So I have
been back from vacation for over 2 weeks now. Yes, I am just getting to my blog.
I got back in on a Sunday morning and Monday hit hard getting back into the
work routine and then it kept getting pushed lower and lower on the to do list.
On January 18th,
Kiwi (Laura from New Zealand) and I caught a train to Seoul to fly out to
Phuket Thailand. The flight to Phuket was five and a half hours. Arriving a
little after midnight we found a taxi and headed to out hotel. The hotel was
super nice and a great staff. Day 1 in Phuket we walked around and decided to
go to a lady boy cabaret show that evening. Thailand is famous for lady boys,
and let me tell you, you could not tell that these performers were not female. Day 2 was
supposed to be spent going to Phi Phi and other small islands, unfortunately
the pick up service had our room number wrong so we missed the bus. Luckily we
got an early start on the day and headed to the beach. Being on the beach
around 830, we were one of a few out there that early. The day was spent
relaxing and people watching. After being out there for what we thought was a
good and safe amount of time we headed in to take a nap. After getting back to
our room we realized just how brutal the Thai sun is. We were both sunburned like
no other. Having a olive complexion and tanning very easily I figured it would
be tan by the morning. Boy was I wrong; it was the sunburn that seemed to never
go away.
It actually
kept us inside the next day, making this day 2 of missing our boat tour.
Finally on the 4th day in Phuket we made it to the boat tour. It was
an all day tour going to about 5 different locations. The first was to Monkey
Island. All of the monkeys were so adorable. Some people had fruit to feed them
or drinks to give them. We then went snorkeling off another set of islands. For
lunch we docked at Phi Phi and had lunch at a hotel restaurant. After lunch the
boat took us to the area in which the movie “The Beach” was filmed. This was a
beautiful place. I wish we could have had more than 30 minutes there, but still
happy to have gotten that much time but with us being so sunburned so badly it
was not as fun as it could have been but still a great day.
In order to
get to Bangkok we had to take a 12-hour bus ride through the Thailand country
side. It wasn’t as long a grueling as we imagined. I slept most of the way.
Granted it was s double decker bus and super nice. After arriving we got a cab
to Khaosan Road where our hostel was we were out and the search started. We
eventually found it. Since I went to Bangkok this past summer I let Kiwi pick
whatever she wanted to do, as I’ve been to the palace and other of the high
lights. The first day we took a boat ride on the river and called it a day.
That evening we met up with Andrew. Andrew graduated from Lander also. He
teaches at a university in Bangkok and also taught with me at the English camp
in Bangkok. It was great to have a familiar face around and share a few
buckets. Saturday Kiwi and I went to the Etowah museum. This museum has a huge
structure of a 3-headed elephant. It was incredible. We had to call it an early
night that night in order to catch the 5:55 AM train to Cambodia. 
We left our
hostel around 4:45 because we were unsure how long of a taxi ride it would be
to the train station, luckily it was less then 10 minutes. the train ride was
around five and a half hours through the Thai country side. It was rather
depressing seeing old villages and very little life. When we made it to the
last stop of the train we got a tuk-tuk to the border. There we had to go
through immigration and then cross over to get out visa and our passports
scanned. Finally after 3 and a half hours we were making our way by bus (2.5
hours) to Siem Reap. 
Siem Reap
was my favorite of all of the places that we traveled to. It is home to Angkor
Wat, the largest Hindu temple complex and the largest religious monument in the
world. It was build by King Suryavarman II in the early 12th
century. We were picked up by out tuk-tuk driver just before 5 AM so we could
go and watch the sun rise, as this is the most popular thing to do at Angkor
Wat. It was an over cast morning but still a beautiful and calming experience.
As much as I hate to admit it I did not know much about Cambodia before we
decided to go there. Now that I am back and surfing the internet it seems that
every travel site I read Angkor Wat is at the top of the list. The Wat is build
with a moat around it. For it to be so old it is still a breath taking
structure. Angkor Wat is not the only temple in this area. After sunrise we
made our wat to a few other different ones. After a while they all started
looking the same but still had their own unique style. My favorite was the one
that had many faces carved all over the structures. We spent over 8 hours out
there that day. Taking a short break to take a vegetarian cooking class at a
local restaurant. 
The 2nd
day in Siem Reap was spent walking around the market and enjoying local life.
The market was huge with tons and tons of touristy things to buy and local
foods and spices. I took a little time out to enjoy a fish massage. This
basically consist of putting your feet and legs up to mid calf in a fish tank
and letting the fish eat dead skin off of you. At first it is a bit painful but
then it feels good. Part of the reason I fell in love with Cambodia was the
food. Never in my life have I had such flavorsome food. Yes, Italian food is
known to be some of the finest in the world but Khmer food is out of this
world. Every dish I had was different. The spices used are perfect and bring
out the most amazing flavors. The food isn’t spicy or bland. It is just
perfect. All of it was very healthy and non-fattening, so many fresh veggies
used and very little frying if any. Siem Reap has a great street called “Pub-Street.”
This is where the nightlife happens, great food and of course great drink
deals. Who could turn down 50 cents beer and buy one-get one cocktails
(cocktails costing less than $3). 
As much as
I hated to see our time in the fun city end it was time to take another long
bus ride (5 hours) to the capital city of Phnom Penh. Riding there put me in a
very sad mood. The houses and villages we rode through were so sad. The best
way to give you an idea is to imagine the worst living conditions and multiplying
it by three. But yet when our large bus was riding down the dirt roads the kids
and adults all were waving and smiling to us. It goes to show you can have the
bare minimum and still be the happiest person on Earth.
Once we
arrived in Phnom Penh w got a tuk-tuk to our hotel. Keep in mind I booked all
of the hotels on Trip Advisor and was very unsure of how each place would turn
out. We had luck with all of them. But the one in Phnom Penh was by far the
best. Located right on the river and one black from the Palace. So it was in
the heart of the city. Unfortunately we were there during the time of the
cremation ceremony of the former king so during the day many streets were
blocked and shops/restaurants closed until late afternoon.
The first
day we visited the Killing Fields. I have been to Hiroshima, Pearl Harbor and
the beaches of Normandy, but this is by far the most depressing place I have
ever visited. to know that in 1975 the Khmer Rouge decide that they wanted to
get rid of everyone that had an education, money, good jobs and many more non
sense reasons was just heart breaking. It did not matter how old or young,
male, female or babies everyone that they thought was a threat was killed. It
is estimated that 2.2 million were killed between 1975-1979 by Pol Pot and the
Khmer Rouge. The place we visited, Choeng Ek, was 15 kilometers outside of the
city. There were 129 mass graves here and a total of 20,000 were killed here.
Before being shipped here they were held prisoner at “S-21”. It was a former high
school but the Rouge used it as head quarters an a torture center. At Choeng Ek
we saw the mass graves, skeletal remains and clothing remains. The hardest part
of the tour was seeing the tree that was used to smash baby’s heads against
before they were thrown into the mass graves. After the sad tour at the killing
fields we went on the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide. This was “S-21.” Here we
saw the cells that prisoners lived in and wall after wall of the pictures of
the prisoners as they were taken in. after a few rooms I couldn’t take it
anymore. It was just so sad a heart breaking seeing elderly and children (of
all ages babies included) and knowing what they went through. 
To know
that many of the people we saw as we were walking around the town of Phnom Penh
were survivors of this horrible era in Cambodia’s history was heartbreaking.
Having their life and family ripped away from them and being tortured for 4
years and not knowing if they would ever see their family again had to be pure
Hell. On a lighter note the country of Cambodia is very friendly. They use US
currency over their own. I would say that 95% of the people we interacted with
in the two cities we visited spoke perfect English. Even little kids, age 5,
trying to sell you things on the streets spoke great English. It amazed me
because I have trouble getting my students to even tell me how their weekend
was. But as someone said when it becomes an essential tool for survival you
will do anything. That is true because other wise they could not make money off
of tourist if English was not sure a widely spoken language. But prior to the
Khmer Rouge taken over the other language spoken and taught in schools was
French. But now English is more widely spoken.
Visiting
Cambodia taught me a lot. I am so thankful for what I have in my life, to be
from a country that is stable and to have the opportunity to visit other places
to see exactly how lucky I am. I do want to visit Cambodia one day again to see
the progress that it has made. It is still mind blowing knowing how much
progress the larger cities have made in the last 33 years since the fall of the
Khmer Rouge. 
Traveling
is a great way to broaden your horizons and make you think outside of the box.
I cannot wait for my next adventure wherever that may be. I am nowhere near
ready to settle down.
Now it is
time for two more weeks of desk warming. The next semester starts the first
Monday of March. I will have one new co-teacher, which I am very excited about.
Hoping a new school year brings even more great memories with my students and
friends.
