Hi Everyone!

Sorry to have kept you all waiting, but we have been having a fabulous time and the internet is not always the highest priority! :)

I'm going to attempt to bring you all up to date, but I doubt I will even begin to scratch the surface of all the experiences we are having.

I'm going to back up to us leaving Bangkok. Sean & I both agreed that Bangkok has a few redeeming qualities, but only a few. :) I think Bangkok is best described as "Bladerunner" without the rain. Even though we were going to miss out on two nights of hotel stay already paid for, we decided to leave anyway. As we were checking out, they offered us the other two nights' stay before we fly back home, so that worked out well. :)

I was a bit nervous to fly into Phnom Penh, and it was about as I imagined when we landed. It really is another world here. And we became instant rock stars, I mean, seriously, barang (white people) are kind of stared at everywhere we go, and many times you have an entourage of kids, beggars and people trying to sell you something everywhere you go. So, we landed without even having a hotel lined up for that night, but it was only about 4pm by the time we got into town, so I wasn't that concerned about finding something. My plan was to go to the Foreign Correspondence Club (FCC) and ask about a nice place to stay without completely winging it. I knew that other english-speaking people would be there to ask. I had read that they had 3 rooms there which are considered high-end, (posh in fact) at $45 and $65 a night. When we got there and rooms were available, I couldn't resist their best room facing the river that looked something like the set of Casablanca. It had a huge stone porch/ balcony that looked out over the water and the traffic below. I justified staying there by remembering that my birthday is almost here, and whipped out my credit card. After a very pleasant night Sean and I were brave enough to finally leave the room. One thing I have touched on but cannot adequately describe is that everywhere you go, people want something from you and stare at you. It was a bit odd at first, but I have gotten used to it now. We walked along the river front a bit without knowing really where to go. Just then we realized that the Grand Palace was right nearby where we were staying, so we decided to check it out. Just before going inside we met two Khmer guys that won our business because they weren't too pushy and agreed to let them take us around on their motorcycles after seeing the Palace. They waited for us for about an hour, and then we took off. Their names are Im and Chea. (I later found out Him is closer to the english version of his name but I even saw it spelled Em.) At first they offered to take us to all of the typical barang spots; i.e. the Killing Fields, the Tuol Sleng museum, and even an area where for a price you can shoot frigging cannon and other guns if you want to. We said a polite no to all of these things, and so we just rode around Phnom Penh for a while on the backs of these bikes. It was incredible. No wonder so many people ride bikes here, it's just about the only way to get cool! As we were riding around Im and Chea asked us if we'd like to see a nearby "mountain". Not seeing any mountains nearby Sean and I still said yes, after asking how far. After much of their back-and-forth talking in Khmer they finally said that it was only about 5-10km away. So, we set out and began to leave town. It's difficult to describe how poor these people are, and along the way we saw lots of homes that were nothing more than a shack with a few chickens running around and usually a naked child as well. (I have lots of pictures but they are going to have to wait until we get back unfortunately, because I believe there are not computers fast enough here to upload pictures, or if there are, I have yet to find them.) After riding for more than a half hour, the sky began to clear up and the sun came out, it was a gorgeous day. About this time I began to question Im about where the heck this mountain was, as nothing like that was in view, just rice paddies and low hills off in the distance. I would later find out that it was a "little white lie" telling us that the mountain was closer because they wanted our business! :) We rode and rode, but were grinning from ear to ear the whole way. After about an hour and a half we finally came to the mountain, which was only one of the aforementioned low hills but it had a huge prang on top with a temple. I didn't understand until later, but it's customary to give money to the poor while you climb the steps to the top. It's quite a climb up there, and along the way sitting on the steps there are orphaned children, blind, victims of land mines, and lots of old people waiing you and hoping you will give them money. Just before going up there are lots of people changing money into small denominations of Riel to do just that. I changed something like $10 into 100 Riel notes, and had a huge wad of cash since its 4000 Riel to the dollar. As we climbed Im and Chea tried their best to describe things to us, and most of the time we understood each other. It's really quite amazing to me how easy it is to get along as far as communicating here. Most people know enough english to at least answer your questions. There have been a few occasional misunderstandings that led to only minor difficulties, but really nothing more than maybe getting the wrong order in a restaurant. It's so much easier than I thought in that respect. We climbed and climbed and I handed out notes worth about 2 1/2 cents to people left and right, many children followed us up the hill, and there was one boy that kept fanning me that had the most incredible smile and was so sweet I wanted to adopt him on the spot. I'm not kidding, this kid had my heart wrapped up on his finger. He was about 7 years old and had a smile that lit up his face and made me smile every time I looked at him. When we reached the top I was drenched with sweat and the sun was beating down, but we continued on into a chamber where there were several hundred Buddha statues all lined up in rows of various size and shape. Some were stone, wood and metal. Many times they are covered with gold leaf. Im and Chea showed us how to wai and light incense and give offerings to Buddha correctly, and after that we sat in that chamber for a while as it was cool and nice and just talked. I later found out that Im was a monk for 5 years while he was growing up from about 15-20 I think, and he's 27 now. I'm not sure about Chea since he's Seans' driver, but he has probably been a monk as this seems to be the way most Khmer men are educated.

After a bit we decided to leave, and once again the whole time we are surrounded with about 15 kids mostly just following us because they are curious. :) We told Im and Chea that we would want to eat lunch in Khmer style so they chose a home nearby at the bottom of the hill. (It appears that most homes are more than happy to sell anyone a meal.) We walked up to these wooden platforms with hammocks and woven mats lying around, and were given pillows. There was a huge network of tarps above us as well, and no walls at all. Sean reminded me not to sit on my pillow as this would be rude, so I sat indian style and then remembered not to point my feet at anyone as this is rude also! :) We let the guys order for us, and about 45 minutes later we were served huge bowls of rice with vegetables and a halfway carved chicken on a platter with the head still on! :) I tried to eat some of the chicken, but found it kind of unpalatable since it was looking at me... :) So, I ate as much as I could, and later we left. I made sure to thank the nice woman very kindly for letting us intrude into her home and we paid I think about $6 for the meal for the four of us. As we were heading back it quite suddenly began to rain and we had to stop because we couldn't see. We stopped at a house that had no walls, and had about 5 people inside and I had to stop Sean from just walking in there and remind him that that is their home and he might be seen as very rude to just come running in. We both laughed when we realized this. We found a little dry area where people eat that was covered and stayed there about 15-20 minutes. While we were there we saw this guy leave on a motorcycle and come back a few minutes later holding one huge gutted dead dog on the back! Sean just looked at me and said something like, "Well, we're in Cambodia!" and so that's been our phrase lately. After a bit we asked the guys how long they thought the rain would hold up, and after discussing it for a few minutes we decided to leave anyway or we might be stuck there all day. So, we got drenched in no time, but the rain is so warm that you aren't cold in the slightest. I kept looking back at Sean, and as we were riding we both just started laughing so hard and grinning from ear to ear the whole way back to Phnom Penh. It was just an incredible feeling to be on the back of a motorcycle out in the country and get drenched like that. Every once in a while a speeding car would pass, and a huge wave of water would wash over us and it would be as warm as bath water. Im and Chea kept asking us if we were "Happy, happy!" and we kept saying yes! The rain began to slow and finally did stop before we got back to Phnom Penh, and by the time we were back to the hotel our clothes were almost completely dry. We asked if the guys could come back in a few hours and let us unwind and change clothes and then head out for some nightlife. It was somehow sublime to be on the back of a motorcycle cruising around Phnom Penh at night. I can't really describe it, but there are monuments and people to watch (that are watching us) and incredible things to see everywhere. Sean and I have seen numerous times 5 people on one motorcycle! (Ususally 2 adults and 3 kids crammed into the middle) I still haven't seen 6 though, but I'm thinking that before we leave we will! :)

The day just kept getting better and better. After driving all over in the cooler night air, we went to a bar called 'The Heart of Darkness' and proceeded to have fun. It was wild in there, we met some Austrians, Germans and I think Sean basically met most of Europe while there. He was having a blast and so was I. We watched people play pool and soon found out the Im is a damn good pool player! We stayed out until I don't even know when and enjoyed every minute of it. It will be one of the most fun days of my life I can tell you now in all honesty. :)

The next day we didn't want to leave, but I had already purchased our boat tickets to take us to Siem Reap. So, after having about an hours' sleep, maybe 2, I got up and started to pack my backpack and cram everything into it. Im and Chea met us in the morning and took us to the pier and saw us off. About 5 hours later the speedboat docked in Siem Reap. We were met by a driver and he brought us into town and we checked a few less expensive guesthouses before choosing one for $20 a night that has a good location and air-conditioning.

So here we are now, in Siem Reap. We've now been here for a while. I think this is our third day. It's much smaller and kind of charming in many ways as opposed to Phnom Penh, but both Sean and I agree that we need to go back to Phnom Penh, so after we've seen Angkor we plan on going back for at least one more day.

After we got the hotel room figured out, I decided to look up Chantha's family that lives here in Siem Reap. They were very nice to us, but knew very little english so we had a hard time being understood and vice versa. But they were very gracious and had a nice restaurant that we ate in. We asked one of the employees if he could recommend a driver for the Wats, and before we knew it this guy shows up at our table and starts giving us the hard sell. On top of that, he kept acting like Sean was the decision maker and wasn't even addressing me. We had met several others that were similar that day, and I was regretting not taking Im and Chea up on their offer to come to Siem Reap.