8 Months This Once

Although we only spent one week in Cambodia, we got a sense of it and have some thoughts about the best and worst of it, as seen through our eyes: Maya Best:  Angkor temples - how they were made and they were so cool to look at and explore. Worst:  It seemed really similar to Thailand, there wasn't much different to see. Lucas Best:  Angkor because of all of the ancient architecture and the crumbling ruins. Worst:  The traditional Khmer cuisine - tried a few dishes and didn't really like them.  Also it was so busy in the cities, it was hard to cross the road. Chris Best:  Angkor  was everything it was billed to be, worth every penny and would have happily spent a few more days there.  Seeing what life is like for Cambodians since they've emerged from being ruled by Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge despot. Worst: It wasn't the easiest place to spend a lot of time in with kids, between the heat, pollution, garbage, and dusty conditions,...

Phnom Penh, Cambodia was a bustling capital city with interesting markets and neighborhoods.  On the first morning we went out to find some breakfast and came across this market just across the street.  It was so packed with vendors and people on scooters that we could barely walk through - it was not what we had in mind for breakfast - a bit overwhelming to the senses at the beginning of the day, but fascinating still!  All of this is well underway by 7:30 am - impressive! Fresh chicken anyone?  Maybe chicken feet soup tonight? Gorgeous fresh produce Meat market- fresh cuts warming in the sun - no food inspectors here! Do these monks even know how cool they are? "Hey! Anybody seen Ringo?"              The city was interesting but the main reason for our visit to Phnom Penh was to learn firsthand about what happened to the Cambodi...

The main reason we put Cambodia on our list of places to visit was the same reason most people travel there - to see the spectacular ruins of the ancient Khmer civilization known as Angkor. They have such global historical, architectural and artistic significance that they were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992.  The visit did not disappoint. This place is AMAZING, but with so much to take in (so many ruins and spread out over 400 km2) it was also a bit intimidating.  We'd heard from a few different travellers that "once you've seen one temple you've seen them all".  We wanted to avoid feeling the same way (and we did) yet feel like we'd really got a good sense for what makes these ruins so special, so Kim and I did quite a bit of reading about what the highlights are and involved Lucas and Maya a bit with their choices of temples to see so that they would stay interested....

On January 28th, 2017 we went to Angkor Wat. It was super cool and interesting! We woke up at about 4:15am so that we could get to Angkor Wat in time for the sun rise. We took a tuk tuk and got to the sun rise just ahead of the crowd. We decided to split up so that we could get some different photos, so the boys went around to the back of the temple and mom and I stayed at the front. First light- we waited over an hour for this. Slowly getting brighter Reflection in the lotus pond is pretty The sun is officially up! Now we can see some more details Mom wanted a photo of the 2 of us in front of Angkor Wat There were at least 2 hundred  people at the lotus pond!  I managed to sneak in front because we got there pretty early (and because I'm a kid), so our pictures don't show the crowd too much. Lucas found us once the crowd cleared a bit.  The sunrise was pretty amazi...