Muay Thai

That night we had the best Thai food at a restaurant called Rakk. I had fried cheeses wontons, Beef Panang curry, and Pad See Ew noodles. Then as if we were not full enough, we hopped next door to have chocolate cake and coffee for dessert.
Then, we decided to take in some local culture at a Muay Thai, kickboxing, match. I had never been to anything like that before, so I was excited to see what it was all about. I was a bit disappointed to see such young boys fighting. They looked about 10, but I hope they were older. Each pair that came out to fight did a ceremonial little dance around the ring. They were accompanied by a small band of musicians playing music, which continued while they were fighting. We watched 6 matches. One guy won by knocking out his opponent, and I felt so worried about the guy being carried out on a stretcher. I guess watching young boys beat each other up isn’t my idea of entertainment. But it was an interesting experience. And that was day one in Bangkok.

Reclining Buddha and Temple of the Dawn

On the same day as The Emerald Buddha, we visited Wat Pho (The Reclining Buddha). Inside a large building is a giant gold Buddha lying on his side. In some of the corners of the picture you can see
some people for perspective.
After that, we took short ferry ride across the river to Wat Arun (Temple of the Dawn). We saw the temple at sunset. It was no where near as beautiful as the one at Phnom Bakheng, but it was nice.

Emerald Buddha

Now, for the Thailand part of my trip. I continued on the next part of my trip to Bangkok with two JET’s from Wakayama, Stacy and Susanne. We were all on the PEPY trip as well, and decided to have a 6-day layover in Thailand instead of a few hours. We arrived late on the 30th, so we headed straight to the, crappy, hotel and went to sleep. The next day we went to see the temples of Thailand. They are very different from the Cambodian temples. The temples in Cambodia are made of stone and some in ruins – exactly what I like to see. The Thailand temples, on the other hand, were all sparking with gold and gems. You could blind yourself if you weren’t careful. They were very pretty, but I prefer the Cambodian style.
The first temple we went to is called Wat Phra Kaeo, The Temple of the Emerald Buddha.” It had lots of gleaming gold buildings, and others encrusted with millions of little gems. It must have taken forever to stick them all on. In the same complex as the Emerald Buddha is the Royal Palace. It looked like quite a large residence, but who wants a whole bunch of strangers traipsing through your front yard on a daily basis.
These days were jam packed as well, so I will post pictures of each of the three temples we saw that day separately.

Last Cambodia Post

This is the last part of my Cambodia blog. We saw so many things, but hopefully, these past few posts have given you an idea of Cambodia’s beauty and charm. Here I have posted some random pictures that I picked up from Kate and Parry. Some funny or interesting signs, pigs on motos, the bar with a pit full of 15 crocodiles, and the kindness of the PEPY group hanging stockings for us at Christmas.
Cambodia is absolutely my favorite country I have visited so far. There are so many things I still want to see, or to see again. I highly recommend the PEPY tour group for anyone interested in not only travel, but helping the environment as well. I think of it as responsible traveling. I am so happy to have had this wonderful opportunity and to be able to share it with you all.
Next I will post pictures about Thailand.

Flooded Forest

In the middle of our tour through the floating village, we went to one of my favorite parts of the trip, the flooded forest. We switched from our larger boat to small canoes. There were two passengers, and a person rowing at the front and a small child (about 6-8 years old) steering and paddling at the back. The canoe with it’s visible holes through the wood, made me a bit nervous at first, but after freaking out (see pic) when we first got on, I relaxed and had a very pleasant journey. We were taken through the flooded forest in a line of canoes. It seemed like a ride at Disneyland, but it was better because it was real. I kept having visions of hippos popping their heads out of the water trying to capsize our boats or snakes dangling down from the treetops, but no such luck. I saw a few birds and that was about it. Since the water level was low, we weren’t eye to eye with the topmost branches, but it was still very beautiful. There were many plants growing in the water, I don’t know their names, but I think they eat them. At one point, all the canoes circled up and we sat there floating. It was so beautiful and peaceful. Then one of the boat drivers started singing a song. It was all so quiet while the melody crept around us and seemed sad but beautiful at the same time. Hopefully the video will play. When she finished, someone had the bright idea of following that up with a few verses of “Row, Row Your Boat.” Totally spoiled the moment for me, although I guess the kids and people on the boats enjoyed watching the foreigners sing.
Going through this flooded forest was one of the highlights of the trip.

Floating Village

For our last full day in Siem Reap, we visited Tonle Sap Lake, the largest fresh water lake in Southeast Asia. The Tonle Sap Lake connects with the Tonle Sap River, which connects to the Mekong River. When you are on the water, it is hard to believe that you are on a lake because it is so big. It feels more like an ocean. I was a bit alarmed when I first saw the boat. I was tempted to put the lifejacket on immediately, but decided to not to be a whiny girl about it.
When the boat first went out, we passed some houses built on sticks (not sure if I can call them stilts). Cambodia gets quite a bit of rain during the rainy season and the already large lake floods to about 5 times the level we saw it at. Houses that are 10 meters in the air now in the dry season, will be only 1-2 meters from the water level in the wet season. So there are many floating villages on the lake. This means that not only the houses float, but the schools (including the basketball court), churches, and pig pens. It is probably difficult to have a garden on the water, so there are boats filled with fruits and vegetables that come right up to your boat. For the thirsty tourist, there is a parent-child team that brings drinks to you by pulling along side the boat. The small child (about 5 or 6 years old) leaps onto the tourist boat walks through the aisle, then beacons the parent to pull up again and leaps back onto their little motor boat and speeds away looking for the next boatload of customers. As you can imagine, this is quite dangerous, though very entertaining. The picture of the boy in the blue T-shirt and white cap is one who jumped onto our boat.
Motorboats and canoes are not the only way to travel on the Tonle Sap. We saw many boys floating and paddling around in metal washbasins. It was the funniest thing to see these boys floating around the lake in a large bowl.
Pork seems like one of the common meats in Cambodia, so at the floating village, the piggies have their own floating pig pens. We also saw a cage filled with heaps of crocodiles or alligators (I can’t tell the difference).
Sanitation is an issue here with the place to bathe, wash clothes and dishes, and the toilet all being in very close proximity on the water. They were all so interesting to see. Such a different way of life!
This is getting to be a large post, so I will put the next part in a separate post. Oh and I want to give credit to Kate for many of these pictures. She got some really good ones, so I am happy I can share them with you all. Thanks!