The Kingdom of Cambodia

I can't lie, I am pretty exhausted only half-way through my Cambodia edits to make too much of a comment about my trip...but I will tell you it was amazing and beautiful and fantastic.

To go into a brief description of my trip...I left Seoul on November 29 with 6am temperatures hovering around 20F and arrived in Phnom Penh at 6pm and 90F. Needless to say, I had to shed some layers.

The next morning I headed to Siem Reap to meet friends of friends (my co-worker at my school in Seoul had a best friend - Denny - who moved to Siem Reap seven years ago). Denny's "brothers" David and Andrew were Khmer (or Cambodian) and they graciously showed me around the temples and Siem Reap for seven days. It was pretty incredible seeing the temples with an "original Angkor boy" (ie: he sold books and trinkets there when he was a kid). The temples were even more breath-taking and magnificent than I imagined...and my expectations were pretty high. We swam in the West Baray (reservoir/lake of the Angkor Empire) and had a party for David's birthday on the Angkor grounds (his family has lived there for generations), went to a "floating" village, went to a silk farm, ate so much delicious Khmer and Indian food, and generally had a fantastic time drinking way too much Angkor beer/riding motorbikes, etc etc.

Then it was on to Sihanoukville (the main port town of Cambodia and its only "resort" destination; ie: backpacker central). I took an overnight bus and met two incredible NGO-ers from Flagstaff, Arizona. When we arrived that morning we hung out on the beach and they bought me breakfast as I couldn't yet check into my hostel. The following day I went on an overnight dive trip with a Texan, a New Yorker and two Canadians and slept on a tiny island inhabited by monkeys, dogs and a handful of out-of-control Cambodian drunks (12 bottles of whiskey between 10 people...that next morning wasn't fun lemme tell you). Our four dives were under-whelming but we did see some seahorses and crazy-lookin' fish.

Two days later I made the trek to Phnom Penh. I CouchSurfed for the first time and it was incredible. I was shown the most unwavering, incredible hospitality by a complete stranger, Elma. She is from the Philippines but has lived in PP for 8 years with her German husband and 7 cats and 8 dogs. (I didn't stay with all them though...she had another apartment nearby). PP was beautiful and also sad. Home to the S21 and Killing Fields, Phnom Penh has seen its fair share of horror, starvation and devastation for the next several centuries thanks to the horrific Khmer Rouge who killed millions only a few decades ago. While Cambodians don't like to talk about it, they are some of the most gracious, hard-working, beautiful people I've ever met. I spent my five days in Phnom Penh, roaming the many markets and streets, feeding Sambo (a 60-year-old elephant), visiting temples and also working at a soup kitchen that fed the homeless. Elma took me to the Philippine Embassy's Christmas Party to play bingo with about 200 other Philippine expats living in PP. Hysterical.

Anyway, this turned out to not be a short summary whatsoever, but there are lots and lots (and lots) of photos to come. I will continue to upload until they are all up (not all, but the decent ones anyway).

Enjoy! And if you ever want to go to Cambodia, I'll gladly be your tour guide ;)