Cambodia

As I sit here in Siem Reap, this morning's tour of Angkor Wat fresh in my mind, I can't believe I'm about to leave this country as quickly as tomorrow. That's the exact opposite feeling I had when I arrived a week ago in Phnom Phen and wanted to leave as soon as possible. It had been a relatively pleasant bus ride from Saigon, I finished reading Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, and the puker on the bus-there's always one-wasn't sitting close enough to me to matter. Still, after nine countries in nine months I get a little nervous and excited crossing borders. Especially borders to countries I've never been to. It was simple enough and we arrived in Phnom Phen at night. I was dropped off at the backpacker part of town, which seems to always be the most seedy part. After checking out the local accommodation options, I was nostalgic for the comforts I had in Vietnam. There was a small riot in the street during my first night. Apparently someone through a bottle at someone else, that started a Khmer (Cambodian) versus Westerner and then Khmer vs Khmer brawl which started with fists and evolved to include bottles, knives and a broken guitar handle before it was all broken up and exhausted. I didn't see much as I'm not one to consort with such violence, and the throngs of anxious-looking tourists running my way told me I was just fine where I was. I waited to see the blood splattered on the street the next day. Strangely enough, a few girls ran into the bar where I was watching the Liverpool vs Manchester United game (those are two huge European soccer teams for all you back home) and one of them was a girl I'd met nearly 3 months earlier at a rooftop pool party in Manila! What a reunion. We met up later and had a chat and we ran into each other yet again a couple days later in Siem Reap.

It rained a lot while I was in Phnom Phen so I took advantage of the free DVDs at my hotel and watched a couple I hadn't seen yet, before writing in my journal and reading some more. I was fortunate enough to find a church to go to on Sunday. The speaker was the daughter of Bob Pierce who is the founder of both Samaritan's Purse and World Vision. The latter being the largest Christian based relief organization in the world. She was a crier and not the least bit ashamed of it. She recounted her father's past and some events that prompted him to start World Vision. Before the service I was a little bummed that I hadn't heard from some friends whom I'd been emailing and was planning on meeting with. I knew something would work out and it did. After the service I asked the two girls who sat next to me what they did and it turned out they work with the very people I was trying to meet! Before long we were all having lunch and I had a place to stay should I need one. Which I did one night before coming to Siem Reap. It was nice to get out of the backpacker area and see a more normal part of the city.

The city is actually a lot further along than I'd expected. It's full of casinos and has all the comforts of home if you're willing to pay for them. I was happy to see peanut butter and jelly in the convenience store and instantly started a three day long PBJ diet. My mother would be proud.

On the way to Siem Reap I finished George Orwell's Animal Farm, I remember reading it in high school, but it makes much more sense now. At one bathroom stop during the trip were an assortment of fruits and exotic foods. I found a bowl full of tarantulas, another with brightly colored grasshoppers and a lady carrying around a pan of skinned frogs too. I had tried some water beetles back in Phnom Phen and so decided to opt out of trying anything new and had some grilled bananas instead.

I woke up this morning at 4:40 am and my motorbike driver was waiting out front. We arrived at Angkor Wat before the sun showed up and I'd hoped for a clear morning. It was too cloudy for much color to arrive in the sky behind the temple, but I was happy it wasn't raining yet. As a whole, Angkor is huge, the largest religious building in the world so they say. However, now it's really just a bunch of temples within a fairly close proximity to each other. I recognized the temples as the backdrop to some movies, Laura Croft: Tomb Raider and Mortal Kombat two of the most familiar. Hey, I never said they were good movies! You know that temple you see in National Geographic in the jungle with all the tree roots covering the walls? Yeah, I saw that one today too. I've seen too many temples within the last six months to get too excited, but still, this is Angkor Wat, one of the seven man-made wonders of the world. I don't want to sound uncultured but I did notice I showed more fascination with a giant millipede and later with a trail of ants than I did with the temples themselves. Still, they make for good pictures!

I'm planning my return to Bangkok tomorrow on the bus. It's supposed to be a bumpy, miserable ride and getting stuck in the mud isn't uncommon. Let's hope I won't have to push. This entry puts you currently up to date with my life. After Bangkok I'm going down to the south of Thailand to hopefully do some rockclimbing in Krabi and chill out for awhile on the beach in Phuket. Then it's off to Malaysia. I'm not sure what I'll do in Malaysia but I can't imagine leaving this part of the world without some good snake stories so I may try to find a python or two. Perhaps easier said than done. A few people have asked when I'm coming home or where I'm off to next. It's good to be missed, but if all goes to plan I won't be home for quite awhile yet. I fly to London in November. I'm looking for work somewhere in Europe. I have a desire to learn French while I'm there so, preferably in a Francophone area and, finances permitting, I'd like to stay for around a year. Then, since Latin America was the whole reason I went on this trip I can't imagine staying any less than a year there. But I'm getting ahead of myself. First let's see about this bus trip tomorrow.