Cambodia

Our Cambodia stint was quick and dirty due to our deadline to pick up my sister in Thailand the following week.  I'd like to take a moment to address that "deadline" has ceased to be a stress inducing event involving renewing corporate property and casualty insurance policies (I'll wait while you vomit) and I can now refer to it as an awesome point in time where I am reunited with one of my favorite people in the world.  Hallelujah.  The minor downfall being we were only able to visit Phnom Penh and Siem Reap during this whirlwind.  I can feel your overwhelming sympathy from here.  

For me, Phnom Penh was a slurry of mixed emotions garnished with some hard lessons.  Due to poverty and seriously fucked up recent events here, human exploitation is extremely high.  Most prominent being prostitution and the mass amounts of children forced into panhandling.  I don't like what I'm about to say, but it is the only way I can properly express my feelings; the kids are obnoxious.  Modification; the panhandling techniques which they are unfairly trained to do since before they could even walk are obnoxious.  The pestering is constant, relentless, saddening and leaves you feeling emotionally frail at the end of every day.  You are warned not to buy into it as it perpetuates poverty by rewarding adults for keeping their kids out of school, but somehow snubbing 100 small children a day doesn't make you feel like you deserve the Philanthropist of the Year Award.  One particularly persistent kid got up in Kelly's face, close enough that Kelly exclaimed, "Whoa buddy, you smell like Red Bull".  Nothing like pumping your 8-year old up on stimulants for a productive day of hawking friendship bracelets.  I wonder if Red Bull knows it's product is being abused as a drug by small children?  Right... it's their business model.    

The kids are not the only ones living the hard knock life.  Prostitution also runs rampant in the form of the hundreds of massage parlors in the area.  Our guide book literally cautioned, "Most massages in Phnom Penh are the naughty kind".  I guess Santa isn't visiting Cambodia this year.  Because of this phenomena, there are very few reputable establishments around town.  In fact, the only safe recommendation was for Seeing Hands Massage by Blind People.  You can't even judge me on that one, it's the real name.  It almost sounds like a gimmick, like the nail salons that offer pedicures that use hundreds of tiny fish to eat the dead skin off your feet (those are here too by the way).  I wasn't actually brave enough to get a blind massage, but I like to think they are even better than someone with 20/20 due to their other senses being enhanced in absence of vision (thank god my blog isn't in braille,  this is just offensive).

As a distraction from the poverty and prostitution, we ventured out of the city for some educational site seeing at The Killing Fields.  It is absolutely as uplifting as the name suggests.  In the not so distant past, Cambodia endured years of heinous genocide under Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.  It was fascinating, enlightening, terrifying and just downright fucked up.  I was, however, grateful for the chance to get a glimpse into a part of history that is hard to absorb via text books and the History Channel.  That is not to say that it wasn't deeply depressing.  I may or may not have had the uncontrollable urge to cry over a ice cream sundae when we got back to our hostel.  

Phnom Penh was a bit of a tourist reality check and I was glad to get some respite when we headed out to Siem Reap.  In contrast, Siem Reap is an adorable town nestled in the shadows of the nearby Angkor Temples.  In particular, Angkor Wat is one of the Top Ten Wonders of the World.  Upon a "must do" suggestion, Kelly and I woke up at Balls O'Clock in the morning to watch the sunrise over the ancient temple.  While I must admit it was majestic as hell, I was not a happy camper about having my picture taken at 5:00 am for my day pass into the complex.  Puffy faced and coffee deprived, it looks like a begrudged mug shot.  Fortunately I only had to show it about 20 times that day to multiple strangers to gain admission into the various temples.  I promise my vanity didn't ruin the amazing day of exploring some of the most fascinating ruins  in the world.  It was one of those things I only ever imagined seeing in pictures and here I was getting to climb and scurry all over these ancient, ornately carved temples that look like they are straight out of Tomb Raider (one of them actually is).  They were beautiful and interesting and so much easier to swallow than the Genocide Museum.  I love the history both cities have to offer, but I am admittedly soft and will have to accept the fact that I prefer pretty things.  

Angkor Wat