Last week I shared the first half of my trip to Cambodia.

The next part of my journey took me to the capital and the Gulf of Thailand. I really made an attempt to see as many different parts of the country as I could during my visit. Still, there were so many areas I wasn’t able to see. If I had longer, I would have loved to visit – the Mondulkiri Protected Forest Reserve, home to the endangered Indochinese tigers, Asian elephants, and Giant Ibis; the Tonle Sap Lake, a large freshwater lake that has one of the world’s most varied and productive ecosystems – it actually changes volume significantly during the rainy and dry season secondary to annual inflow and annual reverse outflow when the river running into the lake changes directions; the Yeak Laom volcano and lake that has exceptionally clean and clear water and is almost perfectly round in shape. But because of time constraints, I had to narrow my choices. In hind sight, I wish I had chosen one of the places I just listed instead of the beach. But I didn’t know before hand.

So the next leg of my journey was to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. What a difference! I left the rural area and was suddenly in the middle of a bustling city. I stayed at a quaint French hotel, which was perfect for me. Like many cities, there doesn’t seem to be any traffic laws and I am constantly surprised there aren’t more accidents. I tried to get a “tour” of one of the hospitals but no one seemed to understand my request. Or they thought it was really strange.

The next morning, I began my tour of the city with a trip to the Royal Palace. This was another educational day about the history of the country and the people. The king is the ruling monarchy, but the government is run by the Prime Minister. And the next king isn’t necessarily going to be an offspring of the current king (he is childless), but can be selected by a royal committee. After leaving the opulence of the palace and its surrounding buildings, I headed to the Choeung Ek Killing Fields. Truly one of the saddest places I have ever visited. The Cambodian genocide resulted in about 3.5 million Cambodian deaths, wiping out about half the population. Senseless deaths are so hard to understand especially when the victims are so innocent. Not even children were spared for fear of retribution. I won’t go into the details but feel free to read more about this tragic part of history. It occurred only about 40 years ago.

“Why” you might ask would I visit this site during my vacation? I could chose to only learn about the wonders of Cambodia, but to truly understand the culture; I need to be open to learning about all of it.

Did I enjoy it? –No!

Am I glad I went? – Yes. If we want to be better people, we need to understand where we went wrong and acknowledge our shortcomings. I hope these visits teach me how to become a better, more loving person.

I followed the visit of the Killing Fields with a visit to the National Museum. Again, a wonderful glimpse into the history of this country and their culture. And I am a nerd, and love museums.

My plan was to travel to the beach the next day to recover from the emotions I knew I would feel after my visit to these monuments. So I hoped in a car for another 6-hour journey to Sihanoukville on the gulf of Thailand. If I could change anything about my trip, I would have skipped this part. Though I love the beach, pretty much any beach, this was such a touristy stop of just buildings and condos and tons of people there for the gambling and the nightlife. Not my speed. So I just walked the beach and got a massage. I had hoped to go scuba diving but I couldn’t arrange an outing within my time frame. And I was a little concerned to travel to the outlying islands by myself to go snorkeling.

After a short day here, I hopped on a regional airline to go back to Siem Reap for the final day of my journey. I visited more areas of the city, and then was part of a Vespa/moped food tour my last night. This is when I ran into the only other Americans I saw during my visit. There were four of us, a British man on a cooking trip, an American doctor and her mom, and me. Luckily I didn’t have to navigate the crazy streets because I rode on the back of the bike while my driver did the hard work.

The tour included stops at food stalls, behind the scenes areas where the locals shop, traditional foods (I skipped the bugs), local rice wine, and time just walking through the markets on the river. All the food during my trip was amazing. Because it is a tropical country, the varieties of fruit were enticing. Every day I tried a new fruit, and every one of them were delicious! I wish I could have them every day. One of the unique preparations of fruit that I enjoyed was a small green grape-like fruit that was prepared in a spicy vinegar marinade. It may not sound good, but it was delicious! I had no problem eating vegan the entire trip and was never hungry.

My trip ended and I boarded the plane for my long trip home full of happiness and magical memories. My elapsed time for my trip home was even longer because of my 8 hour lay over in China, and 5 hour lay over in San Francisco. After 32 hours of travel, I boarded my last leg home. Thinking I was home free, I rested my head as we begun our ascent, and then about 20 minutes into the flight, I hear a strange noise right behind me and turn around to find someone having a seizure.

So I jumped up, and was joined by several nurses and we cared for this young man for the rest of the journey. At least it made the flight go quickly. He deplaned first with EMS and I hope he is okay.

So a few things I learned on my trip.

1. As I said early, not a lot of American’s visit Cambodia
2. The Khmer people are very concerned about the use of pesticides and chemicals. The farmers I talked to were basically all organic
3. I would never want to be an animal in Cambodia
4. The rural farmers were concerned about the climate change they have noticed over the last decade. Very interesting.
5. Marriage is very expensive and grooms still pay a dowry.
6. Women had a surprising number of prestigious and powerful positions. I am not sure why I thought otherwise.
7. Almost all the cars are at least 10 year old used cars shipped from California and are very expensive.

I am so happy with my trip. I really wish I could have stayed a month. And it’s hard not to want to go back and see the rest. I might, but there is still so much of the world I haven’t seen. So many places, so little time! I am always thinking about my next trip, so if you have any recommendations, let me know!!

Enjoy these photos of food and fun

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