Dirty Does Cambodia

After nine months, I finally had my first visitor from the States! My brother and I had been planning this trip since I found out I was coming to Cambodia, so you can imagine how excited I was to finally put it into action. Steve (and one of his fratty friends who served about 6 years ago) was a big part of the reason I decided to apply for the Peace Corps in the first place, so it’s fitting that he be the first to experience the ‘Bode. … and did he ever.

Since Steve was only going to be in-country for about a week, we didn’t waste any time. I was at the airport to welcome him at 9:00AM sharp with an embarrassingly large sign à la Jim and Jan Kimmel. Once we said our hellos, we headed straight to the hotel, got settled, and then hit a few of the main tourist attractions in Phnom Penh. Truth be told, they were pretty weak as far as tourist traps go – but we made up for it later. As per the usual Phnom Penh routine, all the volunteers in town got together for a night on the town later that evening. On Tara and Tiffany’s recommendation, we decided to check out Nagaworld Casino. Nagaworld is probably one of the swankiest places in Phnom Penh: you can’t get in unless you roll up in a Lexus (or are a local celebrity, like we are … riiight). The casino itself is the same as what you’d find in Vegas or Atlantic City, except that AC and free drinks are actually a rare perk here in Cambodia. Once we all lost our week’s worth of salaries, we headed to dinner at a great little Italian café along the riverfront, followed by a guitar jam session at the hookah bar next door and, of course, dancing at Pontoon. I’m still surprised that Steve powered through those 24 hours without the slightest sign of jet lag … maybe the girls and I should induct him as an honorary champ after all.

The next morning, we took the bus to my site so Stephen could get a feel for my daily life. After meeting my host family, he took the grand tour of the school and NGO I volunteer at before we continued up to Battambang for the evening. It was really surreal having someone from home finally see my life here. For almost a year, I’ve created a “new” life – new routine, new place, new job, new friends – that are pretty much separate from who I am in the States. That’s not to say I’m somehow different here than I am at home (except perhaps, being better dressed in the States) … but it was still strange to watch someone experiencing what I’ve been describing from halfway across the globe in person. It was like my two lives were finally meeting and shaking hands. Yeah, corny metaphor, but I think you see my point.

Now, the reason we needed to head to Battambang that evening was so we could catch the “fast ferry” up the Tonle Sap River to Siem Reap early the next morning. In theory this seemed like a great cultural experience. We were told that the fast ferry would leave around 7:00AM and take roughly four hours. Perfect: not only would Steve get to see traditional life on the river, but we’d actually be making better time on the boat than if we took a bus. The first hour of the trip was fantastic. Sure it was a little cramped (I mean, how can you fit 40 Westerners on a tiny Khami junk and not be cramped?), sure the seats were uncomfortable, and sure the few Cambodian passengers were cranky because we were taking up too much space … but who doesn’t love being out on (semi) open water at 7:00AM? Around 10:30AM, we stopped at a floating rest-stop. And by rest-stop, I mean a tiny raft with a snack vendor and gasoline for sale in old Johnny Walker bottles. At this point, I figured we could only have another hour left at most, so I was a little surprised that we were stopping at all. Steve suggested that I ask our driver when we’d be arriving just in case. After assuring him that we'd definitely be there in an hour, I decided to ask anyway. The conversation went something like this:

Me: So, when do you think we’ll get to Siem Reap?
Driver: Maybe around two.
Random bystander: No, probably more like three.
Driver: Ok, between two and three.
Me: You mean in two hours, right?? ... not at two o'clock?
Driver: No, I mean two or three o’clock.
Me: ……… oh …. oh, I see.

… so much for the four hour water taxi. Eight hours later, we finally arrived in Siem Reap. Needless to say, I was never happier to get off a boat in my life.

Once we regained feeling in our legs, we hailed a took-took to take us to our guesthouse. We didn’t have any specific plans for the afternoon other than meeting up with some other volunteers for a late dinner. That gave us just enough time to nap (incredible how sitting and doing nothing on a boat all day can take it out of you), shower, and pull ourselves together before we headed out. Good food with good friends was the perfect end to our day. After we hit the Blue Pumpkin for some of the best ice cream in the Bode, we called it an early night so we’d be ready to conquer the temples the next day.

As some of you may know, Steve’s birthday is in April. For something a little different than the usual gift ideas, I splurged on a helicopter ride over the temple complex. At 10:00AM we lifted off! I’ve never been in a helicopter, so I was like a wide-eyed little girl the whole time. Steve loved it too, and I don’t think we could have started our day any better. Our pilot gave us a little overview of the temples and some history of the area and then we headed off to see everything in person. There are tons of temples in the Angkor complex, but we only chose three: we started out with Bayon (famous for its giant stone faces), then visited the temple where Tomb Raider was filmed – also famous for the ancient fichus trees literally crawling all over the temple structure, and finished with the iconic Angkor Wat. The temples were massive and we could actually crawl through the stones in many of them, making me feel like maybe we really were tomb raiders. Standing inside these incredible structures is, for lack of a less cliché term, awe-inspiring to say the least. Even so, by the end of the afternoon, we were officially templed-out. We headed back to the hotel, cleaned up and hit the new Mexican restaurant in town. You all know how I feel about Mexican, so I’ll spare you the details – but it definitely gives Viva! a run for its money!

The next day we met our took-took driver from the day before, who had developed a serious man-crush on Stephen (think thigh-grabbing and heavy petting), to take us to the Kulen mountain ranges where there are several 45ft waterfalls. And, yes, ladies and gentlemen, you can swim right in the spray at the base of the falls. On top of that, we were the only people swimming at the base, so it felt like we owned the place. Getting there was a little bit of a trek, but the experience was so worth it. I’m not sure who loved it more – us, or our driver – but the whole day was by far one of the coolest things I’ve done in Cambodia to date. When we finally got back to civilization, we enjoyed our last night on the town (complete with Apsara dancing and a city-wide power outage – see, I told you he got the full experience).

The trip went by way too fast, but it was one for the records. As always, he came. He saw. He conquered.