Cambodia

Sooooo we've been up to quite a bit since we last blogged...haven't used the internet much in the last week or so. To catch you all up we left Koh Tao on Feb 3rd (maybe) and travelled 28 hours by boat and bus and bus and personel car to Sihanoukville Cambodia. Crossed the border at Koh Kong and had no problems. We arrived pretty late in S'ville so stayed at Chiva's Shack. Its name describes exactly what it is, but we had met and travelled with a German girl who had stayed there before so it worked for the night. The next day we had breakfast on the beach and got a big Cambodian welcome from about 8-10 ladies trying to sell bracelets, fruit, massages and any other product or service you might need. Once in Cambodia this form of hospitality DOES NOT STOP:) We met up with Arainn's dad in S'ville which was a nice surprise and after changing to a slightly more comfortable hotel hung out on the beach for a few days. One of the days we rented scooters and road out to Ream National Park, where they have a "waterfall". Its a river that flows down hill...there arn't many mountains in Cambodia. We took a boat tour out to a few islands where we were able to snorkle and chill out on some really nice beaches...however they don't compare to the beaches of Thailand.

After S'ville we caught a bus to Phnom Pehn (PP) where we stayed at Arainn's dad's apartment. He was able to show us around and take us to some places tourists don't usually go including Oudong Mountain. There is a huge pagoda there with 100 monks and 300 donchi (nuns or people in service of the monks) all learning meditation. We gave an offering to a few monks and they gave us a blessing....twice because during their first attempt they were laughing pretty hard...shy about having 3 western girls in front of them is what we were told. It was pretty cool. We also went to S-21 or Toul Slang which is the prison in PP where hundreds of people were tortured for information during the reign of the Khmer Rouge and then the killing fields where they were taken to be "destroyed". The numbers vary but its estimated that up to 3 million people were killed over about 4 years.

Now we are in Siem Reap and will be visiting Angkor Wat and celebrating Megan's birthday.

Tata for now.

BAM