Cambodia

Our last weekend in Vietnam, Molly and I decided to take a trip to Angkor Wat in Cambodia. The bus trip was about 12 hours and very uneventful (on the way there...a whole other story about the way back:) As soon as we crossed the border, the atmosphere changed. The structure of the houses were poorly made, more children with inadequate clothing running around and the Cambodian people were very skinny and malnourished looking. However, with the recent horrific history of the country it was not surprising. The average income a year is $320 per family. The estimated number if killings during the Khmer Rouge Era is over 300 thousand and out of 65,000 monks only 3,000 survived....a staggering number! Even with all of this painful history the Cambodians spirit survived and though they are one of the poorest countries in the world, they are trying to rebuild their nation with smiles on their faces!

We arrived in Siem Riep at night time and found a guesthouse for about $6 a day. The next morning we woke up at 4:30 am and biked to Angkor Wat to watch the sunrise. We had to bike in the dark on Cambodian roads because we forgot our headlamps; needless to say, we had a couple of laughs and thought our dads would not be happy if they knew we were biking around Cambodia in the dark!! We made it to the temple around 5:45 am and it was amazing. We could only see the outline of the ruins because the sun had not yet risen and the stars were still in the sky. As we crossed the moat and went into the entrance a crazy feeling passed over me. To walk into the courtyard of Angkor Wat and have the massive ancient ruins just meters away was inspiring and overwhelming. Just like in Machu Picchu, nothing really prepares you for something so glorious. At the moment when the sun was rising over the five magnificent towers, I just wanted everyone I loved to be standing by my side to experience the joy with me!

After the sun had fully risen we explored Angkor Wat and all its glory. The temples five corn-cob shaped towers held us captive for awhile, until we decided that we had to move on if we wanted to see everything.

Most people were on motorized tuks-tuks, while Molly and I were pedaling around. I am not going to lie, there were moments when all I wanted was a tuk-tuk and some shade, but at the end of the day we were really glad we biked on our old Cambodian bicycles. Near the end of the day we went back to Angkor Wat and sat on the ancient wall and listened to our I-pods and just tried to take it all in. It is a moment that I will forever remember and tresure