Cambodia was a roller coaster ride of highs, including Angkor Wat, and lows, including the country's tragic history and realizing how corrupt it still is. We traveled from Bangkok to Siem Reap, then on to Phnom Penh, and finally on to Saigon.
Highs and Lows:
- Exploring Angkor Wat via bike, tuk tuk and on foot.
- Learning about the Khmer Rouge. Visiting the genocide museum and the Killing Fields.
- Discovering that street food is always better, cheaper and more adventurous.
- Deciding NOT to eat snake.
- Snacking everywhere and trying blood clams.
- Thinking we can change things when they go wrong and realizing that no one feels sorry for the "poor" American girls.
- Bad hostel experience. Almost miss bus to Vietnam. Rude staff. Thinking we've booked a certain room only to find we've been put in another...
- Getting ripped off everywhere.
1. Best accomodation: Golden Mango in Siem Reap
2. Best food: street food, particularly grilling own meat in Siem Reap
3. Best new taste: grilled meats, fresh spring rolls, palm wine and the anorexic bird
4. Best adventure: biking around Angkor Wat
5. Location to return to: the "Angelina Jolie" wat, aka Ta Prohm
6. Best cultural experience: crossing the border into Cambodia and being hassled right and left, and bribing a guard with $3 to allow us to see the sunset from a temple at Angkor Wat
7. Best lost in translation moment: (1) listening to our heavily accented guide for two days explain the history of Angkor Wat, often using the phrase "poor condition" to describe the temples. Alex misenterprets this phrase as "pookhanesian" and finally gets up the nerve to ask where these "people" are from. Devon deadpans her, saying, "Poor condition, Al. Poor condition." Thus begins the epic joke and our new response when asked where we're from.*
(2) While visiting a temple dedicated to women, we learned that men visited the temple to find "a-ppiness". Utterly confused, we try not to look at each other for fear of laughing and betraying the guise of our maturity. Alex asks, "Men come here to have sex?" Our guide is equally confused, blushes and moves on. We later discover that men come here to find "happiness"...ahh.
8. Best bar: Anjali Bar and Restaurant and Bojangles in Phnom Penh. We like Anjali Bar and Restaurant for obvious reasons...We named Devon's backpack Bojangles several months prior; since the bars were on the same block in the same city, this was meant to be.
9. Best local fashion: men sporting large moles with lengthy hairs growing from them, worn with pride as a sign of good health.
10. Best "we're so lucky" moment: we've never experienced a war at home; we live in a democracy and not a dictatorship.
* To that end, the last entry, though based in truth, was fabricated. Phu-khan does not exist. Google it.
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