I heart Cambodia

Angkor Wat
Originally uploaded by An Smith.

I truly love Cambodia. Without a doubt it's my favorite place we have visited and maybe even one of my favorite places on earth. Admittedly our expectations were super low so it's been a pleasant suprise from the moment we landed in Phnom Phen.

It's an amazing country that seems to be slowly but succesfully recovering from a terrible genocide just over thirty years ago. The poverty is more evident here than anywhere else we've visited in south east asia and you see a lot more of the problems that landmines and a lack of good health care system have had on this country. It's heart breaking to think that there are no social services (besides aid agencies) to help these people.

The Khmer are beautiful, have a fierce integrity and seem extremely intelligent. They have a certain something about them that totally draws you in. The children are smart, well spoken and charismatic. Everyone is really easy to make a joke, they have a brilliant sense of humour. Every shop or restaurant seems to be involved in some sort of aid program, whether it be selling handicrafts that were made by those who are handicapped (because of landmines or they have polio) or simply run by street kids in order to keep them off the streets and teach them useful skills. There seems to be a lot going on to move forward here and I know the government is still completely corrupt but I would like to think that the majority of these organizations are valid and actually working to make a difference. A lot of the street vendors will have signs up saying that they used to beg but now they have learned to work for their money instead (through the help and education / training skills from aid organizations).

We went to Angkor Wat this morning (up at 5:00am!!) and spent half of the day wandering around taking pictures of temples and sweating profusely (by 9am it was so hot it was unreal). We stumbled across a hair cutting ceremony in the main temple (just after sunrise so the majority of the tourist brigade had moved along) and we sat and watched for about 45 minutes while this boy went through this incredible ceremony. That made our experience right there. Otherwise.. would I have liked Angkor? Probably not. It is filled to the brim with people and in my mind it had a really hard time beating out Tikal in Guatemala where there are virtually no tourists and you can sit peacefully at the top of the temple and listen to Howler Monkeys while you watch the toucans and parrots fly around the top of the jungle canopy.

It's heard to believe we head back to Bangkok tomorrow. We have to apply for our India visa and then are going to spend a few days in the islands while we wait. I don't know how the weeks have passed so quickly and so far everything has been perfect. We spend our spare time making up games (like zoolander or sing that word now) or debating on what object you would choose to bring to life and have as your friend, just for a day. So far we have not come to anything conclusive but we gots lots of time:)