Before leaving Cambodia...

I do believe Lani and I spent a little over 2.5 weeks in Cambodia, and we enjoyed most of it. For all it's worth, I figure Phnom Penh can just fall into the Earth and we'd all be ok. But the rest of Cambodia was beautiful and we were quite pleased with where we were able to go and the sites we saw. A few country memories include: our "relaxed" beach time in S-ville with the constant nagging of impoverished children to buy their bracelets; the mice on my pillow at our cheap hostel; the 7-people piled high on motos; the plentiful amount of moto drivers and tuk-tuk drivers constantly shouting out "madam or hey lady"; our cooking class, dancing with the locals at a wedding celebration, and the colorful monks who strolled the streets. We enjoyed the rice paddy fields and seeing how the village people live off the lands, while we motored slowly by in our boat. The cute little children running around naked and living and laughing in the muddy river that rolls by (or under) their homes. It was saddening and discouraging to see the poverty and hear the stories of broken families caused by the Khmer Rouge. But I'm grateful that I was able to come here and become more educated on what took place just over 30 years ago. It really helped me understand the current status of Cambodia, and it makes me hope the best for the people and their country. They are beautiful and kind...and I really can't say enough about the adorable little children and their smiling faces.

Before saying good-bye to Cambodia, we spent a couple more days following my Siem Reap post. We stopped overnight in Kompong Thom to visit the Sambor Prei Kuk temple complex. Feeling slightly templed-out, these small structures didn't really compare to what we'd just surrounded ourselves with for days with Angkor Wat. We hopped a bus the next day, for yet, one more night in Phnom Penh. Although we sincerely disliked this city, it certainly did end up being our home base while traveling in Cambodia. We stayed at a quaint little family run place - the TAT Guesthouse - where the children were playing on the floor with their toys, the mom was in the kitchen cooking, Grandma was sewing, and the Old Man was sitting shirtless watching the tube, while the nephew, son or uncle carried our bags up the three flights of rickety stairs to our room. It was a fine place to stay on our last night in the country - giving us a good-old family feeling. In fact, I started to get sick this night and when we arrived home at midnight, the young girl whipped me up a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. You don't get that service everywhere!

On our last night, we had to do a Cambodian bbq - which consisted of A LOT of butter and us trying to cook our own food with chopsticks (Lani has imporved tremendously). Our waiter stood by closely to help us out along the way.

Now we close the chapter on Cambodia and we are off to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in the morning. I know Lani pulled together a list of Cambodian memories, so check out her blog: www.getjealous.com/lkalemba