Alright, so I'm really awful at event blogging, I'm aware! :) I'm sorry for the delay and the suspense that I'm sure you've been feeling to know about the rest of the trip... Here we go..Welcome to the Kingdom of Cambodia!
We arrived in Cambodia to the beautiful blazing sun and nice warm weather. This is the custom house where we essentially just had to show them our passport and walk right on through. The Cambodians were really nice and were asking where we were from.. when I told him we were living in China as teachers he spoke to me in Chinese (luckily it was the like 2% I know)! We passed through and hopped right back onto the bus to head towards Phnom Penh.
Easiest visa I've ever received before! :) My passport was starting to look pretty legit by this point.
At one point the bus had to get on to a fairy boat to cross over the water... you can imagine how this motion sick time bomb over here felt about being on the back of the bus AND on a boat!! haha. Needless to say I don't remember a lot of the ride for the simple fact I was drugged.
We got into the city at night and were instantly greeted by many took-took's that were non stop harassing us to bring us to our destination. haha.... It turned into a much longer night than we expected because there were some issues with finding a place to stay. We were sort of instantly greeted by the "lets play the foreigners" game, where they try to get you to stay where they want you to which happens to be the most expensive places then drive behind you as you walk away following you, trying to get you to listen. After roaming the streets with our packs for about 30 minutes we found a place to stay!
I honestly did enjoy the ride, before all the sketchiness set in. It was a really neat way to see the city and it felt really good at night!
The nest morning we were up bright and early! We went and got breakfast and met up with a really cool friend/connection we had in Phnom Penh. They had cinnamon rolls and all other kinds of deliciousness we do not see here in China! After breakfast we explored and walked around a little. They city has such a unique feel to it and it was a beautiful day.
The architecture is very buddhist in nature. This was my first time traveling to places that had a religion that was from the top down. The religion was government regulated Buddhist. Its influence was from the buildings, to the number of temples, to alters being in every shop, business and restaurant. Now I will let the photo's speak for themselves... Note: We stayed in the nicer more built up area of the city... we did travel through some very run down areas to get there. One thing I noticed about Cambodia were its extremes.
Buddhist University..
Elaborate Temples..
We were only in Phnom Penh for about 6 hours of awake time... we quickly were back in a bus and on our way to Siem Reap. The Cambodian country side was beautiful. It reminded me a lot of being in the bush in Africa because of its living off the land appearance. People used what they had to make homes and to live by and were obviously not what you would consider wealthy, yet still, there were huge, elaborate temples everywhere. You would maybe go 5-10 miles of country side shacks and then there would be another one. It was amazing to me.
This is a field that sat next to the temple you see above..
We had finally made it to Siem Reap and were ready to eat! We found a cool restaurant where we were ready to eat and relax after a really long bus ride.
You can see the excitement! haha. Poor Jacqueline was super sick while we were there.
I had somewhat developed a pineapple obsession while we traveled through the more tropical climates!
The next day we woke up ready to go. This is us eating breakfast at the Villa where we stayed getting ready to head to Angkor Wat.
And here we are. This is Angkor Wat. It is a temple that was constructed in the 12th century originally Hindu then Buddhist. This temple is huge to say the least. It is made of of an outer enclosure and central structure. The structure and design of this temple is so intricate. I am a little bit of a history geek, so imagining what they must have has to do to not only build this but also give it such detail blows my mind! It was a really cool thing to see but with other things, it was just that a site. This is still what they would consider practicing.. although I believe it is more for the visitors than it is of traditional worship. We did have to cover our shoulders and knees to enter into the upper court, or what is seen as the holiest place.
These are the stairs going up to the upper area... and yes they are as steep at they look!
I'm not going to lie walking down these stairs you knew if you made one slight trip you were tumbling all the way down and taking everyone else with you!
Later that day the girls got away for one of our favorite things to do in Asia.. get our hair washed! It really seems so small but it is like a 30 minute head massage and scrub! We made friends with the Cambodian women who worked there and had an awesome time!
The next morning we were off again.. this time we were on our way to Thailand. The final destination site. ( This is where you had you walk from cambodia into Thailand.)
Only one more vacation post to go!!! I think I can.. I think I can...
Buddhist University..
Elaborate Temples..
We were only in Phnom Penh for about 6 hours of awake time... we quickly were back in a bus and on our way to Siem Reap. The Cambodian country side was beautiful. It reminded me a lot of being in the bush in Africa because of its living off the land appearance. People used what they had to make homes and to live by and were obviously not what you would consider wealthy, yet still, there were huge, elaborate temples everywhere. You would maybe go 5-10 miles of country side shacks and then there would be another one. It was amazing to me.
This is a field that sat next to the temple you see above..
We had finally made it to Siem Reap and were ready to eat! We found a cool restaurant where we were ready to eat and relax after a really long bus ride.
You can see the excitement! haha. Poor Jacqueline was super sick while we were there.
I had somewhat developed a pineapple obsession while we traveled through the more tropical climates!
The next day we woke up ready to go. This is us eating breakfast at the Villa where we stayed getting ready to head to Angkor Wat.
And here we are. This is Angkor Wat. It is a temple that was constructed in the 12th century originally Hindu then Buddhist. This temple is huge to say the least. It is made of of an outer enclosure and central structure. The structure and design of this temple is so intricate. I am a little bit of a history geek, so imagining what they must have has to do to not only build this but also give it such detail blows my mind! It was a really cool thing to see but with other things, it was just that a site. This is still what they would consider practicing.. although I believe it is more for the visitors than it is of traditional worship. We did have to cover our shoulders and knees to enter into the upper court, or what is seen as the holiest place.
These are the stairs going up to the upper area... and yes they are as steep at they look!
I'm not going to lie walking down these stairs you knew if you made one slight trip you were tumbling all the way down and taking everyone else with you!
Later that day the girls got away for one of our favorite things to do in Asia.. get our hair washed! It really seems so small but it is like a 30 minute head massage and scrub! We made friends with the Cambodian women who worked there and had an awesome time!
The next morning we were off again.. this time we were on our way to Thailand. The final destination site. ( This is where you had you walk from cambodia into Thailand.)
Only one more vacation post to go!!! I think I can.. I think I can...I promise once I am finished updated on all the adventures I will be sure to update you all on whats been happening in Huangshi since I've been back!
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