Postcard from Cambodia

A little fuzzy. Taken with my phone from my tuktuk while heading out of Siem Reap. 

Once again I am not sure how to start. Some places really made we want to write, only the gruelingly slow speed of hen pecking on my iPhone made me take breaks, while other places, like Siem Reap, leave me with nothing to say. I would have loved to come here fifteen years ago before the tourists took over and the U.S. dollar became king. 

Pub Street near my hotel. No, thank you. I have all the weed I need. Thanks! 

This is a touristy town and I'm from Vegas. It's also a touristy town in a third-world country where the poverty is just overwhelming and 1 in 300 people are victims of landmines. While the tourists definitely bring in money and help, I can't help but to think how much the locals must hate us. Not a Starbucks or McDonald's in sight, though, so that is something. 

Moo with me. 

I spent the past four days doing exactly what I, a tourist, is supposed to do. I toured around the Angkor Wat complex for three days hitting the minor loop, the grand loop, and then went to two outlining temples today. 

Woke up really damned early to take this pic. Really early. 

Loved Bayon. 

Managed to have plenty of alone time to work on my selfie game. 

I can balance my iPhone on -anything-.

Held things in my left hand. 

Like palm candy 

Looks like this. 

Beer. Gasp. You're shocked. I know. 

So romantic. 

My goal in Cambodia was to see some impressive temples, but I tried not to get myself too excited since, you know, I've seen a lot of temples and at some point I'm probably going to stop being impressed. But this trip is not that trip. 

I know. Door photos are cliche. Bite me. 

I like trees?

I saw a lot of temples. You're probably picking up on that. 

1 mile hike takes you to a 1000 year old river shrine. 

I actually didn't eat much this trip. I had dinner every night. Not a lot of food porn to offer you. Beer every night. I'd have a snack or two during the day. It was just too damned hot and, while I totally get the need for income, the constant drone of, "Lady? You buy something," made me not want to buy anything. 

Leave me alone, however, and I'll come to you. Mmmmm... A little snack for the walk home... Hell yes I want condensed milk and chocolate syrup. 

While I can say without hesitation that this is one of the top three most beautiful place I have ever been, the one-two punch of too many foreigners and too many desperate people trying to make a buck makes it awkward to enjoy. 

A herd of tourists who were much louder than this photo may suggest. 

A lot of the temples really looked more like the above photo than my tricky photography suggests. Between 5:30-8:00, it was possible to be alone at a lot of the temples aside from Angkor Wat. After 8:00? Yesh. I actually had a bit of a scare with an aggressive guy when I was alone in the jungle, though, so I didn't always mind the people within shouting distance away. 

This has been coming up a lot. 

Pretty interesting and the only place in Cambodia I bought something. 

Random interruption. I forgot to put DEET on my legs and definitely got some bites today. Oops. 

I don't know. I kind of feel like I would like to come back to Cambodia. Maybe two or three more trips might help me break through the huge barriers between the locals and the foreign invaders. I would like to eat some real food. Dear Countries, if you only feed the visitors watered down crappy versions of your food, we are just going to have to assume that all your food is bland and boring. Even people in the U.K. would think this is bad. Stop hiding the spices! 

One week is just not enough but I don't really feel inclined to invest more time here. It's been beautiful, and when I leave the day after tomorrow (can we bring overmorrow into common use so we can that stupidly long phase?), it's back "home" to Beijjng so I am super sad to see the end of my vacation. On the other hand, it will be nice to get all my clothes back on hangers and have a 'fridge again. It's nice to just have food for breakfast in your home. 

Crap. I just remembered I have no air con in my bedroom. Ugh. 

Oh well. This was a rough and rambling post but... That's where I am at right now. 

Scariest photobomber I've ever had.