Cambodian Carnival

Every country has different ideas about how to employ animals to amuse tourists and townsfolk alike.  China trots its giant pandas out like show ponies.  Tokyo has cat cafes a plenty, where anyone can pop in to stroke a kitty and sip a coffee.  Mongolia shelters tiny ponies and gives camel rides.  Thailand has snake shows, tiger temples, and elephant preserves. 

And while Cambodia's contributions in this category are perhaps slightly B-list, they've got a couple of interesting ideas.  In the pro category, Dr. Fish massage is on every corner.  Open tanks where for $2 fish will nibble the dead skin off of your feet for 30 minutes.  It tickled, it worked, and it was mesmerizing.

Less appealing was this restaurant enclosed in netting.  The claim was that thousands of butterflies had been captured for the diners' viewing pleasure and would be flying overhead.  Given the swarming and prevalent insects in malaria-ridden Cambodia, the last thing we were up for was a night swatting away their slightly prettier cousins.   You've got to hand them points for creativity though. 

Don't fear the Reap(er)

After spending a few weeks in Vietnam, we were ready to leave the challenges of the developing world behind.  But, conscientious travelers that we are, we figured we'd flog ourselves later if we skipped a visit to the Angkor temples in Cambodia.  We put off going for as long as we could, imagining a seedier, poorer, harder version of Vietnam.  Geographically, it didn't make sense to fly over Cambodia to get back to Thailand without stopping, so this past week we finally took our medicine.

And that medicine tasted like bubble gum!  Siem Reap was, quite literally, made for tourists.  The city is 100% manufactured for the benefit of Westerners and immediately beyond the town limits on all sides is regular old Cambodian poverty.  But within the high-rollers confines it is one of the easiest, most comfortable places we've been on this trip.  Our tuk tuk driver was Mr. Goodvibes, our hotel was spotless, there were endless respectable coffee shops, and everyone we encountered spoke English.  We ended up being there for about a week and got so relaxed we easily could have stayed longer.  The $6/hr in-room Khmer massages didn't make the exit any easier.

The Cambodian people have it rough but, overall, are a gentle bunch.  The tiny children constantly hocking trinkets around the temples made us sad, but a lot of the kids were incredibly funny and charming and in their distracted moments reverted to being silly, playful tots.  At one point a little girl was giving Ed the hard sell on her basket of crap.  It went like this:

Girl: Sir, how about some bracelets for $2?
Ed: No, thanks
Girl: How about some postcards for $2?
Ed: No, nothing.
Girl: Okay, you can give me $2 for nothing then.

And then, like all 5-year-olds, she completely cracked up at her own joke.  And so did Ed.


Lara Crofting it up in the temples was the best.  The park is at the turning point where the government has figured out that this thing is a legit money maker, but hasn't yet started to restrict access to it.  We climbed on  the thousand year old ruins like kids on a jungle gym.  We got dirty and our quads hurt and Ed took approximately one bazillion photos.  We spent 3 full days exploring temple ruins and probably could have done 3 more.  We also took in an abysmal cello concert, visited a depressing landmine museum, and shopped in the massive local market.  One of the most fascinating and worthwhile weeks we've spent. 

For those who may not find themselves in Cambodia in the near future, we watched an excellent documentary while eating lunch in a roadside shack.  Dirt floors and a DVD player, obvs.  It was called "Mysteries of Asia: Jewel in the Jungle," produced by TLC.  Great footage of several of the temples and way more information about their history than we got anywhere else. 

Cambodia was the first place we've been in a while that bowled us over.  We've returned to the childlike wonder perspective on travel, which we had lost in Vietnam.  Its good to be back, and fitting given its almost Christmas!