When we first planned our Thailand trip I was going to include Bali. I didn't realize how far South that would take us and the extra travel time just wasn't what we wanted on such a long trip. We were searching for closer options and had some friends that visited Cambodia and really enjoyed it. I remember thinking when they went that Cambodia sounded too exotic for us so of course I have to eat my words when we decide to visit!
We choose to use a company for the trip, they booked everything including transfers from bangkok, hotel, and tours. It was simple in theory. The car shows up to take us from our Bangkok apartment at 6am. It's a tiny car with virtual no trunk space, they are SO lucky I'm a light packer because our three carry-ons took up all the trunk space. Our driver spoke little english and listened to talk radio in Thai for the whole four hour ride to the Cambodian board. When we arrive he stops on the side of the road, takes out our luggage and tells us to wait and the guy will come meet us in about 10 min (at least that's what i got from him gesturing for us to stay and saying 10 mins over and over) then he drives away! When I imagined the cambodian boarder I'm not sure what I pictured but it wasn't this. The smell was awful, their are tons of people, a truck full of backpackers unloads while were standing there, people are pulling carts full of random things on bicycles. And here stands two crazy white folks with their samsonite carry-ons and their 4 year old watching a movie on a iPad! What a zoo! Finally a guy walks up to us and says he's from our tour and asks for our money, no proof he's from the tour except a text on his phone with our last name. He takes our passports to fill out a paper and left us standing on the side of the road, at this point I'm seriously reconsidering this decision thinking maybe this is too exotic for us. Two hours later we finally have made it through all the checkpoints to enter Cambodia and have been sent on this bus filled with a Russian tour group to meet a cabbie that is going to take us to our hotel. It almost feels appropriate to add an inshallah (common phrase in saudi meaning "if allah is willing" but used generally when people don't 100% know if something is going to happen) that's the type of experience it is. Now it is around noon, we still have about two hours drive to our hotel and we haven't eaten since 5:30am, maddy is on pure meltdown mode. We get in the cab and just hope we aren't being taken to the slaughter in some back alley. When we finally arrive at our hotel we all crash emotionally exhausted from the journey. Our guide comes to meet us because we are supposed to go somewhere that afternoon but it's just not in us. Maddy is a great adventurer but she has her limits and we had well beyond reached it.
After some rest and recoup time we decide to venture into town via the hotels tuk-tuk service. As you drive to their downtown you pass all these shacks were people live, it really makes you feel like you're in a third world country (i know that's not the PC word but 'developing' doesn't describe the same picture to me). Then you turn a corner and there is a big neon sign labeled pub street, filled with clubs and bars, restaurants with happy hour and tons of shops taking US dollars. It was such a peculiar mix.
We found a restaurant to have some traditional Cambodian dishes at, the food resembled Thai food but seemed more bland, like it was watered down for tourists. After dinner we wandered the street and found a street vendor selling spiders, crickets and snake-on-a-stick. Maddy and I decided to try it, I don't have any pictures of us trying it because i had to quickly eat it before I lost my nerve! The spider had hairy legs that were disgusting in my mouth so i chewed super quick. Overall it tasted like burnt ends of chicken but hairy. The snake-on-a-stick tasted like beef jerky with bones, both maddy and I liked it and took extra bites. The cricket was the only thing maddy wouldn't try, it was nasty and just tasted like a bug. I'm glad I tried it if just for bragging rights! After our food adventure we both got our first fish pedicure, maddy loved the fish "kissing' her feet and didn't want to leave. A quick tuk-tuk ride to our hotel and we really saved a moderately awful day. That evening before bed we also booked a return flight to Bangkok from the local airport, I don't think we would have survived another 8 hour journey.
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| Spiders, Snakes and crickets oh my! |
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What's left after our tastings, I ate all the spiders legs but couldn't bring myself to try the body I was afraid it would squirt like a gusher and I don't think even I could have stomached that!
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| Video of Maddy's fish pedicure |
Our next day we meet our guide in a much better mood. We headed off to Angkor Archeological park which contains dozens of temple ruins of both Buddhist and Hindu temples. The most famous of these temples is Angkor Wat, identified as one of the seven wonders of the world. The first day we visited Angkor Thom, which was in the tomb raider movies, it has large trees growing all in the ruins. Bayon, temple with 216 faces on the towers, with a long causeway flanked with 54 stone figures, gods on left and demons on the right. We also visited the cultural center where they showed how they do the renovations and had examples of tools used to build the temples.
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