Cambodia...I'm going to admit it, we were all a little nervous about this juncture of our trip having only heard relatively negative stories. DANGIT JESSICA, were we proven wrong. Siem Reap is an absolutely stunning city and the people that we encountered were all incredibly kind.
We showed up with little to no plans and made our way around the center of town. In our wandering we ran into Sunny & Alex (England) who we had kayaked from Vang Vieng to Vietienne with, the world becomes incredibly small when traveling...the boys gave us a quick overview of the hot spots of the area and we all agreed to meet up later. Long story short we all meet up and end up running into Mike (a friend from America we met in Chiang Mai) and Stevie Weisman (a guy Kate and I went to St. Ignatius with) and his two friends he attends U of C Law School with Josh and Neal, we all had a blast! Seriously small world.
If you ever make it to Siem Reap, I hands down recommend staying at the <<Siem Reap River Side>> Hotel. The elderly couple that run the hotel are absolutely amazing and treat you like family, to the point where they will share their own lunch with you. The hotel also comes equip with a swim up bar...really you can't go wrong there. We also made some new friends here...Scott & Scott (Australia) who ended up being a riot, purchasing an elephant bell...no explanation necessary. And Joke & Tinne (Belgium) who are stunning girls that we agreed to travel to the Thai islands with after Siem Reap...an absolute blast!
Running into all those friends threw a bit of a wrench in our plans to call it an early night and wake up to ride bicycles to Angkor Wat (the ancient temple area) to catch the sunrise. The only way to handle that...pull an all nighter! For those of you reading this that know me well...this is not an uncommon thing for me, but Kate and Charlie were not pleased to say the least.
The sunrise was incredible, the temples were serene. I have never seen anything so incredible with such deep history and spirituality.
We wrapped up our stay in Cambodia spending the evening at a local orphanage, ACODO. A woman from our hotel had been volunteering there on and off for the past few years, we chatted about the history of the orphanage...and discussed how sadly there are a lot of scams with tourists and youth sites in the area. Upon arrival at the site the youth were just delightful. They took a bit to warm up to us but in not time I was sitting reading a book with a young man, while Kate was play fighting with a pack of boys and Charlie was chatting with one of the teens. Every night the youth perform a traditional Cambodia dance show to help raise money for food, their education, and the site. Spending time there was a very interesting experience...it highlighted how no matter what, kids are kids...it was really similar to an afternoon at Valentine Boys & Girls Club. Before leaving I spoke with one of the head volunteers about creating a pen pal program with the youth from ACODO & and the Valentine Boys & Girls Club youth. Who knows if it will work out but I think it would be an amazing experience for all the youth involved.
All in all, Cambodia was wonderful.
