Cambodia Bound

For Christmas break, Scott and I were discussing going on a trip rather than hanging out in Shanghai. At first, Scott really didn't want to plan a whole itinerary and do a bunch of legwork, and after the stress of moving and settling in I certainly didn't feel like it either. So Scott suggested going somewhere beautiful where we could just relax and kick back. Sounds lovely, right? But we have tried to do that kind of vacation before, and after one full day of relaxing, we were hunting around for a way to get us out of the resort for an adventure and to see, you know, the "real" stuff. Sitting around for a whole three weeks? No way, never gonna work. So then we figured, why not just agree to have the adventure we need but without the intense coordination, and just agree to wander around somewhere? Planning ahead just enough to keep it from becoming stressful, let's just pick somewhere and go. So here we are, spending our Xmas holiday on a 17-day trip to Cambodia and Vietnam. Where are we going? What are we doing? I have a vague outline, but otherwise, your guess is as good as mine!

We landed in Siem Reap, Cambodia, the evening of December 19 and headed to our hotel. As the only hotel that we have booked so far on this trip, Scott wanted to spoil me by starting us off with a bang, so we stayed in a beautiful hotel where the guests stay in private villas. We get driven to and from our villa in a golf cart.

It was a tiring travel day and it was late by the time we settled in, so we kept day one short and sweet with a trip to the buzzing downtown area with the loud outdoor markets and narrow streets of restaurants. We stopped at a Mexican/Khmer restaurant and had our first of many fresh fruit smoothies of the trip.

Khmer Amok, a classic Khmer dish. Fish in a sort-of mild curry sauce with vegetables, cooked in a grape leaf. Pretty good!

Then we wandered around to negotiate a good price on a new bikini for me--my bikinis are currently packed up with my summer clothes in the crate still sitting in Shanghai customs. My impression of the area is that it's quite spread out--there's a law against building too high, so everyone builds outward instead of upward, giving the area a sprawling desert feel. And then there is the small pocket of the downtown area that is crammed with tiny overstuffed markets selling t-shirts, skirts, tiny souvenirs and novelty items. You can hear tuktuks going by, and every driver asking if you need a ride, and the constantly repeated "You buy, lady" at every shop, oh, and the sound and smell of the outdoor grills cooking meats and other street food. This is clearly a tourist destination, with everyone stopping here because of the airport and its proximity to Angkor Wat. The "pub street" of this tiny pocket of markets was packed with sun-kissed Western tourists with backpacks, loose drawstring pants and often dreadlocks, drinking 50-cent beers. After spending two weeks in Shanghai, it was honestly a shock to our systems to see so many white people everywhere. But Cambodia is clearly a very popular destination for Chinese tourists as well, so Scott constantly surprised and delighted random tourists by joining in their conversations. We had a really nice and breezy tuktuk ride back to the hotel, giving me the first of what will be many cases of "tuktuk hair," and then we relaxed and went to sleep.