There's Nothing Funny about Cambodia

hello, again. i am currently writing to you from hanoi, vietnam. it is our last day here and later tonight we head to shanghai, well, nanning and then take a plan to shanghai from there.

before i get into stories from the 'nam, i must first tell you of cambodia, if i can remember that far back.

we flew from bangkok to cambodia and arrived in phnom penh. our guesthouse, grandview (name is not fitting) was in the midst of a backpacker road with tons of restaurants and cafes where "happy" pizzas are plentiful (at some places you can even ask for extra happy). we had dinner, some drinks and were down for the count.

we woke up early the following morning to head to the SE2 museum, on old high school where pol pot and his regime tortured and killed hundreds of thousands of cambodians whom were assumed to be against the khymer. like walking around dachau in germany, i could feel all that had gone on there. there were pictures of individuals who were brought and killed there under gruesome ways which, excuse this phrase, brought such an awful history to life in my eyes.

after the museum we headed back to grandview for a quick lunch before boarding the bus to siem reap. we had an entire bus to ourselves and after a lovely 8 hour nap we arrived at jasmine lodge. our staff could not have been more friendly and helped us book our tour of angkor wat (the largest religious site in the world). we had been told that getting there for sunrise was breathtaking so we decided to go to bed early to wake up at 4 am. of course, the morning we decide to do this, the sunrise is clouded by a wonderful rain shower. the clouds and mist eventually did clear and we were able to enjoy some of the other temples in the area in full sun. the temples were incredible and depicted such intricate detail of life in cambodia through carvings. many people, we were told, spend about 3-4 days returning to angkor wat, but sarah and i could not have been more content with our 6 hours. i think if we had spent days there the temples would have merged together making the experience far less memorable.

we returned around 11 am and found it to be a perfect time for a nap. after finishing a peaceful sleep we just hung out on our rooftop terrace and read before enjoying a great happy hour in "downtown" siem reap followed by some market stall shopping and then a delicious traditional dinner of khymer cuisine at khymer kitchen.

then it was back to jasmine before waking up early yet again for our 2 buses to saigon.