Cambodia is a striking country

Last night in Kuala Lumpur. I love this city. I could live here. June 5^th, 2018

Day 6 in Kuala. Day 1 in Sihanoukville. Last day in Malaysia. First day in Cambodia. (June 6th on my official calendar. Sometimes it's a challenge for me to try and orientate myself to certain standards of time and space. You know what I mean? Sometimes I question why it must be 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, but the days of the month are arbitrary, and a year is 365 of these days, but not cleanly divided by 73, or 5)

The next morning this guy who brought us from the airport, took us back. He was so friendly. He told us that when we went to visit my friend the day before, we were a short distance from the sea shore. If only we had known. Such a friendly guy, he invited us to breakfast. That just doesn’t happen in the U.S.

We went through the middle steps of The Process of flying internationally. We had already explored ideas. Done some research. Bought plane tickets and the hotel. Packed up. Ordered a cab, arrived at the airport. Then it was figuring out where to go in the airport. So many options. Then we checked in a got the boarding passes. Then we had options of X, Y and Z. Except we were in gate P. At least the airport was in English. Follow Y to get to gate P and Q. It’s like a maze when the airport is big enough. Put my luggage through a simple scanner machine. Then walk some, and have an airline person weigh my carry-on luggage. Then go through more security where I have to pull out my computer and my liquids. Then immigrations. Then find our gate. Then wait. Then board, along with 100 other people trying to get through the narrow aisle of the plane, and contort into the small seats. Take off and landing are their own mini miracles every time. And don’t get me started on the logistical ordeal of having to use to the toilet on the plane. This flight was really weird because we had aisle seats. So I couldn’t see it happen, the whole flight was not visible to me. It’s like closing my eyes and all of a sudden I’m in Cambodia.

Then it’s 100 people trying to get off the plane, and it’s the place where we have to climb down stairs off the plane. The humidity sits on my skin, a tangible layer of pressure that I can feel all over. It’s a good thing I like humidity. Then it was figuring out which line to get in. We get in one line for immigrations, then go to the line for visas. Except we already have our visas. So we go back to the other line. Then change lines again. The wait is long, but we are not in a rush. The guy has to stamp three things with three stamps and then sign and date it. Then customs. Then get another cab.

Right from the parking lot of the airport I can tell I’m not in Kansas anymore. I’m not in Kuala anymore. There is a very rough feel to Sihanoukaville. As soon as the pastures end the garbage starts. This place is very run down. It’s crazy. There are not many sidewalks, and not much traffic. It’s nuts. I don’t know how these people can live, work and play in the trashed neighborhoods. Just walk by it, through it every day. I was a bit shell shocked. It was like a house after a big New Year’s Eve party and no one cleaned up at all.

Even in the dirty garbage of the streets there are still some beautiful things to be found, like trees full of these flowers.

This picture is part of the view from the one restaurant that we found that looked like it might be a little trustworthy. 

Then we got to our hotel we had picked out of many on the Agoda website. Apparently all of the pictures were at least five years old. The landscaping needed some serious help, but I was distracted by a gorgeous orchid looking flower that had fallen off of a tree in the open lobby. The waiting area had big chairs and a pool table. But it was dirty and the chairs were all stained. Oh boy. We had to wait a few minutes they were still cleaning the room. I was losing hope fast. But the room was big, with a nice balcony and a decent bathroom. It was a contrast from the last place that was about art and busy walls. This room has zero pictures on the wall. But the air conditioning works! Over all I was disheartened. Then we went for a walk. I thought it was for getting some food, but it turned into a long hot walk on non-existent sidewalks. Our little circle turned into a big uninspiring one, and when I finally got back to our room I was grumpy and wiped out. Feeling that bad is fixable though, put my feet up, cool down, hydrate – and the world is a better place. Just sitting still felt good. Then we wandered out for some dinner. The guy at the front desk was asleep in a chair with his bare feet up. I wish I had a job where I could do that.

This is a predominantly Buddhist country, so there are small shrines in yards, in shops, in houses. This one was at the coffee shop we found.

Dinner was basically normal, we found a place that looked like it would be halfway decent. So I guess I will survive. Plus there is a big deep pool that I can’t wait to dive into as soon as possible.

Oh, and I was almost complimented by the taxi driver. He told my husband that he was a lucky man, because the driver could tell that I was very pretty when I was younger. It’s going to be a long 6 days.

Day 2 is a blur. We went to the Vietnam embassy to start the process for getting visas. Driving is always a wild adventure, don't blink, you might miss something that will amaze you. Sometimes not in a good way, but still, I'm "amazed".

Day 3 is Friday. Up late. Slept in. Breakfast was lovely again at 8am. Went to pick up our Vietnam visas, no problems. Then asked a tuk tuk driver is there was a mall anywhere. I wanted a bathroom, and some air conditioning. He said sure, I will take you to the market, and he showed me on a map. I said ok, so it is inside, not outside? He nodded. Off we go. This place is nuts. There are zero rules on who goes on what side of the road. Almost zero marked lanes. Zero traffic lights. It’s one mega mighty game of playing Chicken (that’s what we called it when we were kids, to see who was the bravest), seeing who will back down first.

He drops us off and says he will be back in one hour. This place is not inside, it simply has a cover over it. It looks like it is an entire city block, at least. We venture inside. It was ok at first, similar to the bizarre in Macedonia only a bit more organized. Except it wasn’t store after store, it was stall after stall like one floor of one textile market in Yogyakarta. But it was very run down.  The unfamiliar fruits and vegetables didn’t get to me. My eyes adjusted to the lack of light. The handful of people approaching me and asking for money didn’t get to me. I didn’t have any money on me to give away. The thing that got to me was the meat section. First cartons of crabs of all kinds, then fish of all sorts and smaller sizes, then squid, then shellfish, then shelled things. Then just body parts. The heads of pigs. The feet of chickens. Everything was being butchered right there, too. As in taking the fish and scaling it and cutting it. Taking the dead chicken with no feathers and chopping it up. Small buckets full of guts and glory as animals were being cut up for sale in a reasonable size. The aisles were so small that you had to be careful you didn’t brush up against things.

I had to teach a class on food safety in my last job before traveling. So my students could get their food handler cards and work at restaurants and so on. None of that applied here. At all. Just rows and rows of meat and things left out until someone bought it and carried it home. I am mostly ignored, I think because people don’t speak English. It’s one of those tidal moments. My eyes are as big as dinner plates. I’m trying to absorb what I’m seeing. It’s so hot that I have sweat dripping down my back. I’m waving my Chinese hand fan to keep perspiration from coming down my face. There is no bathroom in sight and my bladder is complaining, but I survive probably because I’m sweating so much. The smell makes me want to quit breathing like a bad habit. I don’t understand anything anyone is saying. And now I realize maybe deep down I’m definitely a vegetarian. These people come here every day and do this? It boggles my mind. I’m getting desperately over-heated and I’ve been here for 20 minutes. The best part about a moment of being overwhelmed is knowing it must end. It will be over at some point, if I just keep going. If I manage to not slip on the icky floor and land on top of a shelf of live shrimp.

We buy some fruit and some nuts and get out of there. The tuk tuk driver says he knows where our hotel is, but he doesn’t. Once we figure this out, I’m not any closer to a bathroom, not in this part of town. The breeze is divine, but the bumpy bad roads don’t help my condition any. The beauty of the bad moments is how incredibly sweet they make the good moments. I am back at my hotel. My bladder is finally empty. My bathing suit is on. The big empty pool calls my name. I dive in and it’s so outstanding and refreshing and glorious. The shallow end of the pool is about 5 feet deep, so I can really swim. It’s double the depth and double the size of the last pool. The last pool was on the fifth floor and had some lovely potted plants. This place feels like it’s half in the jungle with exotic trees around it. The flowers on the trees are like orchids, and when one drops it’s like a red gem from above.

I glide through the water and glide past my hardships at the market. There are pockets of warm and cold throughout the beautiful blue water. It makes me think about how you can’t feel color, but the temperatures kind of feel like colors on my skin. Well, if I’m sunburned red like a cooked lobster it sure feels different from being so cold that my fingernail beds turn blue. I swim, I float, I wave at Ron who is still on the balcony of our room. The world is a better place. I can truly appreciate the contrasts of the day. Ron joins me in the pool and I laugh and swim and try to stick to the shady side of the pool to avoid feeling red.

We went up to the room and I looked at the clock, it was 2:14pm in Cambodia. By 2:54pm the blue sky is gone, and dark clouds are blocking the sun. Another crazy contrast. When it’s clear we can see two pieces of the Gulf of Thailand. At one point we couldn’t see past the pool, it was raining so hard. Such a blessing, because it reduced the heat. If we hadn’t gone to the market then swimming in the pool would have been ‘nice’. Since we went to the market, the swim in the pool was super fantastic and was like a natural high.

Now it’s 4pm and still raining. We have to wait for a break to run and get some dinner down the street. There is this place that sells hamburgers! I got the curry last time, but then realized that I’m ready for a hamburger. I’ve had my fair share of curry in the last six weeks. And food that I can’t pronounce, or don’t even recognize. Wish me luck that’s it’s a half way decent hamburger. I guess I will become a vegetarian in baby steps. Maybe get a salad instead of French fries. Do they even have those here? Probably, every other country did. Costa Rica had chicken and rice with French fries. Malaysia had shawarma with French fries. (the burger was good)

The next day I meet 2 girls in the pool. One is maybe 3 years old, and her aunt is 14. (no parents around, no lifeguard) Laura and I became quick friends. That’s what time in the pool with a kid will do. I owed her one. A few minutes after they got in the pool she spotted a scorpion. It was over the edge of the pool, a few inches from the water. Staff came to get it, armed with a dustpan with a long handle. He knocked into the water, but it didn’t seem to care. Not that I was expecting it to look surprised or anything. I suppose a scorpion would be good at poker. It didn’t appear to be drowning, so the guy scooped it up and tossed it down a hill into a vacant lot. I looked it up, and they say scorpions can last up to 2 days underwater. That’s pretty weird. They don’t have to breathe? Anyway, we kept on swimming and diving. This sweet girl spoke French and good English. She says she speaks Malay and Chinese too. Wild. She was a good swimmer, and I gave her some diving tips.

Then we had enough of this part of the city that looks like a everyone lives in a hasty state of desperation. Where garbage lines the streets, accompanied by the typical stench of rubbish, heightened by sun and humidity.

So we packed up the next morning and went from there to Otres beach. About a half hour away. On the way I saw a moped with one woman and four children on it. That’s a new record for me. I saw a small pick-up truck with a guy riding in the back, sitting backwards with his butt on the top of the cab. We went through the busier part of town, then to a quieter part of town. Then on a road so bad there was a truck stuck in the orange red mud on one side. The road was both bad and unpaved. We went further into less populated land. We had to turn back at one point and try another way, there was just too much mud in the narrow road.

The driver was super nice, but the whole time I was thinking “You know, this guy could take us anywhere and we would completely disappear”. Even when we arrived I found it hard to believe we had arrived. It was so off the beaten track, no sound of traffic. It felt like a compound in the middle of the jungle. But it was quite civilized, if deserted. It’s only about a kilometer from the beach, but the walk to get there is all mud. We made it half way there and then turned around, it was our first walk to check things out.

Ron had barracuda curry for dinner. I had the Banana flower salad. It was banana flowers, fried chicken, cucumber, salad, soya sprouts, carrot, cabbage, mint leaves and peanuts. It was very good.

The next day we avoided the heat in the morning, then ventured out to look at shops and finally get to the beach. There was less garbage than where we came from, but any time there are no sidewalks and you hold your breath from the smell is not so great. We walked there with mud all the way, especially a hot mess to cross the last street to the beach. It was so slick, my only consolation was that at least there wasn’t any traffic or crowds. There was no way to go around the mud, I had to carefully make my way across 5 feet of wet orange mud.

We were sweltering in the heat even though it wasn’t very far. We found some shade to take a break on the light sand. We stayed for a whole 20 minutes, with one quick trip to the water’s edge to look in both directions. It wasn’t that exciting, but it was the Gulf of Thailand. We maneuvered the mud and then found a tuk tuk back to the hotel. I drank some water and jumped in the pool and my universe was restored. The world is a better place when you in a cool pool in the shade. It’s like hitting a re-set button. A nice and quiet day, and time to pack for the flight to Siam Reap tomorrow. Siam Reap has Angkor Wat, a huge tourist attraction. I have hope that they like to take care of their waste there. We’ll see.

Today is Day 4 in Siem Reap. June 16^th. It has been totally epic here. First of all we flew on turbo jet plane, it looked really cool. There was some turbulence as we were descending, not enough to move me in my seat, but the kind where I held on to a part of the window for comfort. The kind where I stated to wonder what appropriate kind of “last thoughts” I should have. So I sent out a prayer to God, and we landed just fine. The humidity here is amazing. Siem Reap is amazing. Our street is very broken up and barely two lanes wide, not marked or anything. No sidewalk. So we get to the alley to the entrance of the hotel and I’m thinking I should be a little nervous. But no! I took pictures just of the entrance and the lobby, it’s so pretty. You have to walk in between two pools of big and very pretty koi fish to get into the open lobby. The building is orange from the inside out. The lobby is orange. The room is a bold orange on every wall (the ceiling is a mauve kind of color, interesting choice). So I was curious and I looked it up. I picked the first random website and it says: The color psychology of orange is considered and energetic color mix of red and yellow. It’ supposed to be about excitement, enthusiasm and warmth. Some of the monks here wear the prettiest orange robes. This place is called the Golden Butterfly, and it’s in the middle of some of the busiest parts of Siem Reap. A short walk is a huge adventure, and I like it. We made a great friend the first day with a tour guy from the UK. We stop and chat with him every time we go for a walk. We had dinner in the lobby and it was both super cheap and super tasty.

DAY 2 Already booked our first temple trip. A full day group tour, and it was as ridiculously hot as I expected.

DAY 3 We slept in and went to a cooking class. It was totally amazing, there were two cooks helping us, and a guy taking pictures of the whole thing for their website. It was a cute restaurant with a pretty small kitchen. We got a lot of attention and made some completely amazing food. I picked making the green mango salad, the Khmer curry chicken, and mango sticky rice dessert. These things are so healthy, and so tasty. Then we sat down and ate it after it was decorated for a fantastic presentation. It was a little hot in the kitchen, so we went back to the hotel and I took a great nap. Then we were ready to go when it got dark, because there is a gigantic night market that starts just down the street. I found something that I was looking to do for years. I wanted a henna tattoo. I didn’t want the kind at the county fair, I didn’t want one if I had to go to work the next day, and I didn’t want one in Indonesia because the guy said it would take a long time to do and the cost would be $50. The stall here was $5 for a hand tattoo. I made a new friend too, talking with the girl while she put it one.

This night market is so wild. It is like a gigantic flea market, but a bit more official. For $3 you can get a foot massage for an hour. For $2 you can sit on a bench and put your feet in a tank full of fish who will nibble on your feet and legs. There was a cart that had kabobs laid out. Sticks with meat on them, in the form of entire scorpions, tarantulas, and little snakes! Yikes.

DAY 4 We went to see temples again. This time it was just me and Ron and a tuk tuk driver at our disposal. He was a nice guy, and the cost was $16. He drove us around from 9am to after 1pm. First stop was Angkor Wat, but from the opposite side at the west gate. I didn’t realize all that water was the moat for Wat, it was impressive. (It was a re-moat place. Hahahaha). The west gate was cool, we walked across a floating bridge and saw things up close that we only saw from up high the other day, looking out a window. We crossed a courtyard and walked near the main building, but didn’t go inside like last time, since we had other temples to visit. Two notable things about this Angkor Wat visit (besides the notably brutal humidity and heat). One was the monkeys. They don’t care, you can get very close to them. I saw one steal a bag of fruit from a lady. I saw a trio fight and chew on each other a bit. Then something freaky happened. A small skinny green snake dropped down beside me, from above me on the stones of the temple outer wall. I had Ron come look, and it was hurrying down the stones where there were no other people. But there were two monkeys. They stopped fighting to run alongside it, and one reached out for it. It turned and snapped at it, but missed. The monkeys were still curious, but didn’t get as close after that. So I’m guessing it was a predator snake, but who knows. I think Ron got it on video, maybe I can look at the video later and figure out the kind of snake it was.

Then we went to another temple that we went to two days ago, but this time there were less people, which was great. We found out that across the road there was another big temple with even more interesting courtyards and a big pond. I climbed so many sets of steps in these two temples. The only good news was that it rained a bit. We spent so much time climbing these temples that we went to one more instead of three more. The last one was similar to others, but the steps to get up there were old and tall and very demanding. If you wanted to go to the very top, you had to really want it. The steps were also steep, and surprisingly there was a Buddhist shrine up there that was current. 

I had this one crazy moment in one of the temples. We were walking on one of the upper levels where you can walk around the edge in a kind of covered stone pathway. The amount of light varies with every few steps with look out windows or ways to go towards the inside of that level. I walked past this one area about the size of a big door and it just struck me. It looked a little darker, and it felt different. I couldn’t figure out that feeling. So I took a few steps back and looked. There was nothing to see, it was pitch black. That was the odd thing, since it could get darker with more shade, but not black. I waited for my eyes to adjust, and still nothing appeared into view. Modern technology is so awesome, and I pulled up the app on my phone that turns it into a flashlight. It was like an elevator shaft. It went up one level and I could see dozens of bats hanging in there. It went down at least one or two levels, then the light wasn’t strong enough to reach the bottom. So strange, and I almost missed it. I haven’t see something like that in the other temples. I wonder what the space was originally designed for? Maybe a well? All I know is it would be awful to trip and try to catch yourself on a wall that didn’t actually exist where you were expecting one. Then fall down into the darkness, who knows how far, disturbing all the sleeping bats with your screams. Maybe it was like a prison to keep a few people in, like the entrance to a dungeon. Whatever it was, it was a great engineering prompt for my imagination.

I was so happy on the tuk tuk ride back. The view from one is fantastic, and they go slow so you can really take everything in. There was the new memories, the view passing by me, the breeze from the ride to cool me down, and being able to sit down again: it made for a natural high.

Back to the hotel and then out for lunch, I got a mango shake for a dollar, and some curry soup for two dollars. It’s usually too hot for soup, but it was raining and sounded like a good lunch. Back to the room my poor legs didn’t want to walk one more step, but I had to walk up a floor to get to my long nap. Tomorrow we are going to take it easy, and Monday we have our last day at the temples lined up. There are many ancient temples here. Some have been fully restored, some have good stones that have survived well. Some have been worn down by time, some falling down, and some have been pulled apart by the government to try and rebuild safely.

A blog of pictures coming soon!!
Pura vida, Baby!