Last days in Cambodia

It was sad to reach the final days.  This was one of our favorite trips ever!  Cambodia is such a dynamic, beautiful country.  The last two days there were spent relaxing.  We did some swimming, a little work, a lot of eating, and spent more time in town.  The last night we went to a Khmer Kitchen restaurant and got our final curries and amok dishes.  It was all delicious!  I can't wait to go back!

Every time we are setting up holidays, we have a hard time picking a hotel and then end up asking a million questions to people that have been there.  So, I decided after each trip I will write out some useful information for those of you interested in going there.  Here is our first one:

Important information about Cambodia:

• They use US dollars and Cambodian money, but mostly US dollars.  There are many ATM's in town to get money.
• You will need to get a VISA on arrival.  Bring with you $20 per person and 1 passport sized photo.  They are not too picky on size.
• Tipping is welcome, but you don't need to do much.  A little money goes a long way there.
• Angkor Wat is HUGE.  Plan on spending at least 2 days there.
• The town is small, but packed with great restaurants, shopping, and bars.
• Food ranges from $3 to $5 at most places and is AMAZING!!!!
• Beer will run you $0.50-$1 :)  and cocktails are about $3.50
• Tuk tuk rides cost about $2

Our hotel:

We stayed at The Shining Angkor Boutique Hotel and LOVED it.  It only has 20 rooms.  We had the best room and it was only $50 a night and included a great breakfast each morning.  The staff is very sweet and helpful.  I felt like we were the only ones there most of the time.  We planned nothing ahead of time.  We just talked to the staff and they set everything up for us.  It cost us $15 for a tuk tuk that took us around ALL DAY at the temples and then $15 for the day we went to the museum and the floating villages.  It was $5 for the tuk tuk to the sunrise at Angkor Wat.  We had a pool that was nice and the restaurant had great food.  Lunch was delicious, but it took them a while to make it each day, but believe me, it is SO worth it when you get it, especially if you get the red curry!!!  Oh, and we had unlimited free rides in to town on a tuk tuk each day.  We were located in between Angkor Wat and town and I loved that.  You got to see and experience so much more of the city.

Flights:

We flew China Southern and enjoyed it.  It was so much better than China Eastern.  They had good food and the seats were really roomy.  The only downfall was our 8 hour layover in Guangzhou.  I don't recommend that, but if that is the only way you can get to Siem Reap, do it!

Things to do and costs:

• Angkor Wat and all the temples- $15 a day or $40 for 3 days (either rent a bike or a tuk tuk to take you around, it is huge). Ta Prohm and Angkor Wat were our favorites.
• Old Market- lots of cheap shopping in town, closes at 6pm  You can usually get stuff for less than half the price they originally say if you do good bargaining.
• Night Market- open at 6pm (there were lots of bugs while we were there, so we didn't last long here)
• Aki Ra's Landmine museum- long ride, but amazing chance to see the local villages and learn a lot about Cambodia's history, $3 per person.
• Floating Village- $13 per person (long ride out there, but I loved it)
• Cooking classes- There are lots of different classes.  We did the Le Tigre one and loved it.  It was $12 per person and got us the class and a 3 course meal.
• Eat Chicken Amok, sooooooooo yummy!
• Eat curry, again soooooooooo yummy!
• Go to a restaurant in town and sit upstairs to do some people watching
• Go to the Mekong Quilt store- even if just to look.  The quilts are quite cheap (for quilts) and there are lots of other little things to buy.
• Get the pancakes from a street vendor!!!  I suggest banana, chocolate, and condensed milk!

Favorite Restaurants:

• Red Piano- good Cambodian and Western food
• Khmer Kitchen
• Little India- great Indian food!!!!
• Le Tigre- good Cambodian and Western food
• Blue Pumpkin- only if you are in the mood for sandwiches and salads and ice cream.
• There are so many others to choose from too!  This is really making me miss it!

Leaving:

The airport is very small.  We got there an hour and half before our international flight and had plenty of time to get to our plane.  Also, there is no cost to leave the country.

That's all!

We were there for 8 days and it was great.  If you really cram stuff, you could probably do it all in 4-5 days.  For us a holiday is not rushing though, so we liked what we did.  I could have stayed longer actually!  Hope this was helpful to all of you that plan to go (which should be everyone reading this!).

Cambodia Part III

Day 5 (really we have been here for 6 days now, but the first day we got here so late, I don’t count that!)

Thursday was a very humbling day for us all.  We did not expect to see what we did on a tuk tuk ride this morning.  We planned to go to Aki Ra’s Landmine Museum because we had heard so much about it.  Our front desk staff told us it was just down the rode.  Well, it ended up being a 40 minute ride down the road!!!  If you have ever been in a tuk tuk, you know that is a LONG time to be sitting in that, especially if parts of the roads are filled with potholes!  Anyway, the ride ended up being totally worth it.  We were taken through an amazing little village and we were able to see the real Cambodia, not just the tourist parts. 

To say the ride through the village was humbling is actually an understatement.  Their homes are mere shacks or shelters.  We would consider this a place to camp for a quick weekend.  The villagers make their homes out of wood and build them on stilts to survive the rainy season.  The inside is a simple one room, maybe divided by a piece of cloth.  They are very small, the size of most living rooms in American homes, yet they are home to families of 4, 5, 6, and probably even more.  Running water is not an option.  Instead they have a water pump outside they use to get clean water.  There is not a kitchen.  They cook outside with an open fire or manmade stove.  The most amazing part of all of this is that they have, what we consider, nothing, yet are content and even happy with what they have been given.  As we drove down the road the children were running with us, smiling and yelling “hello!”  Even the adults would wave and smile. 

Here is a picture of a village home.  We were driving, so I had to snap them from the tuk tuk, so it's not great.

A typical village home.

Another

I hate to say it again, but I have to…So many of us forget that we are so lucky and privileged to live the lives we have.  While so many of us wish for or complain that we don’t have bigger houses, stainless steal appliances with granite in our kitchens, nicer cars, or a new iPhone, many are still wishing for clean water daily and food to feed their families.  I also saw a very pregnant woman and couldn’t help but think, who will deliver her baby?  We complain about the cost of medical (as we should), yet these people have probably never seen a proper doctor or dentist.  This ride really put things into prospective for me.  There are so many times that I read on facebook- FML (F my life), and I always want to say, “you have a better life than most people, be thankful for what you have”.  That little statement (FML) really bothers me.  Life will always give us hard times, but it’s the good times and the things we have that we need to focus on.  That’s my little piece of advice today.

When we arrived at the landmine museum, it was not what I expected.  It was just a small area filled with history stories, old landmines, and an orphanage in the back for children who have lost family to landmines.  We learned so much about Cambodia’s sad past.  I think what affected me the most was that it was not long ago that this country was at war.  If you get a chance or are bored one day, google Pol Pot, Khmer Rouge, or the Killing Fields (or watch the movie, we just bought it).  It is so sad to see what these people went through.  Cambodians are quiet, peaceful people, yet they were killed for nothing.  Again, feeling thankful for what I have.

These are many of the landmines and bombs that Aki Ra dug up.  The buildings behind it are the museum.

Here is one thing we learned at the museum.  Aki Ra is the founder of the museum.  When he was just a boy, he was forced to lay landmines.  He had no idea what he was doing and didn’t know what the landmines would do to people.  For those of you that don’t know, most landmines are to mutilate, not to kill.  Aki Ra went on to fight with the Vietnamese army and fought to get his country back.  Now, and for past years, he helps to find landmines that are still in Cambodia to keep farmers and children safe.  Landmines still kill many people in Cambodia because there are so many still in the ground.  He teaches others how to find them too.  He has brought many disarmed landmines and photos to the museum to help fund the orphanage.

After the museum we went to the floating villages.  Again, this was quite an adventure.  We had no idea how long it would take to get out there.  This was on the complete opposite end of town.  We stopped at the hotel to get something to drink and then went on to the next village.  The ride took us through more villages like on the way to the museum.  This one was flooded because of its location and was filled with cows (or oxen, we couldn’t tell) and pigs.  When we got to what we thought was the actual village, we had to take a small boat to get to the big boat that would take us out there, because of all the flooding.  It was an adventure in itself!!!  First, we got on a small boat and went out to the big boats.  Before we could get to the big boats we had to walk across wooden planks because of the flooding.  Then, we walked across a few big boats to get to our boat.  Finally, we were on our way to see the floating homes!  It ended up taking 40 minutes to get there.  It was really amazing though!  I will let the pictures do the talking.  This year the water is really high and some homes were flooded and not livable.  During the dry season you can see the stilts that they are on and they don’t look like they are floating.  They even have a school, restaurants, police station, and a hotel out there!  It was very unique.

Me on the small boat.

Greg and Di walking the planks.  :)

The big boats

This was the secondary school.

Some adorable local children on their boat

The guest house, or hotel

At night we went to an Indian restaurant and feasted on somosas, garlic nan, and delicious curries!!!  It was at a restaurant called Little India.  I highly recommend it for those of you going to Siem Reap.  It was cheap and yummy!!!!  After that, Di and Travis got a fish massage on their feet!  Check it out!

Now we are down to only 2 days.  I am so sad.  I have really fallen in love with this city and country.  I would come back again for sure!!!!  I am currently trying to convince Travis to let me adopt a Cambodian baby!!!!  

Cambodia Part II

Day 3

Today we decided to do a Cambodian cooking class.  I looked up many options online and read about a few in a couple different books.  In the end we chose Le Tigre Cooking School (Le Tigre is also a restaurant we went to the other night).  I read that 75% of the profits go to a charity, so we all decided it would be a good choice.  We definitely made the right one!  It started at the restaurant.  We were given a menu and each person got to choose a starter and a main course.  We would also be making a dessert for everyone.  The total, per person for this was only $12!!!  Travis, Greg, Alysha, and I went and there were also two other British girls in our group.  After making our selections, we went to the local market.  This was really interesting.  We had never seen such a big market.  They had tons of fruits and vegetables, most we had seen before, but some new to us.  They also had meat and seafood for sale.  The most interesting (and gross) thing I saw there was the pig’s head, the whole head.  See the picture!  It was really informational to hear the woman talk about the different veggies and spices.  We learned quite a bit from this part.

Some veggies at the market.

You won't see this at your local Kroger!!!

We then made our way back to the restaurant and up two flights of narrow stairs.  On the third floor they had a little kitchen set up for our use.  We each made our own individual meals under the supervision of the chef.  She told us what to cut up, how to cut it, and then helped us cook everything.  Travis made a delicious pumpkin soup and a seafood curry.  Greg made a papaya salad and a chicken curry.  Alysha made chicken spring rolls and chicken amok.  I made the same, but my spring rolls were shrimp. 

It was so much fun making it all and learning the secrets of Cambodian cooking.  I was so proud of the beautiful work we did!  Not to mention how delicious it all was!!!  It took about three hours to do everything.  They even taught us how to make some fancy decorations for our plates.  You can see them in the pictures.  Travis and Alysha cut a piece of a carrot to look like a flower.  Greg peeled the outside of a tomato with a knife to make a rose, and I made a lotus flower out of a tomato.  When we finished, we went downstairs to indulge!  It was so good!!!  We also got to eat the sticky rice (white rice with lots of sugar) with yellow mango for dessert.  That was also amazing!  I am so happy we did it!  I wish you could taste how amazing it all was, but you can at least see how pretty it was from our pictures!

Here I am frying my shrimp for the fresh spring rolls.

Travis is preparing his pumpkin soup.

All four of the chefs!

 Travis with his food!

Me and my food!

Day 4

Today began with a 5 am wake up call, and I wasn’t even grumpy!!!  This morning we headed back to Angkor Wat.  Our mission today was simply to watch the sunrise behind it and then check out just this one temple.  It was a bit cloudy, so we missed out on great sunrise pictures, but I was happy with what we got.  We also got some amazing pictures with a reflection in the water below the temple.  Check out our picture!  The inside of the temple was as amazing as the outside.  It is unbelievable to imagine them being built so long ago without the modern machinery we have today.  Most of the temples were built between 800 AD and 1200 AD.  Angkor used to be the capital and was home to many Cambodians.

After the sunrise, we came back to the hotel for breakfast, to relax a little, and swim in the pool.  The clouds went away quickly and the sun was very hot.  We needed the refreshing pool to cool us off a bit!  We then headed into town for lunch and some shopping at the markets.  We got some great stuff.

If you remember from Day 1, it rained a lot.  Well, apparently it has been raining a lot this year, more than usual and it is causing many floods.  One of the main streets in town has been flooded and it continues to rise.  Look at the picture below.  It is just crazy!  The river is behind this street and I guess the water from the river is flowing out onto the road.  It is supposed to rain again tomorrow, so I can only imagine what it will look like then.  The flooding is happening all over the country too.

While in town we also brought food to give to the locals.  I don’t think I have talked about how poor many people are in the country.  There are many beggars in town, looking for food, not money.  Every time we go into town we feel bad that we have nothing to give them.  Today we did.  We have had fresh fruit in our room from the hotel everyday.  So we brought it with us and decided to give it to anyone needing food.  At lunch it all went well.  I gave an apple and some bananas to a mother with two children.  They seemed grateful and continued on.  However, at night Alysha and I both had more food and when we began to give it to some of the locals, they got greedy and aggressive.  They were fighting with each other over the pieces and were impatiently waiting to see what was in our bags, almost reaching in Alysha’s bag.  We gave them all of it and quickly moved on.  This time, one little girl continued to follow and beg from us though.  It was very sad.  Just a little reminder of how lucky we all are to have everything we do.  Take a quick minute to be thankful!!!  I can easily see why Angelina Jolie wanted to adopt children from this poor country.

At night we also went to the Blue Pumpkin for dinner with another SCIS family.  It was really nice and yummy food!  The sandwiches and salads seemed to be everyone’s favorites.  We finished the night with another ice cream and pancake before heading home.  It was a long day today, but lots of fun!  

This is the man making the pancakes.  They are not like breakfast pancakes, they are delicious dessert pancakes filled with banana and chocolate!

Holiday in Cambodia Part 1

Holiday in Cambodia

Before I begin talking about Siem Reap, and the amazing city it is, I want to pause and think about what our life was like a year ago, and just how much has changed…

Last year we were just beginning our life in Shanghai.  I was still afraid of my own shadow and was preaching to all that “WE WILL NOT BE STAYING THREE YEARS, and that will not change!”  I also remember telling people that I don’t really love to travel.  I enjoyed it, but liked to be home more.  Last October we were heading to Beijing for our first holiday.  It was an amazing city and a great adventure with fun friends.  But when we returned, I still didn’t understand why everyone loved to travel so much.  I still had thoughts that two years of living here and traveling around would be plenty! 

As the year progressed, my feelings began to change.  I began to grow a love for traveling, and started becoming more interested in other parts of Asia. Traveling to Bangkok, Boracay, and Bali certainly helped me see things in a new light!  Now, as I sit here in my hotel room in Cambodia, ready to go explore more, I realize what a different person I have become over the last year.  In general, I have a whole new outlook on life.  We have been given an opportunity to travel and learn about the world, and many will never get this chance.  I don’t want to miss out on anything or take anything for granted.  I love learning about other cultures and countries.  I get excited to travel and feel lucky that we live in Shanghai.  I feel so blessed to have the life I have been given.  Here I am, already in love with Siem Reap after one day and I can’t wait to see more of it.  I also can’t stop thinking about where else I want to go!  “The old Christy” would never have gone to Cambodia, let alone say those words.  My how I have grown in a year.  Oh, and those of you wondering, I am eating my own words as we plan to stay at least three years in Shanghai.  

So, now back to my blog on Cambodia…  It took a while to get here, our plane left Shanghai late, we had a 4 hour lay over in Guangzhou (great people watching there BTW), got stuck on the plane on the runway for an hour and then finally left and got to Siem Reap around 7.  This was our first time flying with China Southern and we were pleasantly surprised.  The food was pretty good and the seats had plenty of legroom.  When we arrived we had someone from our hotel waiting for us to take us to The Shining Angkor Boutique Hotel.  The hotel is beautiful with amazing woodcarvings everywhere, not many guests, it’s in a quiet area, and has a VERY friendly staff.  It is also just down the road from town.  A quick $2 Tuk Tuk ride will get you to all the restaurants, bars, and markets.  And everything is very cheap! 

Travis and I in our first Tuk Tuk ride into town on Sunday.

Sunday, Day 1, we woke up and had our breakfast.  Then we relaxed at the pool for a bit.  Later, Travis, Greg, and I went to explore town.  We began to walk, but as it is very hot and humid, that didn’t last long!  We ended up getting in a tuk tuk and our driver took us to town and showed us where some things were located.  We found some restaurants that were recommended, the Pub Street (Greg and Travis were very excited about this one!), the day market (complete with people selling fish and other food that smells great in 90 degree heat), beer for 50 cents, and some lovely people.  After doing a little shopping and eating a little, we headed back to the hotel in our Batman themed tuk tuk! 

 Travis and Greg finding the Red Piano on Pub Street.

 This was inside the Day Market that we found.  Everything is extremely cheap. 

Our awesome Batman Tuk Tuk!

We headed back downtown at night.  Our first stop was the night markets.  We got there a little early, so we decided to go to “The Island Bar” in the middle of the market to get a drink.  It was a super cute.  We then headed out to the markets to see what kind of deals we could get.  I scored a $5 dress/shirt that I really liked.  However, with the weather being so hot and humid, there were many annoying bugs.  They weren’t biting, but were pests, so we walked on to the Pub Street.  We picked a restaurant and had a great meal.  There were 5 of us and our bill was $35!  You really can’t beat that!  Afterwards, we walked around a little and headed back to the hotel.  It was a great first, full day! 

Day 2

A little rain won’t bother us if we go to the temples today, right?  Wrong!  Well, at least at the first temple it did!  Today was Greg’s birthday, so we decided to let him make all the decisions for the day, or rather, he decided it was his birthday and he got to do whatever he wanted to do and we would have to follow along.  J  We slept soundly during a lovely rainstorm.  When we awoke, it was nearly over with, so we thought.  It was just sprinkling and the temperature was great.  Greg still wanted to go to the temples and we decided it might be a good idea to head out for day 1 of Angkor Wat.  We had hoped that because of the rain there would be less tourists.  We set out in our tuk tuks from the hotel.  It was really close and very convenient with the tuk tuks.  They took us around to all of the temples.  I had no idea just how big Angkor would be!  It was many, many square kilometers!  We started the tour with the three main temples: Angkor Thom- Banyon, Ta Prohm (the one used in the movie Tomb Raider), and we saw just the outside of Angkor Wat (which has green scaffolding all over it, BIG disappointment).

Banyon was the biggest challenge.  It was pouring rain by the time we got to it and our ponchos and umbrella were not helping much.  We got separated from the Watt’s during our battle with taking the camera out without getting wet and then eventually got lost trying to find our way out.  That gives you an idea of how big these temples are!  After Banyon, we went to Ta Prohm.  This was our favorite.  The rain had also slowed up and made the trekking much more enjoyable.  The pictures won’t do it justice, but it was unbelievable.  You can see for yourself.  By the time we got to Angkor Wat, we were tired.  We knew we had 2 more days to come back, so we decided to take a quick look and come back at another time.

That night we headed back into town for Greg’s birthday dinner.  He chose Red Piano, which was recommended to us by many previous travelers.  It was great food, great fun, and had a fantastic view of the town below (we sat on the 2^nd floor).  This was also the restaurant that Angelina Jolie loved to go to when she was in Cambodia.  They named a drink after her- the Tomb Raider Cocktail.  Of course I had to try it.  It was good, reminded me of Squirt Soda. 

It ended up being a great day, despite the rain.  I can’t wait to go back again, especially to see the sunrise behind Angkor Wat!

Here is part of Ta Prohm.  More pictures to come, the internet is too slow right now!

This was a part of Angkor Thom.

Travis and I at the front of Ta Prohm.