After successfully negotiating the border crossing to leave Vietnam and enter Cambodia, we were treated to a sweltering 6-hour bus ride whose driver hopelessly blasted romantic Cambodian karaoke ballads and fed us local pig floss pastries. On our ride to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, we witnessed children bathing with horses and live, squealing pigs tied to the back of a scooter headed to market.
Upon entering the Kingdom of Cambodia, we were easily struck by their happy disposition and up-beat attitude compared to the Vietnamese hospitality we had become accustom. The Cambodians we encountered were overall effusive, had a good command of English and always wore a smile. Additionally, juxtapose to the sharp,often harsh sounding Vietnamese, the Cambodia's native tongue was soothing, flowing and lyrical in nature.
Our first stop in Cambodia was the capital Phnom Penh. Our plan called for us to stay for two days (one night) and then continue our travels to they famed temple of Angkor Wat. Eager to explore the city, we quickly decided to hit the cultural highlights and then explore the famous river walk, along the ever present Mekong. Our first and - due to the extreme heat - only cultural stop was the Grand Palace and impressive Silver Pagoda.
It was a beautiful Buddhist Wat with well manicured grounds and various Khmer and Buddhist influences, plus they had AB's favorite statue in SE Asia - the "Holy Cow". And no, that is not ML's MC Hammer impersonation, she had to wear pants because if the gods hate one thing, it's young women's knees showing in public.
With the cultural excursions laid to rest, we went in search of every explorers best friend, cold beer and good food. The Cambodians were happy to oblige and we found a cute restaurant, Friends & Food, run by an NGO that teaches orphans on-the-job training skills by employing them in restaurants. We really enjoyed the Cambodian curries they dished out, which leads to another lesson learned in SE Asia - anything with coconut milk tastes awesome. After lunch, we found the famed River Walk along the Mekong and past the famous Cambodian Happy Pizza joints - for those of you neophytes that would be pizza spiked with a little mary jane.
After some more exploring, a few more beers and a much needed shower, we headed out for dinner.We chose the fine dinning sister restaurant to our NGO lunch spot. At this point, dehydrated from sweating all day and filled with local Angkor Beer, we decided to try a Cambodian Khmer treat, fried tarantulas. Apparently, this was a "sweet" treat for young Cambodians growing up in severely depressed times. So, in the spirit of "When in Rome" we ordered and crunched away like the locals.
Overall, they weren't bad, and they weren't great. They were really crunchy and similar to - oh let's say old leather - took forever to chew. When you bit into the abdomen, they kind of squirted a hot soup of guts and grease into you mouth, we guessed this was the "treat" part. The hair on the legs tickled your throat on the way down, unfortunately it wasn't till after dinner we learned that the locals don't actually head the legs, talk about learning the hard way.
Overall, we were indifferent to Phnom Penh. It was hot, dusty, and the streets were literally teaming with the three T's, traffic, trash, and touts. So, after our quick sojourn in Phnom Penh we boarded the bus for our 6 hour trip to explore the mysteries of Angkor Wat.
Upon entering the Kingdom of Cambodia, we were easily struck by their happy disposition and up-beat attitude compared to the Vietnamese hospitality we had become accustom. The Cambodians we encountered were overall effusive, had a good command of English and always wore a smile. Additionally, juxtapose to the sharp,often harsh sounding Vietnamese, the Cambodia's native tongue was soothing, flowing and lyrical in nature.
Our first stop in Cambodia was the capital Phnom Penh. Our plan called for us to stay for two days (one night) and then continue our travels to they famed temple of Angkor Wat. Eager to explore the city, we quickly decided to hit the cultural highlights and then explore the famous river walk, along the ever present Mekong. Our first and - due to the extreme heat - only cultural stop was the Grand Palace and impressive Silver Pagoda.
With the cultural excursions laid to rest, we went in search of every explorers best friend, cold beer and good food. The Cambodians were happy to oblige and we found a cute restaurant, Friends & Food, run by an NGO that teaches orphans on-the-job training skills by employing them in restaurants. We really enjoyed the Cambodian curries they dished out, which leads to another lesson learned in SE Asia - anything with coconut milk tastes awesome. After lunch, we found the famed River Walk along the Mekong and past the famous Cambodian Happy Pizza joints - for those of you neophytes that would be pizza spiked with a little mary jane.
After some more exploring, a few more beers and a much needed shower, we headed out for dinner.We chose the fine dinning sister restaurant to our NGO lunch spot. At this point, dehydrated from sweating all day and filled with local Angkor Beer, we decided to try a Cambodian Khmer treat, fried tarantulas. Apparently, this was a "sweet" treat for young Cambodians growing up in severely depressed times. So, in the spirit of "When in Rome" we ordered and crunched away like the locals.
Overall, we were indifferent to Phnom Penh. It was hot, dusty, and the streets were literally teaming with the three T's, traffic, trash, and touts. So, after our quick sojourn in Phnom Penh we boarded the bus for our 6 hour trip to explore the mysteries of Angkor Wat.
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