Cambodia was a treasure. From the ancient ruins of Angkor Wat to the pristine Sunset beach to the fresh crab in Kep, Cambodia has shown us calm beauty, delicious food and a deep appreciation of history (good and bad).
We arrived on Christmas Day in Siem Reap and wandered around Pub Street until we found a great little restaurant where we had beef lok lak and chicken amok – the two most popular national dishes.
After Skyping with both of our families the following day, we headed off to the National Museum to learn about the history of Cambodia, including the history of the Angkor temples. We are really glad we went to the museum first because seeing the temples made more sense after learning about them…
The next day we took a tuk-tuk to watch the (uneventful) sunrise at Angkor Wat with a million of our closest friends and then toured around the bigger temples.
It was an incredible day – these temples are unreal.
There is beauty around every corner – though I have to say that we both enjoyed the smaller temples without the hoards of people much better. The temples always seem a bit more magical without people.
The following day we took a bicycle ride around the temples stopping at many of the smaller temples. Again, it was an amazing day. They are just wonders.
After we had a delicious Cambodian BBQ, we were then off to Battambang.
We rang in the new year riding the bamboo train and watching thousands upon thousands of bats come out of a cave at twilight. What a sight! We also hiked up some stairs to a temple on the hill where our guide fed the monkeys…
Battambang was a quiet little town and we enjoyed our downtime. We also took a cooking class, which included shopping in the local market.
Battambang was a funky little town with outdoor ellipticals and iced coffee double bagged. We ordered iced coffee and iced thai green tea from a local cart... he gave it to us in plastic bags with a straw in it and that was inside a paper bag.... we laughed pretty hard. We also loved eating fresh fruit everywhere... I think we ate pineapple every day.
We then took the night bus to Sihanoukville, which was a trip because we got on after seemingly everyone else was already on board, and they were sleeper beds instead of seats (2 people per bed) and in our “bed” there was already someone sleeping there… so after having the bus man make the other guy find his actual bed, we snuggled into some already warm sheets. Delightful. We considered ourselves pretty fortunate because at least we like each other and, well, know each other. A guy we met at our hotel who was also traveling on this bus was lucky enough to snuggle next to a stranger… he said it was awful. The picture quality is terrible but you get the point....
But then we were in beautiful Sihanoukville where everything was beautiful except for the trash that filled the beach. This is a pretty typical party area and the beer bottles in the ocean proved it. But it was a stopping point for us to go to Koh Rong Samloem island on the west side where we were treated to virtually no people, blue ocean, fruit salads with passionfruit and perfect, perfect sand.
We slept in a tent suspended from trees… which sounded so exciting and romantic when we booked it. Turns out Jared weighs more than I do so it was like a giant hammock. He kept telling me to move over… but every time I moved up, I just fell back down. Ha! And on the last night, we found out that the tent wasn’t waterproof!
It was an adventure to say the least… But with sunset views like this, we can’t even begin to complain.
After an awesome week filled with kayak trips, snorkeling, and no wifi, we headed back to Sihanoukville in order to do some laundry and then headed to our next destination, Kep.
Kep was probably our favorite town in Cambodia - just a sleepy, little coastal fishing village.
We stayed at the most lovely guesthouse with views of the coast. We had a little bungalow and it was perfect. The owner was an amazing Cambodian woman – we drank Khmer tea every morning and evening before we went to bed and as we were leaving she gave us a bag of the tea because she didn’t know what we would do without it. And I loved her passion fruit smoothies – made with passion fruits from her tree – so she gave us passion fruits as we left too. Such a kind, kind woman and we absolutely loved our stay. If you ever find yourself in Cambodia, make a visit to Kep and sleep at the Treetop Bungalows. (and stay for more than 1 night!!)
In Kep, we ate crab – because that is what you do in Kep. The first night, we had the traditional Green Pepper Crab made with Kampot Pepper – pepper grown right in the area. It was incredible.
The next night, we decided to do the market crab adventure. We got 1kg (2.2 lbs) of crab (pulled directly from the ocean) for $6! (and I think we got ripped off… crazy!) Then we had it boiled for $.50 and bought some sauce for $1. Then we found a place to sit, bought some beer and a pineapple smoothie, and sat down to eat our boiling hot crab. Again, I had really romantic notions of this but it turns out that the shit is still inside of them. So after getting past the weird green gook, the eyes and the literal shit, the crab was really yummy… ha! It was still an awesome experience and pretty hysterical as well.
After Kep, we headed to Kampot where we went rock climbing. It was a lot of fun! It was my first time climbing outside and it was the perfect first-time experience.
We then headed to Phnom Penh where we visited the Killing Fields and the Genocide Museum. If you haven’t read about the Khmer Rouge and what they did to their own people, please Google it. It’s a horrible part of the world’s history and the marks of the damage their reign and the genocide had on the Cambodian people are evident even today.
From 1975-1979, Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge regime took people from the city and forced them into labor camps all around Cambodia. Anyone associated with the old government, specifically men, was murdered. They killed anyone who was deemed intellectual (even people who wore glasses), the disabled, people who weren’t “full” Cambodian, etc. Most often, they murdered the entire family so that no one would take revenge on the new regime. From what we learned at the Killing Fields site, bullets were often expensive so they would line people up and kill them with farm tools, knives, etc.
While starving their own people, giving them only a bowl of rice and water where you could literally count the grains of rice within it, they worked them literally to death. Children as young as 5 were made to work, or arguably worse, forced to train as a Khmer Rouge soldier. Life was somewhat better off for the rural farm workers but as Pol Pot became increasingly paranoid, he began targeting everyone.
I read two books on the genocide while I was there, “First They Killed My Father” and a book with short stories written by survivors. In the short stories book, the author’s bio was included for each experience told. Most of them were living in America having been accepted as refugees after their families had been torn apart, many of them the sole survivors of their entire family. Their country had been ripped apart by violence and death surrounded them on a daily basis. All of the bios included their current occupation, many of them social workers helping rebuild their country, others having worked for the US Postal Service and other parts of the government – all of the stories were of productive members of society – grateful for the chance to rebuild their lives free of violence and free of starvation.
Why do we build these museums? Why do we build memorials?
So that history won’t be repeated.
Over the last 9 months, I have realized my greatest fear. Will I hide behind my privilege and comfort when people are in need?
From our standpoint, it’s time to remember that violence and hatred can be stopped by activism and by paying attention to what is happening around us. Democracies are not permanent structures and I know most of the people reading this blog are grateful for the stable and fortunate lives they currently possess. I urge you to look around at the people who are not feeling so stable or fortunate right now. What can we do to reach out and offer that helping hand?
This isn’t a post about being Anti-Trump or Anti-Republican. For anyone who knows us, we can’t live in Wyoming for 4-6 years and be an extreme liberal. We get the differences between the parties, between the disagreements, but what we see more are the similarities and the biggest similarity is that we are all human.
