We're Soaring...Flying...

 First of all, if you can reference the inspiration for this blog title, I love you. Secondly, I may or may not be watching it as I type this. 


 Alas, Songkran came to an end, but the fun wasn't over yet. Sarah, her sister and her sister's friend had joined the party up North and we still had some oomph left in us. It was my last day in Chiang Mai and we decided to do something crazy to truly make it the best week ever.  We signed up for The Jungle Flight. The Jungle Flight is a ziplining tour through the jungle. We zip-lined from tree to tree (about 35 platforms in total), walked across shaky canopy walks high above the ground, and even abseiled (straight drops) down from a few of the trees. I thought I'd be a nervous wreck, but they basically give you some hairnets, a helmet, harness you in, give you a QUICK introduction and then push you off of a tree platform. I was soaring through the jungle before I had a chance to panic. 


It was unbelievably fun and a great way to see the jungle. The longest zipline was about 900 feet long, while the tallest abseil was 120 feet above ground (scary!) Our guides were crazy and kept us laughing the whole time. They loved to make us freak out by yelling "No NOT that one!" after we had unhooked ourselves 50 feet above the ground during the abseils. I think I only squealed once. 


I know Laos offers an extended version of this and I definitely want to try it out. Rather than a few hours in the trees, you spend 2 days zip-lining and spend a night in a tree house. I think it will be pretty awesome. 


Here are a few snapshots from way up high:

Hairnets? Check. 

Amy ziplining AND peace-signing. Impressive.

Sarah in action

Abseil!

View from the top

Srall with one of our guides.

   And here's a quick video I took while in flight!

Untitled from Nell Riccio on Vimeo.

      Now I'm off enjoying the sun in BALI and LANGKAWI. What is my life? I don't hate it.

Let's Do This Thang: Songkran 2011

Sawatdee Pee Mai!

A Songkran Haiku

Dirty and Icy,

Water is everywhere.

Bucket to the face.

Ok, so obviously haikus aren't my thing, but I honestly have no idea how to describe the gloriousness of this holiday. April 13th-15th marks the Thai New Year and this country seriously knows how to celebrate. The entire country shuts down and partakes in water fights to the most epic proportions. Chiang Mai is known as the Songkran hotspot so I obviously had to go. 

I arrived on Sunday night knowing that the events would definitely begin on Tuesday afternoon, but as of Monday morning, things were getting a little wet and wild. I met up with a few people, found the perfect weapon (a Doraemon gun) and walked around the neighborhood and attacked little children with water. They still owned us. From that moment on, I was in Songkran mode and only stayed dry for 5 minutes max until Friday night.

For 5 days straight, it was a pure water war. People filled the streets, squirting guns in your face, dumping buckets on your head, whipping buckets at your body, and/or spraying you with a hose. Nobody is safe. Truckloads of people (I'm talking 20+ people per vehicle) circled around town with trash barrels full of ICE water and doused you. If you tried to escape the frigid shower, you got attacked on the other side by 1, 2, 3, sometimes 36 buckets of dirty river water, while also succumbing to about 6 other people relentlessly squirting at you with more ice water from guns of all shapes and sizes. IT. WAS. AWESOME.

I have never been so happy. I spent the entire week with a huge grin on my face. It was impossible to not love life. Yeah, there were times at night, when I was dry and warm, hungry for dinner, and wanting more than anything to stay dry (to no avail), but it made everything more exciting. It was like an obstacle course to get from Point A to Point B, trying to avoid buckets to the face. I am still in complete shock that I am not dying of some weird disease after what I put my body through that week. Mai Pen Rai. 

To add to the fun of Songkran, I met a really cool, super fun group of people (Little Bird Guesthouse is the best!) that made my experience even better. I basically spent the entire week hanging out with the same group of people, some of whom included CIEE members that I hadn't seen in a while. Between Songkrannin', the people, the food, and the environment, this week goes down as one of the best of my life. 

Courtesy of Google

Game Face
(Photo courtesy of Sarah)

Tuk-tuk attack!

(via Google)

Wet and Wild
(Photo via Sarah)

  

Hippies, Hummus and a Homestay

After a quick 36 hours of laundry, Pad Thai, sleep and recovery, I packed back up and headed up to Northern Thailand...by myself! Sarah's sister came to visit (Booyah!) and they wanted to go down South to some islands, but I wanted to explore more of Northern Thailand before getting my Songkran on. So I did!

I arrived in Chiang Mai around 8pm, quickly made some friends at the airport and the hostel and had myself a good first night. No night is a failure when Khao Soy is involved. I woke up early the next morning to walk around my beloved Chiang Mai. My heart beats for Chiang Mai so it was kind of hard when I had to pull myself away later that morning to head up north to Pai, the hippy capital of Thailand. I was absolutely dreading the van ride there because it was up an extremely windy mountain. Memories of Sangkhlaburi flooded my mind (flashback: Sarah and I being 99% sure we were going to die on our terrifyingly fast and curvy ride up a mountain) and so I forced myself to fall asleep to avoid panicking. Luckily, I woke up when we were nearing Pai, so I was able to take in the breathtaking views. Mountains. Trees. Mist. Life. 

I had no plan for Pai. I was aware that it was dry season so the local waterfalls would be a no-go, and I am too much of a wimp to drive a motorbike so that wouldn't be happening either. I was perfectly content walking around the small town, soaking up the local flavor, devouring a little too much hummus (gotta love the hippies for their dedication to hummus), and simply relaxing in a beautiful environment. While I was wandering across a pretty little bridge, I slowed my steps as I noticed a guy in front of me doing the same thing. He slowly pulled off his sunglasses and we just stared at each other in shock. Was it true love? No...even better...it was Peter! Peter is someone from the CIEE program who lived in Suphan with me but I never had a chance to say goodbye to. I was really happy to see him, and even happier that I got to spend the night catching up with him and saying an official goodbye. Beyond that pleasant surprise, I really liked Pai. It was very chill, gorgeous and the perfect spot to just hang out. If it wasn't for the epic drive up, I would probably return. 

Pretty Pai

Cute little Pai

Despite my fear of van rides up scary mountains, I did it again, to go even further north to Soppong. I had arranged to do a homestay in the Lisu Village, where I would stay with a woman in her house in her village in the middle of nowhere. Why? I have no idea. I almost regretted my decision when I was dumped off in 'downtown' Soppong which looked a lot like nothing. Seriously- does a few huts and a stand selling pig's faces count as downtown? I paced the street a few times until a motorbike taxi finally came around and brought me to the Lisu village. I immediately regretted regretting my decision (motorbikes have that effect on me). The ride to the village was unreal. It was beautiful and isolated and I was so excited to see my accommodation for the night. 

"Downtown"

                                     
Within minutes of my arrival, a woman dressed in traditional Lisu gear (think ornate, pom-pom covered, bell jingling, velvety goodness), showed me my room (a mat on the floor with a giant mosquito net), the pig's den, the outhouse and the kitchen. She was in the process of making lunch for me. This was all that I could see. 

Mmm....fried bugs

Yikes. Is that for me or for the pigs? We sat on buckets around a small wicker table and she placed some rice, soup and the plate of delectable bugs in front of me. I was really dreading the offer, but she never asked me to try any. Thank goodness! Instead, she grabbed them by the handful and devoured the entire plate herself. 


Immediately after lunch, her friend came over, toothless and wearing a matching outfit, and began a private weaving instruction. It was a long process that involved bamboo sticks, a coffee can, yarn and some wooden tools. I helped her create a pattern in the yarn, which was quite the impressive project and then she led me to the porch, strapped on this ridiculous looking belt, hooked the yarn onto it, while the other end was tied up to a pole on the wall. She demonstrated the multi-step process and then took off the belt, and strapped me in instead. 3 hours later, I had an incredibly sore back, I was sweating, but I had made my very own Lisu style scarf! I was very proud of myself. 
 

Demonstration before I got strapped in

Love my new scarf!

The rest of the day was incredibly relaxing. I wandered around the village, chatted up with some kids and joined Susanna (my host) and her friend for a long walk downtown to buy some things at the market. On our way back, I was told I would be joining Susanna at her family's house (hut) for some soup. So, we trek over and sit on the dirt floor and I am given a massive bowl of questionable food, which I have no choice but to eat up. It was actually okay, but I was so distracted by the amount of bugs and chickens surrounding me, jumping on me and trying to get into my food, that I didn't really make much of a dent. And then suddenly, Susanna tells me to go back to the house because another guest has arrived. With no direction and no guidance whatsoever, I find my way back and spend the rest of the afternoon/night chatting it up with the new guest, a guy from England.  We are soon joined by three girls from Madrid and the five of us find ourselves trapped on the porch by a pretty intense thunderstorm. It was probably the highlight of my time there. We watched the thunderstorm approaching and ooh-ed and ahhh-ed as the sky turned dark and turned the mountain-filled landscape to a shade of beige. Lightning struck, the power went out and we left to sit around inside, candles lit, sipping on tea and talking the hours away. It was all very Thai and I loved it. 


I returned to Pai the next day so I could catch a bus back to Chiang Mai. I stayed long enough to eat more hummus and enjoy the good vibes before returning to Chiang Mai for what would turn out to be an epic week. Legendary, even. 

My "bed" for the night

The kitchen

The village

Soppong

The amount of hummus I consumed in Pai (give or take a few scoops)

                                       

Happy Easter

Happy Easter from Thailand! 

No Easter Bunny for me this year, but the Easter Elephant will do just fine :) It is definitely sad to be away from the family and miss out on some killer Easter egg hunts and 12 straight hours of eating. No Cadbury Eggs, no Peeps, no Robin's Eggs for me. Instead, I get to delight myself with this Thai dessert:

Slash...no, thanks.

But really, what is breaking my heart is that I am missing out on one of the greatest baking opportunities of the year. This could be happening:

Easter Candy Bark 

(via Gingerbread Bagels- an AMAZING baking blog. You should take a look!)

Or this:

Cadbury Egg Brownies (via Gingerbread Bagels)

Or a re-make of this:

Bob Cake....made with love by Sarah and I in 2009

But, I guess I'll have to wait until next year to go baking crazy. I hope everyone has a fantastic day full of deliciousness and fun! Enjoy those chocolate bunnies!

Hong Kong: The Land of Efficiency

Goodbye sweat, cheap food, motorbikes and roadside squatters and hello efficiency. After a long layover in Bangkok, we made it to Hong Kong. Upon arrival it was immediately obvious that we were no longer in a developing country. Nope...we were definitely in a SAR. 

Stop 4: Hong Kong 

Highlights:

*SARs. What is a SAR, you ask? Well, it's a Special Administrative Region, of course! I literally knew close to nothing about HK before arriving, but luckily, Megh did her homework and let us know that HK is a SAR of China, having its own set of laws and policies. And not only that, but Macau, one of the islands of HK, is also a SAR. So I am pretty much a SARs pro now. I'm kind of a big deal.

*Efficiency. HK reeks with efficiency. It is impossible to get lost in the city because there are signs pointing you in the right direction wherever you go. There are a surplus of escalators and travelators taking you where you need to be when you want to be there. The subway system was top notch, and the accompanying Octopus Card made our lives so much easier. It's essentially a one tap plastic card that gains you entry onto most forms of transportation (ferries, subways, trams). It was our best friend for the week. 

*Good vibes. Hong Kong was definitely a unique city. It had a NYC/San Francisco vibe while still completely maintaining it's Asian culture. It is a very trendy spot. 

*Victoria's Peak. The view from the peak was absolutely stunning. First you take a tram up an extremely steep mountain, which provided unbelievable views. But the best was obviously yet to come. Once at the top, we walked along a quiet trail, away from the majority of the tourists and took in the gorgeous view of the entire city. We arrived later in the afternoon and stayed until the moon was shining. It was great to experience the view in daylight, sunset and nighttime. We noticed that a lot of photographers were hanging around in anticipation, and when we asked what they were waiting for, one man responded "For the moment" to which we asked "What moment?" and he said "THE moment." Clearly, we had to stick around and wait for THE moment when all of the photographers started snapping away as the night light hit the buildings perfectly and allowed for the ultimate photo to be taken. 

*Kowloon. We spent a bit of time on Kowloon island- shopping, wandering, eating. Kowloon was home to many specialized markets (Goldfish, Bird, Flower, Jade, the Ladies Market and the Temple St Night Market), as well as some delicious restaurants. Every night, there is also a pretty entertaining light show, where many buildings along HK Island participate in a laser/light show in the sky to the accompaniment of music. I was impressed. 

*FOOD. I know...I'm always going on and on about food, but that's one of the best parts of traveling- experiencing the different cuisines. And when it's something as glorious as Dim Sum, how could I not gush about it? We went to two different Dim Sum spots and both left us more than satisfied. I could eat dumplings everyday and be very content. One of the spots, Tim Ho Wan, had quite the reputation and we felt the need to test it out. We went to the restaurant at 10am to wait in line to get a seat number. When we finally got to the front of the line, the woman handed us a menu and said come back in 2 1/2 hrs. So we did. And we still had to wait another hour before we could squeeze into the 30 seat restaurant and then delight ourselves in one of the most insanely delicious meals I've ever had. I wish I could find the proper words to describe the deliciousness that was the BBQ pork bun. I kid you not- I am salivating at the memory of them right now. We seriously spoiled our tastebuds this week because we also had the pleasure of going to Duecento Otto, an Italian restaurant where the executive chef is a friend of a friend. Beyond Vinny (the chef) being one of the nicest people ever, he also delighted us to an amazing meal. We ate an embarrassing amount of food, but only because it was ridiculously good. Mmm.

*Jumping Shots. Put Sarah, Megh and I together and you are going to get a whole lot of jumping pictures. We basically jumped our way through the entire city, but given the backdrop, we couldn't contain ourselves.

*The nightlife. LKF was bumping. It is an isolated area of HK Island, but people fill the streets, overflowing from the many bars. It was very different than the scene I was used to (You mean I can't wear fisherman pants and a layer of sweat and fit in?), but it was a great change of pace. 

Not so highlights:

*Black and White. We arrived in HK fairly late (around 10pm) and after clearing up a little chaos at the hostel, we wanted to celebrate by eating something tasty and drinking a Chinese beer. So we meandered around until we found a small Chinese food joint that had an English menu. We were so proud that we found an authentic restaurant, but we were all horribly disappointed in our meals. We laughed as we slurped up a never-ending pile of salty, shrimpy noodles while trying to chug giant beers as the place closed up around us. Food fail.


*It's expensive!!! Baht does not go very far in this city. 

*Macau. Since we had enough time, we wanted to head out to Macau (the other SAR) for a day. We had been forewarned that Macau was basically the Vegas of Hong Kong, but that it was worth seeing. It wasn't a good start when a girl close by on the ferry was puking up a storm for the entire 50 minutes over there. Once we got there we had to find our way to the southern part of the island which involved multiple local bus rides. We walked through The Venetian, and Megh even took her turn at the slot machines, but lost her money within 30 seconds. Nevertheless, exploring Macau was fine. It was the process of getting in and out that ruined it. Since it is a separate SAR, you have to go through immigration to go in and out, and each time the lines were huge and the process took way too long. From HK alone, we gained another 6 stamps in our passport. Yowza. 

*Saying goodbye to Megh. It had been an amazing, amazing few weeks. Not only did I get to travel to new places and have this incredible experience, but I got to do it with two of my best friends. It meant so much that Megh came out here and that we were able to do this together. Saying goodbye at the airport was really hard and it got a wee bit teary. I'm still in a little bit of denial that she went back to the States. 

After months of anticipation and weeks of planning, our backpacking journey came to an end. Not only did I have a ridiculously awesome time, but I also learned a whole lot about all of the places I visited. I was slightly depressed to go back to Suphanburi, but in reality, I didn't have time to dwell. After 36 hours I would be off to Chiang Mai for one of the greatest celebrations on Earth....SONGKRAN. 

Victoria's Peak in the afternoon

Sunset!

THE Moment

Ferry ride to Kowloon

JUMP

Verrry MJ

Macau

Dim Sum! Yum!

2 Motorbikes, 2 Girlfriends....Vietnam.

Gooooood Morning Vietnam!

Well...it was more like 'Good Afternoon' after a 7 hour bus ride from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City. Luckily, our border crossing experience was MUCH more enjoyable and hassle free than our previous one. So far, so good. Having already experienced some of Central Vietnam, I was more than a little excited to see some more of the country. And really, with its culture, its parks, its food and its baller hats, how could it disappoint?

Stop 3: Vietnam. (Ho Chi Minh City)

Highlights:

*Twitter: As we prepared to embark on our journey from Suphan, Sarah was pleasantly surprised by an email declaring she had won a contest on Twitter. She was the lucky recipient of a gift voucher to a hotel booking website. And luckily for us, not being completely organized, had yet to book a place for HCMC. So just like that, we went from nothing to a sweet hotel in the middle of the city. Free breakfast, complimentary towels, soft mattresses and Star World? Thanks James!

*Pho Noodles! We obviously had to have some of the famous Vietnamese dish, so we almost immediately scouted out a good spot. I really hope we didn't creep anyone out while we discreetly observed/hardcore stared and took notes on how to eat the noodles. Despite a few splashes and slurps, I think it was a success!

*Coffee. Coffee. Coffee. Mmm. Mmmm. Mmm. 

*The city. I felt a little spoiled walking around HCMC on sidewalks (what are those?), through parks and into museums and little cafes. I almost forgot I was in SE Asia until I stumbled over a tiny Vietnamese woman, rice paddy hat in tact, squatting roadside, selling questionable items out of a basket. That's right...I'm still in Asia.

*Markets. More specifically, the Ben Thanh market, the biggest in the city. It had everything you could possibly think of and it treated us well. Megh even went all out and got some custom clothes made. Our bartering skills were definitely put to use here. Good thing I'm well-trained (Thank you very much, Thailand).

*Rice Paddy Hats. It's unbelievable how many people actually rock these in the middle of the city. And by golly, do they rock 'em.

*The Dong. The Vietnamese dollar is called the dong. I mean...that's awesome. And it inspired the 'Dong Song' (think- Sisqo's 'Thong Song.' Don't judge me). I don't know if it's great or just sad, but 22,000 dong is equal to 1 USD. Yikes.  Needless to say, I did not spend too many USD in Vietnam. 

*Classy dining. As with every city, we ate verrry well. In Vietnam, however, we were able to eat at "classier" places and feel like 'real' people (as if backpackers aren't real). We sat rooftop at The Rex Hotel while sipping on some fancy cocktails. We grabbed a spot at the swanky Windows Cafe for lunch one day, which was overflowing with hip locals on their lunch break, rocking out to a DJ (in the middle of the day?!) and overlooking a beautiful park. By suggestion, we found a hidden cafe, where we indulged in some mighty delicious cupcakes. Each day we delighted our palettes without killing the wallet. I can't complain about that. 

*Cyclos. AKA Vietnam's version of a tuk-tuk, which resembles a wheelchair being pushed by a unicycle. On our day of touring around the city, we took a break from walking and each of us hopped into a cyclo and enjoyed the chaotic streets of HCMC in the "safety" of our wheelchair. Good times had by all. 

*People/Backpackers. I think one of the main reasons I love to travel is because of the people you meet. It's completely likely that you'll like fellow backpackers because you obviously share one major thing in common- the love of travel and the love of exploration. In Vietnam, we happened to meet some really cool people that made the trip that much more enjoyable. So 'Cheers' to those cool cats.

*The Mekong. We decided it would be fun to do a day-long excursion along the Mekong River, so we booked a full day tour and had ourselves a blast. The tour included a long tail boat ride, a trip to a coconut mill "factory" where we enjoyed some coconut candies, a wander through a village where we got to interact with the locals, a canoe ride (with rice paddy hats on!) down a quiet, serene river, and some other stops around some local spots. We snacked on fresh tropical fruit and tea with honey from the beehive while listening to traditional Vietnamese music being played. Along the way, we spotted some water buffalo, completely submerged in the water except for his snout and horns, and also thought it would be adventurous to wrap a GIANT boa constrictor around our shoulders. Let's just say Sarah and I handled that muuuch better than Megh did :) All in all, it was a very enjoyable day, made better by the fellow tourists and our tourguide, Kwang. Kwang let us in on the secret that if you get a motorbike, you'll get a girlfriend. So if you have two motorbikes, you'll have two girlfriends. Such a ladykiller, Kwang!

Not so highlights:

*Traffic. HCMC has the highest number of motorbikes on the road and let me tell you...IT. IS. TERRIFYING. Okay- Im being overdramatic, but only a little bit. There are barely any traffic lights or lanes, and there are really no crosswalks, so the flow of traffic is at a constant and it is just a mess. To get across the street you have to just look straight, walk right into the traffic and assume they will drive around you. I was such a pansy at first, running back to safety before sucking it up, but by the end I was a pro, holding my hand out to signal to the cars/bikes that they better slow down and not hit me. We also perfected the art of getting personal escorts across the street. Find a local and do as they do. Sometimes they could see the fear in our eyes and they would simply grab our arms and bring us to the other side. 

*War Remnants Museum. This was obviously something we had to check out since it is a huge piece of American and Vietnamese history. The museum definitely gave a good insight into the war, but I couldn't help but lower my head in shame. The museum had no mercy in the way they depicted Americans. Seeing it through their eyes was interesting but a little extreme. 

*Backstreet Boys. For those of you who know me...even if its just a wee bit, you know I have a deep, deep love for the Backstreet Boys. Well, about a month prior to our trip, while I stalked out their tour (for no apparent reason) I was a bit excited when I saw that they would be performing in Vietnam during my time there. I would have died if I saw them in a foreign country. But, unluckily for me, they left HCMC two days before we arrived to head up north to Hanoi. DAGGER TO THE HEART.

Vietnam clearly showed us a good time with its sights, its people, its food and its scary motorbikes. It was now time to say a temporary goodbye to SE Asia as we packed up our bags and headed to Hong Kong. Boo-la-ka-shan. 

Notre Dame Cathedral

Eek! They're everywhere!

                                        

Rockin' the hat

Water Buffalo 

Canoe Ride!

Cyclo time!

Oops... how did that get in here.......?

Part 3: Cambodia.

Clearly my love for Cambodia was big, but that didn't mean we didn't have our moments when we all just looked at each other and thought "What the....errrr?' Cambodia is a bustling place. It is extraordinarily underdeveloped, lacking paved roads, sidewalks or traffic lights. Being a foreigner makes you a HUGE target for scams, so vendors, "taxi drivers" and tuk-tuks hassled us every step we took. I am fairly used to this from Thailand, so it didn't really bother me, but it still made for some interesting experiences. 


Not so highlights:


*Crossing the border. We made it! But we were immediately swept up by men 'helping' us with the immigration process. They took our passports, sweet talked us and used some really futuristic thermometer that the US has yet to discover (a device that involved pointing a gun looking thing at our heads that somehow read our temperatures...and oddly enough, we all had the exact same temp!). By the time our stamps were in and we had paid the visa fee, the men were all asking us for tips. '100 baht. 100 baht. Tip. Tip." Ohhhhh ok...that's what this was. So within 5 steps of being in Cambodia we had already fallen for scam #1, but we didn't pay the 'tip.
*Getting from the border to our hostel. We got SURROUNDED by handfuls of sketchy looking taxi drivers, wanting to drive us to anywhere and everywhere. It is pretty overwhelming to fight off the swarms and just demand to be taken to your hostel for a reasonable price. But we kind of did it, got into a beat up looking car and made our way to our hostel. Minutes later, it started down-pouring and guess what? My window was broken so it was stuck open. So while we were hoping we made it safely to the hostel without another scam, I was getting rained on. I mean, it was pretty funny, but really Cambodia? Not a good start. 
*Our hostel. Thank goodness we were only there for a night. I don't particularly enjoy sleeping with dead cockroaches, dead mosquitoes and a questionable bathroom. It's never good when you decide that you'll stay cleaner by not showering in the room's bathroom. Yikes.
*Richie's Guesthouse/Commune. We walked to a bordering beach while in Snooky and were once again struck by rain. We scurried over to a restaurant to seek cover and get some shakes. We weren't really prepared for the naked baby being handed to us, stoners and weird family dynamics surrounding us.  
*Street children. Cambodia has a lot of street children. These adorable kids will come over to you and try to sell goods to you. They all have decent English and they bat their beautiful eyes at you, but we've been warned to refuse to support their cause. It's really heartbreaking to see children living their lives like this, but luckily, there are a lot of organizations, like Friends, that take kids off of the street and provide an education and other programs to prevent them from going back. Starfish and Rajana were two other organizations we visited and supported. (Brownies and jewelry for a good cause? Yes, please!)
*Work hours. In Snooky we chatted up a lot of the employees at the hostels. Really, really amazing people, but we learned that their work hours are out of control. One of them told us that everyone only gets 1 Sunday a month off, and another worker pointed to his bed behind the desk because he lives there. To make matters worse, their MONTHLY income was only $90. 
*Thinking we got scammed on our bus to Ho Chi Minh City. We had bought bus tickets to Vietnam the previous night and as we waited for our bus to arrive in the morning, it didn't look good. Even the locals walking by us seemed concerned. We asked one of the neighboring agencies to call the agent we booked with and moments later, she unlocked the door, stood there in her shower cap and robe and assured us the bus was coming....and it did! 

While these experiences were met with a little anxiety, they did not take away from our overall experience. For the most part, we could laugh off the little bumps and just go with it. But, in the bigger picture, Cambodia has a lot of history that leaves you chilled to the bone. The Cambodian Genocide by the Khmer Rouge did not happen long ago and I felt a little ashamed to admit that I did not know much about it. Luckily, Sarah had picked up a memoir on our previous travels, First They Killed My Father, which provided a very detailed account into a woman's personal experience during the Pol Pot regime. We both read the book and I am so happy I did because it made the S21 Museum and the Killing Fields much more real, and brought about a bigger sense of the massive damage that was done to the country. Touring the museum, a former school turned security prison, was completely eery and chilling. There are four buildings, some housing the cells, others filled with torture devices, and the rest filled with pictures and personal accounts. I found myself having to walk out of the buildings a couple of times to reflect and regroup because it is absolutely heartbreaking and definitely not for the weaker of stomachs. We followed up our visit by going to the Killing Fields, where thousands and thousands of Cambodian people were tortured, killed and buried in mass graves. The dug-up graves once contained men, women and babies, tortured and killed. All that remains are their bones and some remnants of their clothes, all of which have been organized and put on display in a 17 floor memorial in the middle of the Fields. The first few rows contain all of the abused skulls of those that died. It was obviously a morbid and utterly tragic place to visit, but such an important piece of history. Millions of people died, and before coming here,  I knew so little about it. The fact that is happened so recently- in the 70s- put a whole new element of tragedy to it. I couldn't help but wonder the stories of anyone over 30. It definitely took a lot to shake off everything we saw that day, but I am happy I got to experience it. 

It was sad to leave Cambodia. I left with a lot of questions unanswered and a huge surge of  eagerness to get back and explore some more. I plan on going back at the end of the next semester to visit Angkor Wat and see some of the Northeast. Cambodia left a big impression on me and I can't wait to get back. But first... it was back on a bus and into a new country. Vietnam here I come. 

S21. Looking out from the balcony.

Some artwork displayed at the Museum.

The Killing Fields.