Apologies for the long delay in posting! My friend, Megan Hanel, graciously decided to come visit me for Christmas and we spent the last 10 days traveling around Cambodia. She arrived on December 20th and immediately after her 25+ hours of traveling hopped on a minivan with me to make the 5-hour trip to Kratie. We stayed in Kratie for four nights, traveled to Phnom Penh for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, went to Siem Reap to see the Ankgor Temples, and finally back to Phnom Penh where Megan left from on the 31st. I feel incredibly lucky to have a friend who decided to forgo spending time with her family on Christmas in order to come visit me. I was not relishing the idea of spending my first Christmas without my family and instead was able to have a whirlwind trip with one of my closest friends.
I enjoyed sharing with Megan what I’ve learned from living here so far, but the country/language/culture etc. are still so new to me so it was a bit of a case of the blind leading the blind, but we managed. Some of the highlights include……..
· Kayaking the Mekong – When arriving in Kratie I heard there was one other American, a girl named Suzanne, who ran a kayaking business. Suzanne also runs a café which happens to be located a block from my house and I’ve taken to eating at least 3-4 dinners per week at her place. Procuring “groceries” to make dinner I’ve found is incredibly challenging. Long story short I’m lucky to have made friends with Suzanne and was excited about going kayaking with her and Megan. The trip was so much fun and I enjoyed seeing the river from a different perspective. I thought it would be a lazy paddle down the river, but was startled to find the current and eddies were actually quite difficult to navigate. While I ran us into a couple of bushes and we ended up spending 20 minutes trying to paddle against the current only to realize we actually hadn’t moved, we did spot some dolphins and overall really enjoyed the trip.
· Our stay at the Sofitel Phokeethra Hotel – We decided to splurge on the 24th and 25th and stayed in an incredibly fancy hotel in Phnom Penh. While I enjoyed the great service, comfy beds, and yummy chocolates in our rooms, I think I was most excited to have hot water for the first time in 2 months! We also went to a nice dinner on Christmas Eve at one of the hotel’s restaurants and I ordered lasagna. The dish actually had no noodles and was made with potatoes, but…it was still very tasty and I was quite happy to not be eating rice.
· Church service on the 25th – Megan and I found a church for expats (aka the service was in English) and we were pleasantly surprised to show up to a church packed with people of multiple nationalities all coming together to celebrate Christmas. We sang some familiar carols and some I had never heard of, but overall it help make the day feel more like Christmas and remind me why we celebrate the holiday.
· Temples of Angkor – I knew I would travel to Siem Reap while I was in Cambodia to see the temples and am so happy I was able to go so early on in my stay. The temples are stunning displays of the art and architecture of the Angkorian period (AD 802-1432) and helped illuminate the country’s religious past to me – originally Hindu, eventually transitioning to Buddhism. Each of the Cambodian kings was expected to dedicate temples to his patron god, typically Shiva or Vishnu (Hindu gods), his individual family members, and also one to demonstrate his power as a ruler. With each successor the temples grew more extravagant and the city of Ankgor eventually spanned 150 mi2 with a population of 1 million people.
The first day in Siem Reap we booked a bike tour with Grasshopper Tours and had a wonderful day being shepherded around by our guide, Mr. Sambo. We visited Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Bayon, and Ta Prohm temples. Ta Prohm was my favorite because the trees have started to reclaim the temple and weave their roots intricately throughout the stones. At one point we went off the road and biked around the corners of the fortified city, Ankgor Thom. The scenery was gorgeous and I felt we were experiencing the temples in a way most tourists do not. The next day we navigated the temples ourselves, hiring an adorable tuk-tuk driver who stayed with us all day. We decided to take the risk of traveling 45-minutes north to see the temple of Banteay Srei and were rewarded with a temple containing amazingly detailed stone carvings. Banteay Srei means “Citadel of the Women” and it is said the temple must have been created by a woman because the carvings are so fine and detailed.
· Having company – this is incredibly vague, but I was so happy to have Megan’s company on the trip. Any of the silly challenges I’ve experienced the last 2 months – where to buy food, how to navigate the city, trying to speak in Khmer, have all been on my own. Megan and I had our fair share of travel hassles, but we handled them together and I was so thankful to have someone to laugh about them with after they had been resolved.
As for now, I need to get back into gear on the research, but I’m really happy with how our trip turned out.