It was a very different kind of trip. As in, only 2 of us (as opposed to a whole gang of people), no hair dryer, no blow dryer, no makeup, no suitcase. Only a few pairs of clothes, some undies, and a toothbrush. I mastered the art of "packing lightly" fitting anything I would need into one backpack (that I purchased at the good old Fairprice).
David and I made our way to the airport to catch our 6 something am flight. As we were standing at the check-in counter, he turned to me and said:
"Renee. We need to make a promise right now. That no matter what, even if things don't go our way on this trip, we are going to stay positive. No matter what."
We pinky promised and that is when I knew that I was in a for an amazing trip with one of my best friends here on exchange!
We flew to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. We clarified that our number one goal was ANGKOR WAT. We would do anything and everything to get there. We didn't really have a plan. No Plan A. We were winging it 100%. But that is what life is all about sometimes, I guess. And I find that when you wing it, it turns out to be better than you ever imagined.
I was out of control giddy when we arrived. Not only did I get an awesome Visa for my passport, there were so many pictures advertising the essence of Cambodia: Angkor Wat. We got through immigration and got a tuk tuk with the world's happiest man as the driver. I was laughing unstoppably, for no real reason. Perhaps it was because of the craziness of it all. Me, sitting in a tuk tuk. Driving down the road. In Cambodia. On a Saturday morning. With a backpack. A friend. And a mission.
He took us to some random bus company place where we bought bus tickets to Siem Reap. We had one hour til our 10 am bus left. It was supposed to be a 6 hour bus ride. We walked around the streets of Phnom Penh for awhile. It was full of exhaust. Speeding cars and motorbikes and tuk tuks and trucks. Random monks walking down the street. Lots of people. And lots of people selling the always-fun Hidden Objects Book. That David and I found came in real handy on 6 hour bus rides. Well, that and hang man and tic tac toe and cambodian version music videos of american songs. :)
We went into some underground little shopping places that were very dirty and jam packed full of things like shoes and non essentials. There were lots of little local food stalls and women getting their hair done. It was so strange to see women getting hair dye jobs and hair cuts underground, and not in a salon.
We got on the bus (with our favorite British family who was quite possibly the coolest family I've ever seen) armed with our "R Cookies" that were delicious and we were off. The British family was hilarious. Or maybe we just thought they were. I think I was more obsessed with listening to the little girl's accent. She could say anything, like "toilet" or "fart" or "butt" and in her little British accent she would still sound so proper. lol
Anyways. The bus ride wasn't really all that bad... We slept for some, and occupied ourselves with intense hang man and tic tac toe games. The views from the bus window were incredible. But not in a good way. The houses, the neighborhoods, the fields, the dirty river water... it was so sad. It's pretty much exactly what you think of when you think of Cambodia.
We stopped for lunch at this local place with gross squatter toilets but I had no choice so I had to squat-it! I didn't eat the food there, it definitely had food poisoning written all over it. But David ate his ginger chicken that had too much ginger. WE got back on and didn't get off the bus til we were in Siem Reap at 4pm. The bus dropped us off in some sketchy, random, where-the-hell-are-we reaction kind of places. The drivers of tuk tuks bombarded you when you stepped off, and we got this guy to tuk tuk us to our "Good Kind Guesthouse" (although he really wanted us to stay at his guesthouse). GK guesthouse was pretty nice! Run by an old kinda creepy looking french man and his cambodian wife. We decided to upgrade and pay the extra 5 dollars that night to stay in a larger air con room with hot water. Now THAT is living the luxurious lifestyle, eh?
We rented our bikes ($1 per day) that looked like they had gone through both the world wars, and off we biked around the streets of Siem Reap. It has a river running right thru the middle of it with the road on either side. We made lots of stops along the way to the Old Market, taking random pictures. I love traveling with David because 1) I can pretty much boss him around 2) he is always willing to take a picture of me (kind of like my personal photographer) and 3) he is very patient.
We stopped at this hotel restaurant place, STARVING. We got completely ripped off for that stupid meal. All we got were 2 spring rolls, white rice, and fish. And it cost waay too much (for Cambodia).
We finally got to the night market place where we parked our bikes and walked around. We saw so many great cheap food places, it was definitely one of those moments where you kick yourself. And wish you were hungry. We walked around and bought a few things. I tried to find something for Sam but couldn't find anything. I got myself a yellow Cambodia t shirt though. We also got our feet bitten by a million little fish. We fed them, really. All of our dead skin cells. It was such a weird sensation! It tickled for the first 5 minutes. Then it kinda felt good after. And it cost like 2 dollars for half an hour. We walked around more and did shopping at the Siem Reap Night Market. It was awesome!
We also got massages. Cheap Khmer massages for 5 bucks for 1 hour. It was amazing. And the ants crawling on me didn't even bother me. Who have I become??
That was also the night that I got told to F*** off by this young cambodian boy who was trying to sell me a book. He literally followed us around while I was drinking my 50 cent pineapple smoothie for about 20 minutes. I have never been talked to like that before, and it left my jaw hanging. I felt bad. But slightly offended at the same time.
We went back to our Good and Kind guesthouse and took a "shower" with shower being in quotes because there was no shower. It was literally bathing yourself with the shower head in the middle of the bathroom. I had no comb or anything for my hair. So it just air dried. All natural is the way to go right?
We went to bed, fell asleep just talking about how crazy we were. I fell asleep about 12 or1 am. And we had our alarms set to get us up at 330am. David said he barely slept. Especially because I kept waking up and ordering him to get up and turn down the air con lol.
We got up at 330 and threw on some clothes then rushed out the guesthouse to ride our bikes the 20 minutes to Angkor Wat temples! The streets were so dark. I was so tired. Yet high on adrenaline. I was so excited. Yet unsure at the same time. We were the first ones there. We bought our ticket for $20 US at 445 am. We then biked to Angkor Wat temple. We also did some exploring, to try to find the spot on the mountain away from Angkor Wat where Susana went to see the sun rise. It was a fail. Instead we found this old temple that we climbed up in the pitch black dark. It was extremely creepy. Especially when a bat flew by.
We went inside what seemed like huge castle gates to the huge Angkor Wat grounds. It was Beautiful. Incredible. Breathtaking. But I must say that in retrospect, it was not necessarily Angkor Wat temple that was so great. But it was the adventuring around on the bikes all day, exploring temples, exploring houses, exploring it all, that was so memorable and great.
We watched the sun rise over the back of the Angkor Wat temple. It was remarkable.
Next we decided to save Angkor Wat til the end. Because everyone and their brother would be exploring it now. So we set off and did these temples:
1 - Big Face Temple (My favorite)
2 - Random Temple things in the middle of nowhere
3 - Deceivingly large temple (so big!!!)
4 - Angelina Jolie Temple - ancient trees and roots
5 - Corridor Temple
6 - ANGKOR WAT
We biked around all day, in the blistering heat. We found dozens of beautiful old beaten path trails, surrounded by trees. It was beautiful. Maybe the best word to describe it is incredible. We would pass by random little houses (if you can call them that) and little shacks and just get off our bikes and check them out. Besides getting chased by some mean dogs, it was pretty cool. Especially going and seeing the cutest little kids at these few houses in the middle of nowhere. They were so little and cute. We gave the 2 boys $1 US dollar each and they were so so happy. The smiles on their face were priceless. And they even did the little head bow after. Soooo cute. I made David promise that one day when we are successful and working and financially stable we are going to donate to those families in Cambodia.
We ate some lunch (I decided to eat a fresh spring roll? Am I crazy?) and luckily did not get food poisoning. By the time we were done with all the other temples, we returned to do Angkor Wat, sweaty, exhausted, but nevertheless anxious. We parked our bikes (after getting hounded, of course, by all of the kids begging us to buy stuff from them) and made our way to the Big Temple. It was humongous. And it seemed like it was a huge compilation of all the best parts of every other temple there. The long corridors, the gargantuan-ness.. In order to get up to the top we had to wait in line and I had to rent some clothes. We climbed up (literally) and walked around the top. The view was amazing. And the inside was beautiful, with ancient Chinese inscriptions and detailed carvings into the walls. To think that someone worked so hard and meticulously on those same carvings on the walls all of those years ago...
David and I sat there, exhausted, but feeling good. We looked at each other. And the look we exchanged said it all. "Mission accomplished." There were no words that needed to be exchanged.
Leaving the temple was difficult. We walked around a bit more. I climbed up some steep steep stairs to sit and chat with some of the monks. So cool.
We got back out to our bikes and biked back to Good Kind. We showered very quickly and then rode back to the market place to have a quick dinner. We ordered some really good cheap food and 2 shakes each (I got pineapple of course). We shared a really greasy pancake thing with chocolate and banana made off the guy's little street grill. We then biked back and waited (forever) for the tuk tuk to come get us and take us to the bus station to get on our 7 pm bus back to Phnom Penh.
The bus was..not the most comfortable but I would have preferred it to the little dirty room we stayed for 4 hours in Phnom Penh. We slept pretty much the whole 5 hours on the bus. David was getting annoyed with me and my always wanting to get my camera... and my annoying habit of taking the earplug out of his ears lol. The bus lurched to a stop a few times on the way, where my heart skipped a beat and I seriously thought we were going to die.
We arrived at Phnom Penh beyond tired. Of course, we had to bargain with the tuk tuk drivers to take us to our Sunday Guesthouse. The guy took us for 4 bucks. And it really wasn't that far. Driving around those streets at 1am on a Sunday night was very sketchy. Let's just say I would NEVER EVER want to be there stranded alone at that time. Well, at anytime for that matter lol.
The little shoebox that we stayed in for the next 4 hours was mosquito infested. It was the source of my 12 mosquito bites on my legs. We didn't even change out of our clothes, just laid down on the bed and I curled up and tried to take a nap. The air and fan were on crack, and it would be freezing then really hot all night. And I insisted on sleeping with the bathroom light on. Because I was just so scared. And delirious.
We got up at 6 am to the guy banging on our door. I was so out of it, I didn't even know where we were. I had dreams of being home that whole time. And then I would wake up and realize I was in Cambodia. CAMBODIA!
We waited to pay the boss, who came out with no t shirt, some fat Cambodian man who literally just woke up. We paid 13 bucks for the night (which was a rip off) and took a tuk tuk to the airport. Nevermind that our flight didn't leave for 3 more hours. I just had to get out of that place.
It was one smoggy bad-air ride to the airport. I couldn't breathe from all the exhaust! I think my lungs came back a bit darker from that ride. I was looking forward to eating the huge apple I had been carrying around the whole trip, and when I took it out to eat it I dropped it on the airport ground. Perfect.
So we had our nice "humble" breakfast (again) of crackers and then waited for our flight. The next few hours are a blur in my memory, I was so tired. But I remember a huge group of Chinese people waiting to go to China and playing cards int he airport. And I remember thinking, I love asian people.
We landed back in Singapore and took the MRT back to NTU. Longest ride of my life. I was STARVING so even though I had class soon, we stopped off at some stop and found some food. David and I ate in silence because we didn't have energy to speak. I'm pretty sure I looked like hell too. But no matter! We got back to Boon Lay and I grabbed the 179 bus to go straight to Canteen A so I could go straight to Human Motivation lecture at 130 to 330. I met my friend on the bus too, and we went to together to class. She couldn't believe that I had just landed from Cambodia and was going straight to class. Again, she let me use a pen and paper and I somehow survived class then went home and...I have no idea what I did after that. Shower? Sleep? I probably uploaded my photos. Knowing me. haha
All in all, the best trip of my life. Isn't it funny that sometimes, the best things in life, are unplanned, unsuspecting, and totally done on a whim?
