Siem Reap

Looking super fly in front of one of the famous Angkor Wat temples.

Oh hey it's me again, this time writing about a great vacation to Siem Reap, famously known as home to Angkor Wat. So the trip was awesome if I really need to tell you. We got to Siem Reap after a 6 hour bus ride from Phnom Penh on Wednesday - the following Thursday and Friday were national holidays so we were off of work, we couldn't get a bus ticket on Thursday so had to convince ourselves to go a day early, wasn't too hard.

Siem Reap was definitely a change of scenery, lots and lots of tourists. This atmosphere made it even more comfortable for us. All kinds of restaurants lined the streets with foods you don't really find in Phnom Penh and everyone and their dog spoke some sort of english. We were actually praised for being able to speak Khmer - lots of, "Your Khmer is very good!" (it's not). As I stated in a previous post, you don't get any mexican food in Cambodia, but sure enough there was a restaurant in the downtown that served dollar tacos. To me finding dollar tacos is probably the same feeling that Indiana Jones had when he found the Holy Grail. Makes me miss Goshen a bit, and of course late night Tbell runs ("Tbell runs," as in going to taco bell to get tacos, not the morning-after effect).

Siem Reap also has a pretty hopping night life as you could expect, Pub street is packed every night with all sorts of foreigners and fun things to do. It's a nice way to get away from Cambodia and feel like your in *insert big US city*. It was also a good time for us SALTers. Just like when you get to college you learn to live by a 'no parents' mentality (which is an important part of college life and good way to make mistakes), Siem Reap was a bit like the same experience where MCC and our host families would be our 'parents.' Whether it was staying up past 12, eating as much junk food I wanted, or having a few more, uh, sodas than usual - I got to feel like my college-loving self for a few days, which was really nice.

Awesome Awesome Awesome Awesome

We went to see the temples on Friday, which was my main reason for the vacation - a similar feel to what Machu Pichu was in Peru. The temples were absolutely beautiful, I recommend seeing the photos I'll soon post on facebook in my Cambodia album. What didn't go as expected was the experience with the tour guide. Now this is a very interesting story indeed. If you were going to a world famous tourist location to see one of the most beautiful constructions on earth, you would hope to pay for a tour guide that is informative and very helpful in showing you around the sites. Is that what we got? Well if by 'informative' you mean sexually frustrated and by 'helpful' you mean constantly inappropriate, that's what we got. Before we got to the site, he smoothly changed his speech about Hindu Gods into a reference to the "snake in my trousers" comfortably referring to me and pointing to my crotchal region. Yes, I admit I laughed a bit at first, as it was funny and unexpected. However, the series of events that were to occur crossed the line over and over. I was mildly annoyed, but I shared this tour with 3 girls and how that changes group dynamics on such a topic. So it tainted the experience a little bit but it did not make the temples any less beautiful, really they were breathtaking. There are plenty of things that could be said but none too helpful. We are also to blame for not directly telling him to stop. Oh well, I do plan on getting a chance to visit again so I'm not to worried about it.

Amazing Amazing Amazing Amazing

So to sum it up, I had a great 4/5 days relaxing in Siem Reap and found the temples to be absolutely fascinating, anyone who plans to visit Cambodia has my recommendation to go see them. The city is a great way to let off some steam and feel like a foreigner and I hope to back sometime in the future. Now I'm back in the MCC office working away, thanks to everyone who have been sending me email and keeping in touch, I really appreciate it. Miss you all, take care, God bless.

There goes the some, here awakens Pub Street

Feeling the love

Well it’s been another great few weeks here in the Kingdom of Wonder. Starting tomorrow the gang heads out to Siem Riep to visit Cambodia’s #1 tourist attraction Angkor Wat – which I’m pretty sure was a finalist for the “New seven wonders of the world.” So it should be pretty awesome. These last few weeks have treated me particularly well and I’ve come to label my Sundays as a new favorite day.

“The seventh day was created as an awesome day and the
people are to either rest or play lots of futsol.”

-Somewhere in the Old Testament.

I want to start this section out by saying Cambodians are very friendly. I’ve been very fortunate to find myself surrounded by many Cambodians who make a very real effort to include me in their society. Even though the Christian community is small here in Phnom Penh, it is full of life and energy. It’s also very young which has been great, especially when watching Cambodians shred on the guitar during the church service, rock and roll. I’ve been a bit annoyed by the fact I understand very little of the church service but I do really enjoy the atmosphere. After church most the young adults stick around, talk, play music, play ping-pong, or other things that I naturally enjoy doing. Of course they always make an effort to include me if possible. I’m currently undefeated in ping-pong since I’m guessing most of you are curious.

So as if my time in the church isn’t already a trip to Pleasure Island, they also invite me to play in a Men’s futsol league (like indoor soccer). Basically a bunch of guys at various ages get together every Sunday and play for a few hours. I’m the youngest guy there (I think – it’s very hard to tell a Cambodians age) but I don’t mind, the skill level is right where I want it to be and everyone enjoys playing as much as I do. Nobody minds that a foreigner joined their league, in fact they told me to invite friends if I wanted to. I’ve only been there twice and already feel like part of the crew. On a scale from 1 to Awesome these guys are super awesome.

Other than having a hundred friends there isn’t much more to report. I feel like I’m getting pretty good at riding the moto. I’ve had several people tell me I drive “like a Cambodian.” Even a Cambodian told me I drive more like a Cambodian than he does. What does this mean? Well I’m pretty sure they mean that I drive aggressively – I’ve had little trouble getting rid of street “laws” and “rules” that Cambodia doesn’t have. If you want to drive on the other side of the road go ahead and do it, they’ll probably stop. I like to think this makes me a good driver – sorry Mom, but there’s no feeling like when you’re riding down the highway with the wind in your hair whilst doing an awesome wheelie.

Ok, well I’ll have lots to say when I get back from Siem Riep so I’ll leave you with some bullet points:

• Language is going well. I can complete sentences and talk to people sometimes.
• My stomach is happy. The food has been great and I haven’t had any serious problems that the butt hose can’t fix.
• I’ve seen lots of dragons.
• I have a bunch of girlfriends.