Reap we also did a boat ride through a floating village and a floating forest (mangroves), and we took a Khmer cooking class. I made a banana flower salad and Chicken Amok. (Amok is a typical dish here, similar to a curry). It was all delicious and we had a great time! If I can find the ingredients at home I'd love to cook it again!

After Siem Reap I said bye to Joc and Danit :(, then the next day was off to Battambang. The city is really chilled out and relaxed, a nice change from the cities I had been in. It's set on a river, there's really pretty French architecture--just a lovely place to hang out for a few days. My hostel was set in a garden with hammocks and big comfy chairs, so I spent some time just reading and relaxing, which was nice. Also explored some Wats in the nearby countryside (monastery temples), some of which were set atop mountains, or up many many stairs. So lots of walking! On the way to one I stopped to see the Killing Cave, sadly but aptly named from the Khmer Rouge time. You can imagine what it was used for. And the bat cave, also pretty self explanatory. At dusk each night millions and millions of bats fly out to catch their prey for the evening. It was incredible to watch! I also took a ride on the Bamboo train, an old rickety "train" (more like a wooden board with an engjne), no longer in use but for tourism. It's sort of like a roller coaster at times, and if a train is coming from the other direction one has to be lifted off the tracks. Bit sketchy but got the adrenaline pumping for sure. And you see some villages and countryside along the way.

From Battambang I had to bus back to Phnom Penh for a night; to get to a lot of places in Cambodia the easiest thing to do is to loop back through the capital. I did have sushi for the first time in forever though, which made the travel time totally worth it. And had a fun night out, so all in all I'm not complaining.

My next stop was Koh Kong, where I wanted to do some trekking in the Cardamom mountains. I ended up booking a tour for a 2 day, 1 night trek through my guesthouse. It was a bit chaotic and unorganized, and at times our guide was an 11 year old boy, but for the most part it was fun. The 2 days involved boat rides, jungle trekking, pseudo-rock climbing to a waterfall, lunch overlooking the mountains, more waterfalls and swimming holes, getting shipwrecked (ie stuck on rocks) for about 2 hours and needing another boat to come get us, wading through calf-deep mud, sleeping out in hammocks under the stars, and more trekking.

After all that hard work, it was time for the beach. So that's where I went next.

I hear that it's been cold cold coldddd at home, so you may want to skip my next post. Ill be talking about the sun a lot :-)

The start of Cambodia

Hello and happy 2014!! I hope you all had a happy, healthy, wonderful start to the new year. I sure did! After a lovely home cooked Vietnamese meal courtesy of Danit's coworker and his family, the next morning it was off to Phnom Penh, about 7 hours by bus. With only some minor overcharging for my visa (gotta love the mandatory bribes to get across with no trouble), I made it safely to Cambodia's capital. It's mostly what I expected, busy and a bit dirty and chaotic, some beautiful architecture, museums, markets...overall I liked it. It's also the home to S21 prison, now the genocide museum, from the Khmer Rouge, and the killing fields. More on that soon.

I had three days in Phnom Penh with Danit and Jocelynn, and we were really busy! In no particular order we: went to the royal palace, visited the national museum, ate dinner at the night market, wandered the central markets, drank 50cent beer and danced by the riverside, haggled for (or avoided) tuk-tuks, and walked around the city a lot. We also spent a day at the genocide museum and the killing fields--an intense and emotionally exhausting day. I learned much more about the Khmer Rouge and what happened during the genocide. I won't get into the politics or details here, but if you don't know much about it you should at the very least skim the Wikipedia page. Walking through the killing fields, now so peaceful with birds chirping and tourists snapping pictures, it's hard to believe the horror that it once held. 

I've also been putting on my social work hat, particularly in Phnom Penh. There is so much poverty, with so many street kids and families with babies sleeping outside. It's really heartbreaking, particularly when there is nothing you can do about it. I would really love to work with an NGO here, there is so much need. At the moment I am not committed to learning the language or settling in one place, so I don't think ill do anything with my complicated thoughts on this at the moment. But if I ever announce that I'm moving to Cambodia for a while, you have just been forewarned and this is the reason why.

After PP we bussed to Siem Reap, just in time for New Years. Siem Reap is the base for Angkor Wat, the star attraction in Cambodia (and probably in Southeast Asia). We arrived in the afternoon, napped and showered, and headed downtown to Pub Street. As the name implies, it was the place to be. We also decided to celebrate with a nice 3 course meal to start the celebrations, which set me back about $6. I had a smile when thinking about how much a similar meal would cost on New Year's Eve back in New York or Boston. We met up with some of Danit's friends who were also in Siem Reap, and we spent the night dancing out on the street with what felt like every person in the city. We had a really nice time.

The plan was to stay up until dawn and then watch the sunrise at Angkor Wat. Let's be serious though, I am way too old for that. We ended up heading back to our guesthouse to sleep for about 2 hours.

Did we make it in time for sunrise? Whats the big idea with Angkor Wat anyway? 

Next post will tell! 

Here's to a 2014 filled with love, laughter, and adventure.