Cambodia!!

Tom arrived in Thailand on Wednesday, and Friday He and I went to Cambodia! The trip took about 12 hours, but was worth it! We are lucky to be able to go to Cambodia at all. The Thais and Cambodians are not exactly friends, and it is difficult to enter and exit. Because of the turbulent history and the recent genocide in Cambodia, tourists have not been able to enter the country for a while. In fact, up until the late 90's tourists were being murdered there. Angkor Wat just reopened to foreigners in 2001!! I have a feeling after being there that pretty soon things may turn sour again, and people may not be able to enter the country like we got to!
We arrived in Siem Riep and checked into a guest house called "coconut villa". We went to get dinner, and found a restaurant with traditional Cambodian food. The staff was so friendly, and the food amazing. We ended up talking to them about Khmer culture for hours! We also met a German guy who we went to the local bar, "Angkor What" with!
The next day we woke up early to go to Angkor Wat. We had met a Cambodian, Johnny, who took us! We went to the main temple first. There is no way to describe it. The whole thing was breathtaking! These temples are almost 1,000 years old. We saw many of the temples (there are tons, covering many many miles). My favorites include Bantay (with easter island like faces in the towers), and Ta Phrom (with trees growing out of the temple and overtaking the stone). Overall each temple was individual. The experience was almost overwhelming. Pictures will not do it justice. We finished in the late afternoon, and came back to go to the night market. Afterwards, we had dinner at the same restaurant as the night before, and then met up with our Cambodian friends. They killed a chicken and made Cambodian wine. Unfortunately I was so tired I fell asleep, but Tom partied with them all night.
The next morning, we were up at 5 am to go see the sunrise at the main temple. It was FREEZING cold! The sun finally came up, and the cold was worth it! It was a spectacular view. The rest of the morning, we went to the other temples we had not seen yet. We even climbed on the roof of one. One large temple had very small doorways, and I hit my head on one HARD in the afternoon. I suffered a minor concussion (I was very dizzy and Tom and Johnny said I was walking crooked). I really don't remember much of the temples after that, and I went home in the late afternoon and slept. I woke up feeling much better, although had a HUGE goos egg on my head! You know me...super klutz.
That night we walked around town, and went to bed early.
This morning we woke up at 4 am to head back to Thailand, and made the 12 hour journey. I am exhausted, but really Cambodia was one of the coolest places I have ever seen! Their history is very sad, and much of the country is still feeling the affects of it. I am afraid that Angkor wat may not survive another century. You have to be very careful where you walk because there are still active land mines, and although they deny it, the Khmer Rouge is still active, as is apparent by the numerous checkpoints. the country is very poor, and communist. There are children begging almost everywhere. It is heartbreaking! Despite this, the people are so friendly and eager to share their history and culture. I found Cambodians to be much nicer than the Thais! The country was beautiful, and I wish we had more time to see more of it!
All in all great trip!

I have been teaching much more lately, and have to commute to Pattaya to teach twice a week, so things are kind of hectic here...but good! Tom is having a blast, and I am taking him to Koh Samet this weekend.

I am uploading photos from cambodia...but I took way too many so it may take a while. In the meantime, here is an album of Christmas, new years, and our trip to Hua Hin:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016498&l=b054b&id=83901952

hopefully I will get up the others soon!
miss you all!

UPDATE: 3 hours later...180 photos up! Too Tired for captions...if you have questions about what the pictures are, ask me and I will explain when I haven't been up for 24 hours!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016686&l=5cc85&id=83901952