Cambodia! finally!!!!

Hello dear friends! thanks for being so patient and for being there (or Ta!, as you would say in Edinburgh). We made it to Cambodia!!! can you believe it? I just can't believe we have done it! we have travelled for so long an yet, it seems like we started just last week!!! Its been amazing having you all there, following my doings! but don't you fret, my friends! I am still around South East Asia for the next... 3 months!!! I won't be flying back until December the 3rd!! I have decided that, although my dear Helen and Katie are leaving me on the 22nd of September, I am still hungry for more adventures!! so you will be hearing from me for a long while still!! I wonder what it will be like to travel alone, though... bit worried about that!

Anyway, to the point: I love Cambodia!!! Does it surprise you? everybody is sooo nice here! it reminds me a little bit to Laos, though it is more messy, I think. We arrived to Phnom Penh and it was strange that people on the street were not beeping all the time anymore! a big change with Vietnam! Drivers are less agressive and in general it is much more chilled out! As soon as we got there we met our favourite tuk tuk driver, Rotha, who I recommend dearly to everybody who comes here (he is a little bit expensive but really worth it!!). He took us everywhere in Phnom Penh: first the infamous Killing Fields! you don't want to go there but you have to! It is a horrible chapter of cambodian history... still very recent (with landmines threatening everywhere in the countryside), but they seem to be over it! eventhough nearly everybody you meet had some family members killed by the evil regime! skulls pilled up in a memorial tower, the prison, called S21,... you can find out about it in any history book... too sad to be retold.

After we went to more cheery sites, the palace, the temples, the sunset in the lake.. and to taste the local specialities: spider, cricket and snake!!! It was incredible what they sold in the market, even scorpions and maggots!! I was very brave! ate a whole cricket double the size of the ones you find in Europe!! and it was not nice, why deny it? it tasted like straw, dry and tasteless, with some sandy after taste... I would not recommend it! but everybody here was eating them so normally and enjoying them that I did not want to miss the experience!! ah well, another tale to tell my grandchildren... the snake I tried as well, not so scary when it is in a skew, roasted, it tasted like fish, although it had very little meat: only skin and bones!!! the spider was a different matter!!! It was huge and hairy and very black!!!! I could not bring myself to bite it! I tried one leg and it was too hard!! (and our friend did not eat it either, so that gave me a clue...)

After the meal, that ended up with barbecued beef, so it was a bit more filling!, we went dancing to the local disco!? it was karaoke with a life orchestra! and everybody was singing very well, compared to the standards I am used to back home!!! then it was dancing time and I was surprised that there were more boys than girls dancing! and of course we were the attraction: everybody kept looking at us and girls pointing at our nose! (it seems they like pointy noses, since theirs are so different?!). But after a while it was a little bit too much, too many boys around us... (not that I mind that...).

The next day our driver took us to an orphanage that broke my heart! it was a slum, it had rained and all was in a puddle, the little huts looked as if they would not hold our weight when we were shown around the girls'tiny dormitory! they were happy that we brought them some rice (50kg was not enough to feed the 160ish children for one day!) and it was really heart breaking the state some children were in... tiny babies being cared for by 6 year old girls... anyway, we went there and we helped as much as we could! Afterwards, we saw some more tuk tuks bringing more tourists in, so hopefully they will make it!

We also went fishing with our friend Rotha, in the Mekong river... we did not catch but a couple of tiny fish and I felt sorry for them... (I have a soft heart as you all know...). Then we went to watch the women weaving silk and we bought some nice scarves (its always buying and buying!!! I am nearly broke!!!) and we took refuge from the storm in a cafe that was full of hammoks and had a snooze watching the rain and eating corn... it was very pleasant! In the evening we had goat soup for dinner!! yummm! tastes pretty much like lamb...

We wanted to escape a little bit from the town and have some quiet time away from the spending and the intense Phnom Penh so we went to Sihanoukville for a few days, on the coast! and the beach was really lovely but it was impossible to have a quiet time!!! all these children came round with their stories of broken and poor families... wanting money to pay for school, wanting to make bracelets for us... we even got our legs depilated with a string!!! we just could not resist them! so we ended up spending more money than we should, of course! only one day we were able to escape them, we went to a natural park that had mongrels?? (some tree that has its roots in salt water? or something like that...) that was relaxing! empty, sandy gorgeous beach and jungle trek...

An afterwards we took a boat from Phonm Penh, along the Tonle Sap, up to Siem Reap, where we are now, totally nakered, after two days waking up at 5ish... and tomorrow is the big day! we are going to Angkor Wat to watch the sunrise!!!! I am very excited although it implies another early start!! even earlier!! 4am!!! it is the middle of the night!! wish me luck! do you thik we will manage?? more in the next chapter! good night folks! take care! and keep in touch! I love your comments!!! lots of love and hugs and kisses!! (I have had a few beers tonight, we were reunited with our friend Katie! who we thought we had lost!!!) bye