March 12th-16th:
Day 1
Back in January when we were planning out all of the trips we would go on during our semester abroad, Alice, Jack, and I decided to do an All-American trip to Cambodia. The prices were cheap, the timing was right, and the company was All-American! haha -- we would have loved to have others join us; but, it was one of those conversations to whoever was around then that went something like:
"hey! want to go to Cambodia?"
"yeah? let's book these tix now cuz it's so cheap!"
So...the week that we were supposed to leave, we couldn't believe it. Others had told us stories of how beautiful the temples were, how desolate the area was, etc. and we were just eager to get out of there! Unfortunately, our flight was at 6am which meant we had to leave for the airport at 4. Ugggh. what to do? what to do? do we go to bed early and get our rest? or do we go out with the rest of the exchange students on one of our last Wednesday nights in Singapore? I leave you to guess/assume which option we chose ;)...anyway, by 6:am we were headed off to the "Kingdom of Wonders!"
We flew into Phnom Penh which is the capital of Cambodia, but since we were only there for such a short duration, we decided to go straight to Siem Reap (where all the famous temples are). The bus ride took 6 hours and wasn't as pleasant as the description given by the company described; but our lack of sleep (hing hint) from the night before made the trip go by pretty quickly. We did have one rest stop where hoards of cambodian children came up to us and tried to sell us fruits and things--the picture to the right is just one of the many. They said some pretty cute/funny things which I shall now share with you:
"Banana? Pineapple?"
"Two for One Dollar"
"Come back you buy from me?"
"Maybe later?"
"Sister, where you from?"
"You beautiful, just like me…you beautiful just like Cambodian"
The rest of the ride allowed us to see the rural side of Cambodia that is often overlooked by many tourists. Houses were merely small wooden or straw huts raised slightly above the ground. Children were running around naked, covered in dirt, but grinning from ear to ear. It was definitely eye-opening and my heart just wanted to reach out and help them (even if they didn’t think that they needed help). It made me reflect a lot on just how different our world is—some of us taking off in the technological age, others being left behind communicating to their neighbors by going to their house by foot. It made me appreciate the upcoming sites that I was about to visit.
We arrived in Siem Reap at about 4:30 and as we pulled into the “station” we saw a man with a sign holding my name! His name was Thera and he was a driver from the hotel. We were fortunate enough to get to know him during our stay as he stayed with us for the entire trip. Looking at his picture, you probably wouldn’t guess that he’s 27, uh? How he came about being a driver was remarkably sad. He shared with us that his father had died a couple of years ago, leaving him as the sole provider for his family. He rents a room in the city and works as a driver for the hotel we were staying at in and sends three quarters of his income back to his mother, sister, and younger brother who live out in the country. He aspires to become an official tour guide because they make $25 dollars a day but in order to get his certificate he has to pay $1,500 dollars. He asked if it would be okay if he practiced his English on us while he drove us to the temples and we were more than happy to listen and converse with him. I wish him all the best of luck with his goals (and I have a good feeling that he will accomplish them in the near future—he definitely has the humor of a tour guide down already: “Oh! You like elephants? They are very beautiful creatures…mmm..but..too bad their skin is quite wrinkled. I don’t think they use this, what do you call, sunscreen?” (: Thank you Thera for your generosity and help!
Our arrival time in Siem Reap was perfect for catching the sunset—a popular tourist activity that can be observed from various locations either around the temple or around the city. We dropped off our bags at Hotel Soria Moria and immediately headed out to Phnom Bakheng. This temple is located at the top of a small mountain that provided Kodak moment picture opportunities and a breathtaking view of the Western Baray and Angkor Wat area. Looking around at, I couldn’t help but smile at the prosperous days ahead of us.
At the airport in Singapore, we met a couple who we kept running into in Siem Riep. They were on a similar time schedule as us and it was fun to predict when we might run into them J They told us of this famous pizza place called “Happy Special Pizza” which they insisted we try…so after we got down from the temple, we had Thera take us there. It was near “Pub Street” – a popular street with restaurants, bars, and live music close to the night market. The pizza was indeed special and we left happy ( ;
Day Two
We set out to Angkor Wat at 10am the next day. We had planned out our explorations with Thera the day before, so we knew exactly what we were getting into...but little did we know just how extraordinary the temples would be. I'd love to explain fun facts about all of them; however, this blog is long enough as it is and if you are really interested in finding out more info I suggest you google it or buy the lonely planet to cambodia (we purchased one for 4 dollars). :) here's a list of what we saw that day: Bayon, Baphuon, Terrace of the Elephants, Phimeanakas, the Victory Gate, Ta Prohm (where the film Tomb Raider was filmed and is famous for the huge trees that are overgrowing the ruins), Banteay Kdei and finally Angkor Wat. A picture is worth 1000 words… and I have provided 5!
Below: In front of Angkor Wat (the most famous temple)
SIDENOTE: For those that know me and understand my daily liquid intake (i.e. like less than one cup of water/day) you will be happy/surprised to know that on that very Friday I may alone have had 6 or 7 bottles of water. The paradox? I WAS STILL THIRSTY! Hauntingly, there are 
dozens of more children selling water, bracelets, t-shirts, flutes, etc all for about one dollar an item and they are everywhere. I say hauntingly because these children are trained to approach tourists and plead for money. They compete with each other and try to say the sweetest nicest things to you (similar to the bus quotes mentioned earlier). I didn’t buy any pineapple from the girls at the rest stop so I felt compelled to buy something other than water that day. But after having spend money on t-shirts and bracelets, I had to turn them down and say “No, Sorry, I can’t buy anymore.” One girl got quite mad and said “I don't want your sorry, take it back!" I didn’t know whether to be irritated or sad. Either way, even my after-emotions didn’t mean anything to them…what only mattered was if I bought something. But back to the hauntingly part…it was just another reminder of where we were. If there were ever that many children selling items on the street in America, I’m sure there would be objections left and right. But this is the way families earn money in Cambodia…
We had originally planned to go to the floating village but Jack decided that he wanted to have some good ole American fun and asked Thera if there was a shooting range nearby. As soon as he heard “Yes, there is one where I think you can shoot...” Jack proposed/insisted we visited the floating village the next day. We set out and paid a handy dandy sum of money for Jack to shoot some big guns that are probably illegal in America but it was fun and we had a good time. (Yes, I did indeed shoot my first gun—it was a Carbine(!)—whatever that means…)
Like a kid in a candy store: 
Minnesota style: 
Learning from the best: 
For some reason none of us were very hungry the whole day. But the moment we got back to the hotel and took showers, we were famished! Lucky for us, the restaurant in the hotel was hosting a Cambodian Children Dance and we were able to see some traditional dances done by boys and girls between the ages of 12-19. I got a traditional Cambodian dish called “Fish Amok” which is like a yellow/green curry dish with fish. It was yummy and then to top it off we had Norwegian waffles for dessert! (Pictures of food as promised)
Day Three
One of the things that I was determined to do was to ride on the back of an elephant. As this was done as a traditional way to explore the temples, elephant rides were offered at numerous sites. I really enjoyed it and we got an excellent view of Angkor Thom. (A bit of small world news—the couple riding in front of Alice and me were alumni of Governors School! ISL league shout out!).
After the ride, we did the “big circuit” and saw places like Preah Khan, Neak Pean, and East Mebon. Lastly, we headed North to Banteay Srei which is known as the “gem of the Angkor temples.” It’s smaller than the other ones but its intricate carvings and unique coloring make the drive worthwhile.
On the way home, we went to the Landmine Museum that was the most interesting, depressing, and thought provoking part of our trip. It definitely moved me and has inspired me to work on a summer project that involves raising awareness and support for Landmine victims. (Look at me being a Babson Entrepreneur!) But seriously, the whole trip has definitely got me thinking about a lot of things and I want to act on these feelings. But the whole concept for that should be in another blog…
Since we didn’t get the opportunity to the previous night, we headed out to the floating village to watch the sunset by the water. The village is called Chong Kneas and is home to hundreds of families who live on the water. The majority of the population is Vietnamese. Observing how the people interacted and utilized their tools for livelihood was one of the highlights of the trip. There was a tourism floating shop which we were able to stand on to watch as darkness edged over the community.
Day Four
We took a bus back to Phnom Penh as our flight flew out from there on Monday morning. We found a small guesthouse for $25 dollars and we spent our last night in Cambodia exploring another night market and local cuisines. We were sad to leave one of the most beautiful countries, but we were happy to go back to our friends back in Singapore (it happened to dawn on us that the semester was almost over).
I hope this provided you with a little insight of my travels. If you are interested in seeing more pictures, please let me know and I will send you some!
March 16th: hAppy 21st birthday Brooke!!!
March 17th: Tuesday night was St. Patrick's Day. We went out to this Irish Bar off of Orchard called Muddy Muphy's. There were a lot of ex-pats and since I was wearing a celtics shirt I had a lot of Boston people patting me on the shoulder and waving their glasses at me. ( ;
March 20th-22nd
I had just gotten back from my trip to Cambodia and I was determined to stay at home this past weekend to get ahead/catch up on my school work. I found out that Jackie was planning on going to Batam, Indonesia with a group of around 10 other students and I was sad and a little jealous. When she showed me the picture of the hotel they were staying at on Thursday evening, I irrationally decided to join them. Despite the 4 presentations and 2 papers I had to finish, I set off with Jackie, Maria, Laura, Sarah, Gabrielle, Jeremie, Guillaume, Gael, Stan, Isabelle, and Nicholas to Batam. I’m happy to say that it was one of the most relaxing weekend I’ve had so far and it was great to get to know other people that I hadn’t really hung out with. We really didn’t do much except for stay at the hotel, take underwater pictures with Jeremie’s camera, and tan.
I’m really glad that I went and it got me very excited for my upcoming trip to Bali. (P.S. I know my hair in the last picture looks a little bit like I've got horns but...oh well. it's a picture of me underwater! lol)
March 23rd
As an early birthday present, Alice and Jackie bought me a Coldplay ticket and the three of us went to see them at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. THEY WERE AMAZING and it was such a great start to the beginning of the week. Chris Martin is a superb performer and the stadium was small enough that our balcony seats allowed us to have excellent viewing.
Hope you are doing well wherever you are reading from!
<3 Hootie
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