Sorry...I slacked in the last country I was in and now I must frantically try to redeem myself and catch up on this blog!

What can I say about Cambodia but that I absolutely loved it!

I took a boat, so to speak, from Ho Chi Mihn City to Phnom Phen...well it was a bus then a boat then a bus then a boat then a bus again...all in all it took a good two days to complete the process. A lot of bumpy roads and small rocky boats along the Mekong Delta. I enjoyed traveling in a small boat rowed by a Vietnamese man through the housing communities that live on the Mekong River Delta, and watching the fishermen fish and how they have fishing what do you call it, fish farms? right in the bottom of their houses on the river.

I was quite confused for awhile when we changed boats to continue our journey into Cambodia. At first, no one on the boat was sure if we were in Cambodia yet or if we were still in Vietnam, since at one point we walked through some metal fences, showed our passports and continued on to a new boat, but the man who checked my passport there didn't even bother to check my Cambodian Visa and was content with just finding my used visa for Laos before he waved my through. However one on the new boat, we stopped once again at the official check in to Cambodia. There they actually wanted the real visa.

After we got on a bus to drive us into Phnom Phen...a long bus ride on a super bumpy road...if you could call it that. The sun was just setting and the lighting over the dry rice fields made them look gold in the sunlight. There were tons of trucks that had an open truck bed in the back filled with people driving along. Many women had a scarf wrapped around their head and face so as not to breath in so much dirt and dust. Red dust was flying everywhere. I was so excited to be here. I am happy that I saved Cambodia for the last stop on my visit...since I had been looking forward to it the whole trip.

Phnom Phen was, hmmm, how do I say it, a very large captial city that has two parts to it. Not that there are actually two parts, but on one hand there are modern streets paved roads, stop lights, and shops...however if you get off the main road, even down a large side street, the paved road no longer exists, nor does a smooth dirt road. What you find is a bumpy dirt road filled with holes. On one hand you see a lot of newish 4wheel drive trucks driving around, but on the other hand you see extremely poor children not in school, running around with no shoes on. So I guess you could say it is a city of haves and have nots (sorry my English is lacking now...I am back in Japan!)

Phnom Phen's sites were educational to say the least, but difficult to view. I of course went to the Grand Palace, and was shocked at the long long line I had to wait in to get inside, mostly Cambodians were there visiting. But I also went to Pleu Sleng (Uh oh, I forgot how to spell this place) museum, which used to be school but was used as a prision and a place of torture used by the Khmer Rouge. I also went to one of the killing fields near Phnom Phen. It was difficult to see, and a strange feeling to be there, but I feel that places like this are sometimes necessary to visit so that people can learn what happened, what people felt, and the true story behind it, so that one can become educated and then speak out or educate others so that it won't happen again. I was quite nervous to get on a motor bike in Phnom Phen...I had heard about a girl getting robbed on one when I was in Bangkok so I was a bit apprehensive...but I shouldnt have been so worried about that, and should have been more worried about the traffic! It blew my mind away! I hadnt seen anything as bad as there on my travels yet! On the way out of the city, I was on the back of a motor bike, and we came to this huge huge traffic jam in the middle of a big intersection. It literally took my driver about 45 minutes to work his way across the intersection so that we could continue on!!!!!!! What a mess!

After Phnom Phen, I took a bus, the public bus up north or should I say more west to Battambang. This was an excellent city to visit. Amost no tourists were there, small city, quite and beautiful countryside surrounding it. I spend one day just walking around, chatted with a few too many monks, and then the next day I spent on the back of a motor bike again traveling along dirt country roads going out to temples, sites, and who knows what else...but it was fun...despite the gallons of dirt I inhaled that day. At the end of the day I took a bamboo train back into Battambang. You see the train only runs once everyother day, one day from Battambang to Phonm Phen and the next day it comes back. So the locals have built these bamboo carts that they put onto the tracks so that they can move along the tracks. We put the motor bike on there too...and only had to stop about four times when we came head to head with another bamboo cart. They decide who will take off their cart based on whose load is the heaviest. That was fun and exhillerating!

Then I took a boat ride the next day over to Siem Reap. I spent four full days there...checking out the sites of Angkor Wat. Amazing. Don't think I can explain my excitement to see it in any words...especially as I am feeling . Just sitting on the back of a motor bike and zooming through the streets and seeing old temples pass by was amazing. I enjoyed the less crowded temples and tried to avoid the hoards at all costs. By the end of the fourth day I was templed out and that was the perfect amount of time to spend there...at least I thought so.

Busses it back to Bangkok...a long long long day of about 12 hours of bumpy bumpy flying off of the seat kind of bumps until we made it back into Thailand!

So thats it! Sorry for not keeping up to date. A final recap...I loved Cambodia. I felt that the people were extremely friendly, like in Laos, but there were many things to see here, so I was happy to not just sit around and relax. I felt that I was able to get off the tourist track and actually sit down in a restaurant and be surrounded by all Cambodians and eat in the markets again for super super cheap, so I was not frusterated like I was in Vietnam. All and all a super time!

Gotta run!