The story so far...

So I'm starting this blog about two months too late! I've had an incredible time with some amazing people in some beautiful countries but this is the first time I've had time to stop and write it all down. So starting in Cambodia...

Jan 17th: Cherie, Kat and I flew into Phnom Penh for our first few days in Cambodia which involved visiting the horrific killing fields of the Khmer Rouge, getting an introduction to Cambodian life, specifically Cambodian food and getting used to children begging and selling thing at all hours. The most disturbing thing for me was a little girl of all of about 7 years old (actually she could have been 15 but Cambodian children are tiny, usually due to the fact that their nutrition is pretty poor) wearing a shirt that said "I could be your daughter" trying to sell us jewellery. You're not encouraged to buy anything from or give charity to the kids in Cambodia- it only keeps them on the streets, so we politely said no. The girl just kept saying "can't eat sorry. Why no", it was obvious that her parents or someone was exploiting her as much as they could.

While the Cambodian people are poor, they are also really friendly and most people who visit Cambodia say that the people are their favourite part of the experience. Bartering with the Cambodian tuk tuk drivers is always funny and there's never any maliciousness except for in the really touristic areas where they are obviously tired of so many westerners. Phnom Penh is a nice city set on the river, but I think our first impressions of cambodia were really about the people, their lifestyle, food and traffic rather than anything the city itself had to offer.

After a few days in Phnom pehn we made our way by boat to Siem Reap, home of the great Angkor Temples. The boat made an interesting trip, although at times a bit long. The start of the river was really small, only about 10m wide but as we came closer to Siem Reap we came to the Tonle Sap lake. This was so wide you couldn't see land, it felt like you were are sea, except the ocean is never this calm! We spent three days here seeing some amazing temples. While Angkor Wat was incredible, by far my favourite was Ta Phrom. Countless trees were cleared for this temple to be built, but slowly over time nature was taking back its territory. Known as the Tomb Raider temple I could have spent so much time just wandering around this amazing temple. Going to Angkor Wat for sunrise and sunset was also an awesome experience.

Unfortunately we didn't have too much time left before Cherie had to fly home so we made the journey by overnight bus back to Phnom Penh then on to Sihanoukville, Cambodias's primary beach side resort town. We stayed in a cute as hostel made entirely of wood right next to the beach. It was nice, it's hard to judge beaches when you've grown up with so many beautiful places at home, but the number of hammocks and beach side lounges was hard to complain about. While our hostel was lovely, we were reminded we were in Cambodia as when we arrived we were told there was no electricity in any of the rooms, no hot water and only power in the common area between 6-10pm. It was surprisingly fine once you got used to it, but the shock was a bit much especially as the Cambodian food wasn't agreeing with us all that much. We got over it though and actually really enjoyed staying in this area.

Places in South East Asia have none of the restrictions of first world countries and seriously if you want to build it you can. Case in point was a restaurant called the snake house that we read about in Lonely Planet. They described a place where you could eat with live snakes in the tables- really it would be a shame not to check something like this out. The experience was bizarre! We were seated with a choice of about five tables, each had a glass top and contained a live python. There were all kinds of snakes and reptiles in cages all around the place and three metres from our table was a crocodile with no fence/railing, just a chain around his neck. In the centre of the restaurant was a huge fish tank and I think there may have even been two piranha's in one part of the place. This place was really crazy.

After a few days in Sihanoukville it was time for Cherie to leave. Kat decided to postpone working a bit longer and was staying for two more weeks so we took the bus back to Phnom penh to say goodbye. L It was really nice being able to share these experiences with the girls. Cambodia is so different to the more developed countries of South East Asia and its hard to get used to some things, particularly the number of disabled and poor begging on the streets. One scam that seemed to be popular while we were there involved a mother with an infant standing in front of a convenience store. If someone offered her money she would say no, she only wanted milk formula to feed her baby. She would then take them into the store and choose the most expensive tin, getting the stranger to pay for it. The scam is that she and the shop keeper would just put the tin back on the shelf and split the money, selling the same tin over and over. It was a request that would be hard to say no to unless you had been warned. The genocide of the Khmer Rouge is also so very recent and Cambodia still carries with scars there are still many land mines covering the countries and amputees on every street corner. We were told, however that many of the amputees are actually snake bite victims, not land mine victims and there are no antidotes in Cambodia, resulting in many people losing limbs unnecessarily. They often pass these injuries off as landmine accidents because there is more sympathy from foreigners and hence they get more money. Another disturbing thing in these poorer countries is the number of polio survivors on the streets with none of the support that is offered by western countries. There are many cripples that make their way around on skateboards, actually I don't think I've seen a wheelchair the whole time I've been here. That said, a wheelchair would hardly be practical on streets that are only ever even for a metre at the most. There are so many things that make life harder for the Cambodian people and yet they seem to be happy, its really nice to see.

After saying goodbye to Cherie, Kat and I took a minibus back to Sihanoukville, there was an island that we had heard was really beautiful and hadn't had a chance to visit yet called Koh Rong ( Most islands in Cambodia and Thailand are called Koh- something like Koh Lanta, Koh Samui, Koh Phi Phi) I didn't really know what to expect but this island really took me by surprise. It was just so pretty with tropical plants everywhere, beautiful white sand, palm trees and beautiful clear water. At this point there are no resorts on Koh Rong, just beach bungalows and the occasion guest house. Rooms here are about $15 per night and it has a really chilled out feel to it. The government has sold the rights to develop to I think an Italian company but I think at this stage development is stalled and the island is still cheap and undeveloped. We had an amazing day just wandering as far as we could and exploring. This was our last stop in Cambodia before we decided if we were going to Thailand or Vietnam! I will definitely come back to Cambodia one day.