Today was a very depressing, but interesting day.  We did a half day tour of the killing fields and S-21 (a prison where they tortured and questioned people from 1975 to 1979 under the Khmer Rouge).  It is pretty easy to forget that Cambodia has had so much tragedy in it’s very recent past, because the people all smile and seem so happy.  But today we heard all about how horrible the genocide and Khmer Rouge was.  (From 1975 to 1979 the Khmer Rouge killed about 30% of the entire Cambodian population, 2,000,000 people.) 

The first stop was the killing field, which was just 10 kms outside of Phnom Penh.  At this site more than 20,000 people were murdered.  They have unearthed a lot of the mass graves and have made a monument for the people.  (It was really distrubing and graphic, they had 8,000 skulls of the victims inside the monument.)  We saw the land that used to hold the mass graves and the lake where there are still about 12,000 bodies that they haven’t recovered yet.  The guide was very informative and he told us all of the grusome detail about the killing fields.  (We were all in tears by the end of the tour.)

Then we went to S-21.  Which is a school that the Khmer Rouge turned into a prison.  (They tortured and killed anyone that was educated, worked in an office, spoke a foreign language, worked for the past government etc. They also killed those people’s entire families (including babies) so they wouldn’t have to fear retribution.)  Again, it was extremely sad.  At S-21 they had taken pictures of all the prisoners, so you could see the face of everyone that was killed in that building (or at the killing field). 

After our very depressing morning, we did a little bit of shopping at the Russian Market and then went to our homestay, in Takeo.  The family that we stayed with is rice farmers and they live in a typical farming community.  (I’m sure they were wealthier than most farmers, because most of thier children were going to university and then had a few comforts, like running water, and electricity.)  The family was very nice and their children (who were about 17-24) were great at English.  Jen and I spent quite a few hours talking to them. 

We went for a walk to the local buddhist temple, and we had a great dinner.  Then we had a little party.  Nak bought a ton of beer and Tom brought out his Ipod.  By the end of the night, everyone was up dancing with the family and we were all in a much happier mood than we had been that morning. 

We left Kratie early and drove 4 hours to the Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.  It was quite a change from the small country towns that we had been staying in. 

We stayed at the New York Hotel in Phnom Penh.  It was the nicest hotel that we have stayed in so far on this trip.  (And we get to stay there again in a few days, so I’m really happy!)  Hannah, Sky, Jen, Colly, and I decided to take a tuk tuk ride around, to get a feel for the city.  It was fun to see the city and the street life that was going on. 

Then Kate, Jen, and I decided to grab some lunch and check out the Central Market.  The market was pretty crazy, and they were selling everything there, at prices much cheaper than Thailand.  I bought a Northface daypack, but I’ve been pretty good and not shopping too much (I only have a little bit of space left in my backpack). 

That evening, I basically just hung out and relaxed.  All of this traveling gets pretty tiring!

I forgot that I haven’t said who’s in my new group yet:

-Hannah: She is from Finland, and she is really sweet.

- Colly: She’s 26 from Melbourne, Austraila and she is taking about 2 years to travel and work around the world.  She is the one always cracking jokes.

- Kate, Kim, and Kim: They are all from Chicago.  Kate and Kim 1 are sisters, and Kate and Kim2 have been friends since elementary school.

- Tom and Pru: They are brother and sister from England.  They’re traveling for a while and then they will work in Austraila for a year.

- Rianna and Kay: Sisters from England.  They are really nice.

-Sky: She is 25 year old nurse from Austraila, and she is my roommate for the trip.  She is traveling for a while and then she will work in England.

-Jen: She is from England, and she has been traveling for the past 6 months around New Zealand, Fiji, Austraila, and South East Asia.  She’ll go to law school when she gets home.

Finally our tour leaders name in Nak. It is a nice guy and he’s very knowledgable.  He was born in Seim Reap, Cambodia and lived in Thailand for a while. 

All throughout the night it rained alot in Kompong Chan, which normally wouldn’t be a problem.  But today we were driving on rural dirt roads all the way to Kratie.  The roads were all mud, and we were fishtailing and bumping the whole 3 hour drive there.  So it was quite an exciting ride. 

We stayed at a different hotel but it was called the Mekong Hotel again.  (I think everything around the Mekong River is named Mekong ________.)   The hotel was fine, but Kate and Kim found a bunch of cockroaches in their room, so we were all a bit pernoid during the night. 

In the afternoon, we went about 15 kms out of the city to see the Irawaddy dolphins.  (They are freshwater dolphins that live in the Mekong river.  Supposedly there are only 4 places in the world with freshwater dolphins, so it was cool to see them.)  We took to longtail boats out into the river and sat and watched the dolphins.  We saw them quite a few times.  They just stick their heads out and then go back under.  (They weren’t jumping around or anything, but it was still great to see them.)  After the dolphin watching, we went for a swim in the Mekong.  (It was in a shallow rapids area.)  So we had a fun time splashing around.  (The only annoying thing was that for the past week it has been about 100 degrees and we had all been dying to go swimming, but when we finally got the chance the weather had really cooled down.  Oh well, we still had a fun time.) 

For dinner that night, we were all craving some Western food.  (I know, but I had been eating local for 28 days.)  So we went to a little backpacker hangout place and indulged in hamburgers, mashed potatoes, pizza, etc.  It was a nice treat! 

We had a 4 hour bus ride from Seim Reap to Kompong Chan.  We took the public bus, and it was pretty nice (except the ac was way too weak to cool down the whole bus).  It was really funny, along the way the bus pulled over to the side of the road.  We were all wondering what was going on, and then all the passengers got off to go pee in the bushes. (About 20 minutes after that we stopped at a proper rest stop.  Who knows why they didn’t want to wait?!)

Kompong Chan is a pretty small, non-touristy city.  Our hotel, “Mekong Hotel” was located right on the banks of the Mekong River.  (It is one of the biggest rivers in SE Asia.  It starts in Tibet and ends in Vietnam.)  So we had a great view from our window.

After lunch, we did a bike trip.  It was only 14 kms round trip, so I thought it would be really easy.  Boy, was I wrong.  We rode around town and bought some pens and notebooks to take to the children we were visiting, and then continued our ride.  We had to cross the Mekong on a very interesting bridge.  It was made of bamboo and was basically a big pile of sticks tied together speradically with wire.  In some places there were holes where you could see the massive river under you.  It was pretty crazy!  And a lot bumpier then I had expected.

We ended up at an elementary school on a island in the Mekong River.  It was a cool experience giving the kids our little gifts, and seeing how grateful they were just to get a notebook and pen.  Then we played soccer with the kids after they finished their classes.  The kids were so sweet!

We finished off the evening with a huge dinner.  Our table had a lazy susan on it and we ordered tons of different Khmer dishes, so we could try them all.  (We had a lot of leftovers, and our guide was very nice and had them boxed up so he could give them to hungry people on the street.)   

We set off for Cambodia at 7:00am.  Driving in Thailand on the way to the border, we were on a very nice 4 lane highway.  Once we crossed over into Cambodia you could really tell you were in a different country.  The road changed into a mud/dirt 1 lane road filled with cows and bikes.  Cambodia is a much poorer country, but the people seem alot happier.  They are always smiling, waving, and shouting “hello” to us.  My first impressions of Cambodia were very good (aside from the road which we had to bump along for 4 hours to get 150 kms).

The first day was mainly driving, and we got to try some Khmer (Cambodian) food.  It is basically like Thai food, but less spicy. 

The second day in Seim Reap, was our huge site seeing day.  We left the guest house at 5:00am to watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat.  (Angkor Wat is one of the 7 wonders of the world.  It is the largest religious building in the world and it is incredibly beautiful! It was built in 1100’s but abandoned for over 400 years.  It was sort of taken over by the jungle, but they found it and restored alot of it.)  It was pretty cloudy, so we couldn’t see much of the sunrise.  But it was still a really cool experience.

After the sunrise, we went back to our guest house for breakfast and then met up with our guide for the day and our tuk tuk’s that were taking us around.  Our first stop was Angkor Thom, which is another huge Hindu/Buddhist temple very close to Angkor Wat.  (It actually used to be a city, but now it is a large complex of ancient temples and ruins.)  In Angkor Thom we saw the Banyon Temple, Elephant Terrace, and Leper King Terrace (also another one but I forgot the name). 

Then we went to Tha Pron temple, aka Jungle Temple.  This temple is one of the only ones that they haven’t tried to fully restore.  They are basically letting the jungle take over, so there are trees growing on top of temples and sort of intertwined with the buildings and statutes.  It was really beautiful and one of my favorite places we visited.  (It was also one of the sights were they filmed “Tomb Raider”.)

After an extremely hot and sticky morning, we took a much needed break and had lunch.  Then we were off again to Angkor Wat.  It is a trully breath-taking sight.  Everything is so ornate and there are so many details.  (Like all of the walls have base relief “paintings”from floor to ceiling.)  It was great to see one of the wonders of the world.

After Angkor, we to the Landmine Museum.  Which was incredibly interesting but also heart wrenching.  The man running it was forced to plant mines for the Khmer Rogue when he was 10-12 years old.  Now that he’s able he has made it his lifes mission to remove as many mines as he can, and also to help children hurt by mines.  (He goes to very dangerous places in Cambodia and removes the mines with just a stick and a knife.  Very dangerous!)  Plus he has adopted at least 20 children hurt in mines. 

After the museum, we went to a Khmer dinner/dance show.  It was very fun to see some tradtional dancing and they all had such goregous customs. 

Boy, was that ever a long day.

On the third day in Seim Reap, we had most of the day free to explore by ourselves.  Me, Sky, and another girl went to a replica garden after breakfast.  It was really cool! An old man, had made scale verisons of all the temples in Angkor.  He was such a sweet man, and he was so proud of his work.  (The detail he put into it was amazing!)

Then we went to “Seeing Hands”and had massages done by blind people.  It is a really cool organization and the people did a great job giving us Shiatsu massages.  (They were so considerate, they kept making sure that we were enjoying it and that they were doing a good job.)  It was one of the best massages ever.

Right after I finished posting this, I dropped/broke my camera.  How annoying!  (Fortunately it is still under warranty, so hopefully I can get it fixed.  But now I have to use a disposable camera.)  Anyways, I just relaxed that afternoon, and then had dinner with the rest of my group.  I had Amok with chicken.  (It is supposed to be one of the best Khmer dishes.  It is basically a chicken curry, with lots of coconut milk in it, and then it is cooked inside a coconut shell.)  It was fabulous!

I decided to hae a relaxing day in Bangkok and recuperate before my Cambodian trip started.  I just wandered around a bit, used the internet, got my clothes washed, and read my book.  I was staying at a cheap guest house near Koh San Road, but it actually turned out to be fine.  (For only $7.00 a night I had a private room with a bathroom and airconditior.) 

The next day my group leader, Cat, was really nice and she took me and 4 other people on a day trip out to Kanchanaburi.  (It was her day off so it was really sweet of her!)  It turned into one marathon day trip!  First we took a 2 hour bus out to the town. 

Then we took a songthaew to Erawan Waterfalls.  (It is a really pretty park, that has 7 waterfalls you can hike to.)  Chris and I were the most adentorous and we hiked all the way to the top, so we could see all of the waterfalls.  Cat had told us that it was a fairly easy hike, so we were in for a big surprise!  It was a really challenging hike and it had rained in the morning so eerything was nice and slippery.  We had to climb oer huge rocks, pass insane bridges that were hardly held in place, and walk through some streams.  But it was worth it.  All of the waterfalls were really beautiful, and we made it back without any accidents (until I decided to go swimming and slipped off a rock while going in, a few bruises but nothing serious).

After the falls we went to the Tiger Temple.  It is a really cool place were monks are taking care of some tiger and other wild animals.  (It started because someone bought a tiger from a hunter, but didn’t know how to care for it.  The gae it to the monk, because monks take an oath to protect all liing cereatures.)  Anyways, you can actually go up to the tigers and pet them and sit next to them.  I thought it was a bit scary but eerybody else in my group acted like it was no big deal to hae full grown tigers sitting 2 inches away from you. 

The scariest part was when the monks were taking the tigers away from the iewing area.  They were just walking them back with dog leashes!!  One of the tigers was not used to being around people, so he was freaking out  and ran away from his handler.  There was a lose scared tiger running around just 15 feet away from me.  And it was NOT in a cage. 

After the excitement at the tiger temple, we went and saw the Rier Kwai Bridge.  Which is a famous bridge/area from World War 2,were 100,000+ POW’s and other people died.  It was pretty interesting, but it looks just like any other bridge.  Then we saw the cemetary for the POW’s that were killed there. 

Finally, we ate dinner at the night market and then took the 2 hour bus ride back.  I finally got to my hotel at 11:30 and we were leaing the next morning at 7:00am for Cambodia.  It was an action packed day!

The main event for today was my Thai cooking class.  I was the only one in the group who wanted to do it, so I was really surprised when I saw Rachel (a British girl from my last trip) at the cooking class.  It was great to see her again!  She is so friendly and talkative, it was awesome spending more time with her.

The first activity for the class, was shopping for the food in the local outdoor market.  We got to choose any 4 Thai dishes that we wanted to make.  (I was surpirsed that there wasn’t set dishes.  It was awesome to be able to choose our favorites.)  Our 4 dishes were: Pad Thai with chicken, Mesanga curry (yellow curry), Tom Kai Gi (a coconut, veggie, and chicken soup), and Sweet Sticky Rice with Mango.  It was cool to see all of the herbs, veggies, fruit etc.  Our teacher told us alot about all the different foods. 

The classroom was really cool.  There was a big center island where the 6 students all had places to chop up our veggies and herbs. And in the back we each had a little area set up with the oils and spices and our own woks.  We each made a single serving of all the dishes. It was really fun!  Plus, of course we got to eat it all.  I was pretty impressed with my cooking skills!  But I was so full after the class ended. 

Once I got back to the hotel, I decided to treat myself to one last massage.  (I’m leaving Thailand in 2 days, so I won’t have another oppurtunity.  Plus I’m addicted, and it had already been 4 days since the last one.)  This time I got sort of combo massage: foot, shoulders, neck, head, and arms.  It was nice, but I still like Thai style massages the best.

We took an overnight train back to Bangkok. (It’s about 13 hours away.)  I was pleasantly surprised by the train.  The beds were twice as wide as the last train, plus it was much cleaner and newer.  (Also, Monica was really nice and let me sleep on the bottom bunk, so I was very happy.)  I had dinner on the train, and it was surprisingly good.  (Green curry, chicken with cashew stir fry, and pineapple for dessert.  Not to shabby!)

We crashed really early, because we knew they would be waking us up at about 5:30 am.

There was an elementary school across the street from the homestay, so after breakfast we went over there.  They told us that the kids would teach us some Thai, and we should try to teach them some English (which I should be very used to, since I just got done teaching English in Korea for a year).  Anyways, I was sort of expecting an organized game or something when we got into the classroom, but the teacher just looked at us and said “Ok, start teaching them.”  All of my group members were a little flustered, but I stepped up and did some activities and songs with the kids.  (It was a bit challenging, because we had no idea how much English they spoke or what kind of vocabulary they had).  But it was a fun time.  It’s good to know, I still have my teaching skills.

After the trip to the school, we went on a 2 hour bike ride around the village.  It was beautiful scenery; with mountains as a backdrop and rice patties and farms all around us.  We stopped at 2 of their local temples, a mushroom farm, and a little craft store.

Then we had lunch (they have been feeding us so much on this trip, I don’t think I have been hungry once).  The homestay was only about 45 minutes from Chang Mai, so it was a nice drive in the songthaew. 

We got in at around 4:00 and just hung out.  Most of my group went to a temple, but I’m sort of getting sick of temples, so I just decided to explore on my own.  I didn’t get to far because a huge night market was being set up a couple of blocks away from our hotel.  I did a bit of shopping and was walking back to the hotel, when I heard someone shouting my name.  I couldn’t believe it!  Who could possible know me in this random city in Thailand.  It turned out to be Aggie.  One of the girls from my last trip (Singapore to Bangkok).  She’s doing a different tour and happened to be in the same city as me at the same time. 

The two of us talked for a while and then we met up with my group at the Riverside Restraunt for dinner.  After dinner, most of my group + Aggie and her group went to a muay thai boxing match.  It was really cool to see!  I learned you should never pick on a little guy, they were all the toughest and quickest in the ring.  (I couldn’t believe how small the guys were the biggest one weighed about 52 kgs, which is about 110-120 lbs. But of course they were all Thai, so what do you expect.)

It was a great day!

This was a really fun and exciting day.  We set out at about 9:00 in the morning and went to the Elephant Conservation Center.  It was really neat, but a tiny bit too touristy.  The first thing I did was feed the elephants some bananas.  It was so cool to have them eating right out of your hand. Then, the elephant keepers took about 20 elephants into the pond for a bath.  It was amazing to see how comfortable the men are with their elephants.  They were walking all over them!  After that there was a little show, where they showed us how elephants used to do logging work in Thailand.  it was interesting to see how accurate they can be when they carry and stack logs. (Near the end it got more touristy and they had the elephants painting and playing instruments.)

After all of that we went on a elephant ride. You forget how big an elephant is until your sitting on its back!  It was really fun.  We walked around in a jungle-like part of the area, and our elephant decided to make it’s own path by charging up this area completely covered by bushes and trees.  He also stopped alot along the way and ate the grass and leaves growing around.

After leaving the elephant conservation center, we went to the elephant hospital.  (They claim to be the first elephant hospital in the world, but who knows.)  Our homestay people met us there and fed us a delicious picnic lunch.  I got to try mangosteins (sp?).  They are one of my new favorite fruits!  They have a thick brown peel/shell that you peal in half and than they look like a white mandarin orange on the inside.  They are sweet and have a really strond distinct flavor.  (I think I ate about 3 of them!)

We looked around the elephant hospital, which was really sad.  They had about 20 sick elephants.  3 of them had stepped on landmines in Myanmar, so it was really sad to see the pictures of how mangled their feet had become!

In the late afternoon, we went to a Karin village (one of the Thai hilltribes) and walked around a bit with our homestay lady.  It is quite amazing to see how they live and hear alittle about their culture.  But I felt sort of bad walking up to their houses and gawking at them and their way of life.  (Of course they are also making money off the tourists.)

We arrived at our homestay at about 4:30.  It was pretty basic and was more like a guest house than a homestay.  (We didn’t get to interact much with the family, except for their adoprable 2 year old girl who we played with non-stop.) Some of the local kids came over to the house and put on a little concert for us.  Then they briefly taught us how to play their traditional Thai instruments.  We ate a delicious dinner, and then they had a short dance show for us.  1 girl did a knife dance, and 3 girls did a nail dance (where they wear the super long metal fingernails.) Two of the men working at the homestay came around and gave each of us a short shoulder and neck massage during the performance.  (We were so pampered!) After that they had us join in and do a candle dance, which was basically stepping side to side and waving around some candles.

It was a very eventful day! 

We woke up early and had another excellent meal at our guest house.  (We could order almost anything we wanted, and then the sweet lady running the house frantically cooked all of our different meals.)

We had a pretty long day of traveling.  We took a 5 hour long bus ride and than a songthaew ride to get to our new guest house. The new place wasn’t too impressive.  It was basically a 1 floor house that we all stayed in (there was only 2 toilets, no ac, no mosquito nets, and plenty of creepy crawling things running around inside of it).

After lunch, my group went to see the local temple and I decided to have a bit of alone time and explore the city.  (This group is a lot more structured, so we are basically with all of our group members all the time!)  The city was pretty small so there wasn’t much to see.

We ate dinner at a cute little restraunt called Riverside. It was on stilts and it was basically in the lake.

Then we went back and had a restless night sleep.  (We were sleep on the ground with only thin mats, plus the random jungle animal noises kept me awake.)