Alright, day 2 in Phnom Penh (the capital of Cambodia.) I felt like a zombie when I got out of my queen size bed at 630am. I’m not exactly a morning person. The mansion that we slept in had the most magnificent buffet ready for us in the morning. I’m not really a breakfast person either, but I figured with the long day ahead of us, I probably needed food in my tummies. Toast it was.

Our first visit was to a Genocide Museum called Tuol Sleng. I was actually quite surprised my toast didn’t come up. Our tour guide definitely got into detail on how Pol Pot brought people to this genocide camp and had them tortured, and then transferred them to the Killing Fields where everybody was slaughtered. The tour guide even got into detail on how they killed the babies. According to the brochure that I picked up at the museum, this genocide museum that I visited was called S-21 and it was designed for detention, interrogation, inhuman torture, and killing after confession. S-21 consisted of about 4 huge buildings. Each about 3 stories high. And they were basically cells where they kept people strapped down to a bed. As I walked through each cell I analyzed the rusted chains, the scrapings on the walls, and the yellow stained checkered tiles. The buildings had open hallways that ran along the cells, and the hallways were covered in a fishnet of barbed wire, preventing the prisoners from committing suicide by jumping down. Another building I walked through was filled with pictures of the victims, and there was one room in that building that was filled with skulls. Before these buildings were turned into a torture prison, they were actually a high school. The set up of the buildings looked a lot like a high school that was barb wired. It definitely was the most intense museum I have been to. And to imagine this all happened not so long ago (between 1975 and 1979.) My parents were just a little younger than I am now. Geez. You can’t even imagine how difficult it was walking through there. Walking back to my bus, an older gentleman came up to me begging for money. Half of his face was destroyed. It looked as if his face was melting. One of his eyeballs was jutting out of the eye socket. I don’t really know what to do in situations like those. So I handed him what I had in my hand, a water bottle, and then got back on the bus.

The ride to the Killing Fields was pretty quiet. As I sat there in my seat next to my good friend Dani, I just closed my eyes. Attempted to sleep. The Killing Fields were really interesting to see, but for some reason it wasn’t what I expected. When we first got there we took off our shoes and went to look in the tower of 9000 skulls. It wasn’t a huge shock to me anymore, because of the last museum we had seen. Behind the tower were the fields. They were made up of multiple pot holes in the ground. Pot holes about the size of an average western bathroom. The pot holes are covered in brown grass. Some of them were roped off and planked, while others were left unmarked. The Killing Fields is a mass graveyard. It is where Pol Pot took all intelligent people and slaughtered them. After walking through the fields for a good 20 minutes, I found this hidden pathway that ran along a fence. On the other side of the fence there were 4 children. They followed me along the entire fence, asking for money. When I finally stopped to look out at this small scrap house out in the grassy field on the other side of the fence, one of the children asked me what my name was and reached out his hand. His name was Lei and he lives in that small house with his parents and his brother. I asked him how he learned his English, and he told me he attends the small school in the village not far from the Killing Fields. He had the most gorgeous blue eyes and tan skin. He asked me to take a picture of him, and immediately began begging for money again. I treasured the short conversation I held with this child, but that moment quickly vanished when he wanted me to pay for it. I was told by my tour guide to not give any money to the children, but to simply tell them to go to school. As much as this child weakened my knees, I did not give him any money. Instead I gave him the half full water bottle I carried in my purse. (As you can see… I was handing out water bottles left and right that day.) After this confrontation at the fence, I quickly scurried back to the bus before it left without me. I never told anybody about Lei.

Next stop- the Silver Pagoda and Royal Palace. Yeah the palace was really pretty, and the garden was really beautiful. But I’m not going to say it was the highlight of my trip to Cambodia. Inside the Silver Pagoda there was a golden statue of a woman with diamond eyes. It was completely made out of gold and diamonds. So I guess that was really cool to see. They showed us the king’s throne in the palace. Every palace we entered we had to take our shoes off. I was wearing hiking boots… So now it only takes me about 20 seconds to put on hiking boots. I’m a pro. And thank goodness there was a fan inside the palace. I stood in front of it for a good 5 minutes. While we were at the palace I had to take my Malaria medicine. I decided my doctor is awesome for telling me to take it on an empty stomach. On the bus ride to lunch at Sorya Local Restaurant I had to spew so bad I ran off the bus. So, my toast did come up after all. I spent a good amount of time in the bathroom of the restaurant. Haha I just needed to get that pill out of my system. And then I felt good as new after. I told my “extended family mom” what happened and we thought maybe I was allergic to the medicine. But I spewed again the next day. So I think my doctor was just awesome for telling me to take it on an empty stomach, when I’m actually supposed to take it on a full stomach. Anyyyyway, lunch was really good! Haha. Spring rolls are so bomb in Cambodia.

After lunch we had a lot of free time to just walk around the central market. So I went and bought a t-shirt. I’m buying a t-shirt in every country so I can make a quilt out of them at the end of my voyage. I’m very excited. And I’m definitely going to need some help with that, so if anyone is a pro with a sewing machine be sure to let me know!

I felt like I was dying in the sun so my friends and I went and sat on the Air conditioned bus. Then it was time to head back to the airport!! We weren’t going back to Vietnam. No. Not just yet. We were flying to Siem Reap airport. I really enjoyed Siem Reap a lot more than Phnom Penn, and I think it’s because Siem Reap is more country side. But I also found the people to be a lot more friendly in Siem Reap. Anyway, on the bus ride to the hotel I admired the country side. Every field had one cow just tied up in the middle of it. These weren’t fat American cows. I could see the bones of these cows. I’m sure those Cambodian cows are a lot healthier than our fat American cows, which is silly. Anyway, I also saw a middle school was getting out of classes when we drove by. Kids were jumping on their bikes in their school uniforms (white collared shirt and navy blue shorts or skirt) and heading home. Ok so we finally pulled up to our hotel. This is what it was called … “Borei Angkor Resort and Spa.” Do you believe that? I think it was the nicest hotel I’ve ever stayed at. There was a legit swimming pool, and multiple bars in this hotel. Not even a hotel!! It was a resort! Standing outside looking at the pool, I didn’t even feel like I was in Cambodia. I can understand now why the trip was so expensive. I’m not high maintenance. Give me a mosquito net and a blanket and I’ll sleep on the streets with the rest of Cambodia.

Alright so then it was time to head to dinner. We went to this place called Kulen II Restaurant. Apparently it’s like the biggest restaurant in Cambodia. It’s actually the biggest restaurant I’ve ever seen. Total buffet lines everywhere. There was a pasta line, a soup line, a fried foods line, a sushi line, and every other kind of line. I was all over the spring rolls, and fried bananas. All of the food was amazing though! The other semester at sea Cambodia groups were there too! It was crazy seeing them! I was super excited to see Rachel when I walked in. Funny how we spotted each other from across the massive dining hall. While eating our feast, there was a cultural dance show going on. The Cambodian woman on stage was beautifully decorated. And she danced so delicately. It’s crazy how far back she can bend her fingers. It’s part of the traditional dance to bend your fingers as far back as you can. I tried it when I was at the orphanage. There’s no way… haha. I really like their traditional dance though. It reminded me a lot of the Indian style dance. After din din a group of us decided to walk to the night market about 5 minutes away from the restaurant. We didn’t make it all the way there though. We stopped to take a picture of the 6 Eleven market across the street, and were handed a flyer that said foot massage $3. So, that’s where we ended up. We all sat down in seats next to each other. Kara, Keith, Graham, Tori, and I got foot massages for 30 minutes at $3. Dani decided to go for the whole body massage. That was only $3 as well. Dani actually came out of there with a funny story. The lady massaged her boobs. Haha Dani had a lot to say about that. We all had a good laugh. Anyway, my foot massage was glorious. I had a bunch of bruises on one of my legs though (I don’t know why) so that was an adventure. It was quite painful, but a good pain. Graham was so funny the whole time we had the foot massages. To start things off, his feet were too big to fit in the bucket. Haha And then later on the lady was trying to get him to bend his knee but she didn’t know how to say it and Graham didn’t understand what was going on so the lady was just pushing on his leg. It was the funniest thing ever. One of us was finally like “Graham! Bend our knee!” And everybody cracked up laughing. It was a good time. The ladies massaging all of our feet were so funny. Apparently they were all sisters too, but actually I think they just agreed with us when we asked if they were sisters because they didn’t understand us. The whole experience was a crack up.

We then continued on our journey to the night market. We were about 50 feet away from it when we spotted “Dr. Fish.” Dr. Fish is a different type of foot massage. Its basically a kiddie pool filled with hungry fish. You just stick your feet in the water and the fish eat the dead skin off of your feet. It tickles soooo much! I was squirming around, and laughing uncontrollably. After a little while I got used to it, but when the bigger fish would come and eat my feet it would tickle hardcore again. It was so much fun though. We sat and talked with some Australians and an English guy for a little bit. They were hogging most of the fishies. They must have had a lot of nasty dead skin on their feet. Or maybe it was because I had just had a foot massage and the fishies could tell. Haha I had so much fun anyway. Alright so after sitting there for 15 minutes we continued on our journey. There was an afternoon market right before the night market. We went in there and looked around at the souvenirs for sale. I don’t think I ended up buying anything. Dani bought some great earrings though. And according to Graham it was my responsibility to watch him and make sure he doesn’t spend any money. I did an awful job. He ended up buying a pancake thingy. It had like chocolate in it and banana or something. I told him he’d probably get traveler’s diarrhea, but he’s a crazy risk taker. I actually took a bite of the pancake thing and it was really good! And we didn’t get TD!

Alright so we headed back to the resort by… I forget what they are called, but they are basically a motorcycle with a trailer connected to it and some cushions in the trailer. I don’t know. But they are really fun! Our driver was really nice. Then it was konk out time. I watched the news on the earthquake in Chile for a long while and then my face hit the pillow and I was out.

 

sorry im so slow at updating. Classes and meetings are kicking my butt!!

I'm going to finish this soon. Hopefully!