Day 13 (cont.)
We flew into Siem Reap, Cambodia. I snapped a pic of Laos on the way out. So pretty!
We don't need to talk about this flight...I'll just say it was terrifying and I thought we were going to die for sure. No more prop planes EVER please.
We were taken to our hotel, the Borei Angkor, which was really great except that Katie and I got put in a smoking room that smelled really bad. We were hardly ever in the room though, so no big deal.
We didn't have anything planned for the rest of the day so we took a dip in the pool and then hit up the old market of Siem Reap, another fantastic market. I bought a tiny gold watch (I've been searching for one for a while) for $10 and a new elephant oven mitt for mother.
Tuk-tuks were the main form of transportation. It was basically a trailer snapped onto the back of a motorcycle. Not dangerous at all...
Reed bought fried bananas for all the kids in the market. They were so cute!
Reed wanted to visit the spa again, and we happily agreed that it sounded like a great idea.
Another awkward spa experience for the vacation...Laura (Katie's mom) and I were put in the same room. I had already gotten a couples massage with Katie, but now I was getting a couples massage with Katie's mom. Meanwhile, Katie and her dad were in the room next door also getting a couples massage.
As Laura put it, guess I really am part of the Buhler family now.Day 14
We visited Angkor Wat! It was incredible. It was built in the 12th century and is still really impressive. Unlike most ruins I've visited, we got to actually go all inside the ancient temple. How people ever managed to build this temple without modern technology I will never be able to fathom.
Our guide told us the sandstone that was used to build the temple was from a source 50 kilometers away! Crazy stuff.
Some of the reliefs in the temple. All original!
One of my favorite pictures of the day. I love the bright orange that the monks wear! Such a contrast to everything else around them!
This site really is in the middle of the jungle. So crazy.
It was SO HOT. We were all dying from the heat so we would stand in the doorways at any chance we got because there was always a nice breeze in them.
Like mother like daughter:
Another fun thing to do at Angkor Wat: people-watch.
Here were some of my favorites for the day...
The woman who thought it was a good idea to wear a nice dress and heels to tour the ancient temple ruins.
The sweaty guy in the I <3 Cambodia shirt that liked to do peace signs in every picture he took. Pretty sure he was American too...
The guy with dreads and a brim. Not a hat, just a brim.
We stopped along the road on our way to another temple site and got to feed monkeys!
How stinking cute are they!?
This is such a funny picture. Monkey 1 pushing Monkey 2 down by his head. Monkey 2 getting back at Monkey 1 by pulling on his family jewels.
Can't get enough of that Cute brand water!!
We also got to visit a temple that has a ton of faces carved into it. See how many you can spot.
Aaaaaaand an imitation picture to keep things interesting.
Such tiny doorways!
Gotta love the English fails.
Climbing some really steep stairs to get to the top
The wind doing weird things to my skirt
Aaaand probably my favorite picture from the entire trip. Me attempting to twist into the shape of the tree while Reed sits in the background and puffs out his stomach. Thank you Reed for this masterpiece that will forever make me laugh.
She just amazes me every time with her imitation skillzzzz.
We finished off the day with another visit to the market. One of the best things about Cambodia was their spa services. We got a $4 pedicure on the street! There were two guys our age who were giving us the pedicure. Little awkward having them all up in our feet since they were our age and all, but we got over it pretty quickly.
Katie's guy was the CUTEST. Definitely homosexual and had tons of makeup and a swoopy hairdo (see right above) but he tried to speak English with us! We liked them so much that we made a second visit the next night to get our fingernails done too!
Day 15
We visited the Jungle Temple! I don't remember the actual name of it, but everyone just refers to it as the Jungle Temple. You will see why:
Snapped some urban photos along the way
Little Mermaid pose
Our guide told us that the trees now an integral part of the temples structure, and that if they were removed, the temple would crumble! Isn't that incredible?
Sums up my feelings.
Day 16
We checked out of the hotel early in the morning and headed for the airport to catch our flight to Phnom Penh. We were met by our guide (I think his name was Koson) and he took us to the Central Market.
I think he realized about 30 seconds after we got there that this was a mistake. We spent over an hour perusing the HUGE market and wanting to buy everything. They had TONS of great clothes (which I ended up going back to buy the next day) and I think we spent way longer there than he had anticipated us doing.
After checking into our new hotel, we were scheduled to visit the Killing Fields just outside the city. I had absolutely no idea what to expect because the killing fields were not something I had ever really heard about. I read up on them a little from a book that we had, but the experience of actually visiting them was something I will never forget. This was by far the most moving and emotionally draining part of the entire trip.
Our guide discussed the Khmer Rouge a little bit on our way over, but the gravity of the situation did no hit me until we were actually there. This killing field was located just outside of Phnom Penh (the capitol) so it was one of, if not the, largest of the killing fields.
Just a warning: I'm going to be somewhat blunt in explaining this. I did not learn about the Khmer Rouge in school growing up. I know I heard the term, but before my visit to Cambodia I could not have told you if it was a good or bad thing. It is a gruesome topic and the injustice of it all infuriates me, so I think I need to share the information I discovered there with those who (like me) may have never heard of the Khmer Rouge until now.
From what I now understand, the Khmer Rouge was a government regime that took power in the mid 70s in Cambodia. They wanted to turn the people of Cambodia into unthinking, unindividual, completely and blindly obedient followers.
In order to accomplish this, its leaders rid the country of education, religion, and other fundamental ideals of society, including the family unit. This social purging included the brutal murders of a huge percentage of the population, beginning with members of the previous government, teachers and other well-educated individuals, religious leaders, etc. They brought these poor people, who had been arrested and blindfolded and thrown into a truck with other innocent and terrified victims, to the fields. They then put them at the edge of a mass grave and beat them to death with farm tools. The body was then tossed into a hole with hundreds of other bodies which were all buried before morning.
This did not happen centuries ago. This happened just years before I was born. No one was spared from Pol Pot, not women, and not even children. Newborn babies were beaten against trees and tossed in a mass grave with their dead mothers.
The largest mass grave to have been excavated in this site held 450 bodies! And that was just one of HUNDREDS of mass graves in this site alone, with several more "killing fields" spread throughout the country!
To think that each one of those killed was an individual with a family and friends who loved and cared about them, an individual with hope and dreams, daily thoughts, ambitions, and a future! It was just incomprehensible to me. They had built an exhibit to honor those who died, and they stacked up each of the skulls they had found in a huge tiered building. Just to see the sheer number of skulls representing someone who suffered a terrible, painful, and unjust death was enough to make my head spin.
The exhibit built to honor the victims.
Our guide told us that before the Khmer Rouge came to power, Cambodia had about 7 million inhabitants. After the terrorizing reign of Pol Pot, it was down to about 3.5 million. I didn't write it down but I'm pretty sure he said about 1.5 million people had been murdered by their own government, while the other 2 million had fled to other countries as refugees.
My visit to the killing fields made me admire the Cambodia people that much more. Their country has a rough history, scarred by corrupt governments and civil war, and yet the people continue to be loving, open, and positive. They really have taught me about forgiveness and looking up.
The experience was something that I will never forget.
Day 17
This day was another of my favorites from the trip. We got in the van early and drove for about 2 hours to this tiny town situated by a river offshoot. We hopped on a little boat and headed upstream for another 40 minutes and landed at an even smaller and more rural village. This was true Cambodia.
We made the last 5 kilometers of our journey by motorcycle. The entire trip I had wanted to ride a motorcycle and now we were finally going to get to do so! We each hopped on the back of a motorcycle with a local man driving and set out.
May or may not have snapped a myspace pic with my driver while we were on the motorcycle. He had no idea what was going on.
We walked up a bunch of stairs to visit some ancient temples in the mountains!
The view from the top was really pretty!
On our way back down we ran into our cute friends again! They loved the personal fans we had, so we kept putting them in their faces so they could enjoy the breeze.
So many adorable children...add Cambodia to my list of places to one day adopt from!
Loved this little boy running around with nothing but a string necklace on. They are just the cutest!
Helping my friend out on his bicycle
And back onto the motorcycle for the journey back!
Spent the rest of the afternoon at the central market...oopsies! I bought two dresses, two blouses, a pair of shorts, and a small carry-on size suitcase (map print, so cute!) for under $100. Pretty much every clothing item was between $10 and $15, so I went a little crazy.
Days 18-20
We departed for our island getaway. Four hour van ride followed by a 45 minute speedboat ride out to the island of Song-Saa. The island is pretty small, and the resort takes up the entire thing! It was an incredible place to spend our last few days. We pretty much just relaxed, swam, kayaked, and ate the whole time. Here are a few pictures of the luxurious resort:
Unfortunately it rained on us every day, but the resort was still beautiful and a wonderful experience.
The traditional Khmer dinner they served us! Most of it was pretty good except for the dish at the top left: pomelo (a fruit similar to grapefruit) salad with shrimp. Sooooo sour and sick sick sick.
Just to conclude the final chapter of my blogging about this trip, I want to encourage you all to consider southeast Asia for your next vacation. Yes, it is far away, and yes, there is a huge language barrier, and yes, the culture is very different, but that is why I loved it so much! I was on the complete opposite side of the world, seeing and experiencing things that had never even crossed my mind before. Plus, the food was absolutely delicious and the hotels, activities, and souvenirs are extremely cheap compared to everywhere else I've ever been. Just GO already!
No comments:
Post a Comment