Adventures of the Waylands: Cambodia

On Halloween I flew to Cambodia and met up with Jack and Shelby. I got a mini Mommy Vacation! I haven't flown ALONE since before Clark was born, so it's been probably a good 5 years. IT WAS BORING! Clark is such a good travel companion and helps keep me entertained/busy. When I got on the plane I didn't know what to do! Listen to music, watch a movie, read my book or sleep!

I was kept entertained by a nice Korean couple sitting next to me. They were from Gangnam (You know the song that is about the rich area of Seoul. In case you had the privilege of forgetting here is the You Tube Music Video http://youtu.be/CH1XGdu-hzQ) Any ways, they were extremely friendly and we exchanged cell phone numbers so that if we ever decide to visit Gangnam the wife would be happy to show us around. They have never been to my neck of the woods, but I see absolutely no reason why someone would visit here just to see the area.

My favorite comment the husband said to me was: "You traveling alone?" I said, "Yes, my husband and son are at home!" He then said, "And your husband LET you go? I wouldn't let my wife travel alone!" Well Clint wouldn't have either, nor would I have wanted to. Thankfully I had 2 awesome people to meet there!

I got into Siem Reap a little after 10pm. The first couple of things that went through my mind aside from excitement were, WOW, it's humid! Don't miss that!, Man this is a little airport!, And what the heck is that bug/creature looking thing on the sign for the airport! (It was probably a gecko.)

I then had to find a taxi to the hotel. They had a little sign that showed you the options. 1. Van (Too big) 2. Car (What I got) or 3 a Tuk Tuk, except they didn't have an accurate picture of a Tuk Tuk. All it was, was a picture of a scooter. I though, "What, am I suppose to hop on the back of a scooter, sling my bag over my shoulder and we ride off to the hotel? NO WAY!" So car it was. Happened to be a car where the driver sits on the right side of the car, so I was completely expecting him to drive on the ~~wrong~~ opposite side of the road, but it was the same as the US and Korea.

So here are some of the 1000+ pictures I took during the 3 days I was gone.

Our Drive into Angkor Wat:

The cart thing on the right is a Tuk Tuk.

Before we were hot and tired!

Tuk Tuk and Momma riding a scooter with her child standing in front of her!

The mote around Bayon

Angkor Wat Temple in the background.

Lots of people riding bikes!

Bayon Temples

Entrance into the Bayon area.

Elephants!

We learned that our tour guide SUCKED at taking pictures! I could care less about me feet, I wanted the top of the statue we were standing in front of!

The good guys!

Cheese!

The bad guys!

Example of our tour guides poor picture taking skills. Picture above is pretty good, shows all of the face we are standing in front of. But below he cut off the top of the head!

My awesome travel companions! See Dad, I wasn't alone!

Not the lone traveler, just took lots of "selfies"

Our guide told us that every night the kids in the area stack the blocks and make it look like something special, but it's just a game.

One of my favorite pictures.

Me and Buddha!

Water used to flow over this stone.

A well.

Hi Shelby!

Kissy faces!

This is the best one!

Who knows what the tour guide was thinking when he decided to take this one!

Or this one! Looks like I'm going to bite the nose!

Starting to get a little hot and tired!

Shelby was brave and climbed the "stairs", but I had thoughts like, "Your a mom and have a person to take care of so don't get hurt." and "It's only the first temple, there is so much more to see, so don't get hurt." So I stayed at the bottom.

Horsie!

Not sure if the second row second over is no coughing or what...

The dreaded stairs! Every temple had stairs like these! This is why the next day Jack called my room and after I confused him with my limited Korean language skills, I told him that I wasn't even out of bed, but my legs were KILLING ME!

Jack too tall!

Awww

Jack's awesome idea to do a hand stand and me hold his feet up. We were laughing too hard and too sweaty for it to work!

The lone traveler takes another "selfie"!

That's my "It's hot out here!" look!

Ta Phrom Temple

This temple is the entire reason I wanted to go to Cambodia!

See the tree growing through the temple?

Reconstruction. On the plane I watched a documentary about Cambodia. They said the Ta Phrom temple didn't hold up as well as other temples in the area like Bayon because the stones were made out of a weaker material.

I'm holding up this entire tree!

A swing!

Or jungle gym!

Originally all the temples were Buddhist temples. Then the Cambodian king was a Hindu and had all the Buddhas scraped off the temple walls. Now they are Buddhist again.

Camelion

See the Buddha's face in between the trees?

My first lunch in Cambodia. Clint had me freaked out about the water. So I was only drinking water that was bottled and that I broke the seal on. I had a short freak out when at our first lunch stop, this is what came out!

Thankfully it was hot water!

Nice flushing handle!

Hey, look, it's the "fapkins" that Korea has!

Angkor Wat Temple

Angkor Wat up close.

Hanging with Visnu

The entire temple had these carvings on the sides telling the store between good and eviil.

On the top and in the middle of the Angkor Wat Temple.

Shelby and her Monkeys!

First Night on the Town:

Dr. Fish!

Elephant Terrace and Temple of the Leper King

Great way to start the morning.

Such a pretty road to the temples.

Monks

Our awesome Tuk Tuk driver!

The lone traveler

And she meets some friends!

Top of the terrace.

A kid had this bug on a string and kept lifting it up and dropping it back down.

Other kids looking for bugs.

Writing on the wall.

Temple of the Leaper King.

This is one of the reconstructed lions that probably was made at the Antisense school for Deaf and Mute.

Awesome tree!

Awesome place to go swimming... not!

Shopping outside the temples.

Cute half naked little boy that waved at us!

Drive by Bayon.

Driving was terrifying!

Monkeys! My hat flew off, so we stopped so I could run back and get it. When we pulled over there were a ton of monkeys on the side of the road.

My foot was just out of the shot, but that is how close it got to me!

This guy had 3 limbs not 4.

Bye bye monkeys.

Wedding decorations?

Look what was just down from our hotel? They even had speakers with loud Korean music blaring out of them!

Attempting to allow you to get an idea of the craziness of the streets.

Lunch time!

Keeping the luggage secured!

Riding Elephants:

The second full day we decided to ride elephants up to Phrom Bakng Mountain to watch the sun set.

Sitting on this "chair" riding an elephant was very terrifying for me at first! Growing up riding horses I feel fairly comfortable riding an animal, but not in a chair like this! It was extremely uncomfortable! To begin with the chair really is just sitting on top of the elephants back, not secured on by a girth of any means. So when I first sat on it, the chair tipped and I thought for sure I was going down. The guy next to me, Diego, lives in China and had actually been to South Korea because he had a girlfriend from Seoul. He had been waiting for a while for someone to come ride the elephant with him. You had to have 2 people per elephant. Not sure if it was because of the chair situation or if they wanted $40 a ride instead of $20 if only one person road the elephant. And yes, I paid $20 for a 10 minute ride on the elephant! And it was extremely uncomfortable! The chair rode into the back of my calf and it was extremely bumpy.

The LONG WAY DOWN

The lone traveler and her followers!

View from the Temple

Bunch of people waiting for sunset.

Angkor Wat

Waiting was boring, and the stones the temple were made out of were black so they were very hot!

All the people gathering.

Me and 100 of my "closest" friends.

Shelby the rule breaker, not having her shoulders covered on the temple!

Finally!

Pretty! Worth the wait.

Keeping it real! A bar ( I think) that we passed while finding a place to eat dinner!

Floating Village:

This trip was very different from going to the temples. On this trip we went to the "other" side of town. Where the people were even more poor! It was a bit more realistic of life in Cambodia

Not sure what was up with this house but it was the nicest one we saw.

Then the paved roads stopped!

And this is how the boats were parked.

$2 for a 5 minute massage...sure.

All the "houses" were some type of boat with a house built on top. Some were simple like this one.

Others more complex.

Everyone either fished or had a market on their boat.

Little bit curious where the dog goes potty.

This is how the boat was controlled. Connected to the steering wheel were chains. One went left and one went right, then down the side of the boat to the motor. I was fascinated by it.

The girl and her snake.

The boy in his tub.

The store we were brought to.

The metal floor/roof.

And of course you put me on a body of water and I will have to pee! Not sure what the barrel of water with the big cup was for, but I didn't touch ANYTHING!

This was the school for all the children.

And speaking of children, I am curious how many kids drown or almost drown here? Maybe everyone co-sleeps with their kids until they can swim so that kids don't wake up and walk around their little boat and into the water.

We were told that there were 170 house boats in the village and almost all the residents were Vietnamese. Vietnam is about a 6 hour boat ride from this floating village.

A mosque

Definitely a change of scenery from the manicured roads to the temples.

Antisense School for the Deaf and Mute

The school allows those who are deaf and mute to learn a trade and to have a life long job. Here is a sign of some of the signs they have to learn.

One of my favorites.

Got to keep those teeth healthy!

Steps to making a carving.

One of my favorite parts of Cambodia was seeing beautiful wood carvings that were part of the decor.

I want this guy in my back yard one day.

Cambodian War Museum

I'm smiling because the tour guide is done telling us horror story after horror story, and then basically begging for money after his tour.

Different guns/weapons used in various wars.

Land Mines

This was the kind of land mine that blew off the arm of our tour guide, or so he says.

Termite mound.

Our tour guide.

Land Mine.

Collection of war victims.

The traffic light is amazing. It shows how long it will stay green or red!

Pool Time!

Where our hotel lacked in style in our rooms, it made up for in the swimming pool area.

We met lots of cool people in the pool. Mostly from Australia but also a guy from Ireland too! Don't blame them for coming some place warm after being some place cold.

This coconut looked like it had a spider crawling out from behind it.

That's my brother!

These were our attempts of taking an underwater picture of all of us.

It took 3 tries to get all of us in it.

Last Dinner In Cambodia

We decided to go fancy for our last meal. We were on a hunt for a place with Air Conditioning. REALLY, cold, air conditioning. We had the hotel make a reservation for us. We got to that place and it looked boring, so we walked two restaurants up and down and alley. I saw a sign for Cambodian BBQ. After having Korean BBQ I wanted to see the difference and with a place with real AC why not!

Shelby's dinner.

My Cambodian BBQ. In the middle they put a giant slab of pork fat to grease up the bbq. Then each small bowl had the pieces of meat for the BBQ. I had Chicken, Squid, Pork and Crocodile!