Coast-to-Coast...to Coast: writing

Sunday, December 28, 2014

Cambodiaaaaa

We flew to Phnom Penh from Bali and it was like going to a completely different world. The traffic was horrendous and there was no where to walk except in the road or you would be walking through piles of trash. It was one of the dirtiest places I've ever been. It was actually really sad too because it was very clear that there was no middle class for the most part...either you were very wealthy or you were very poor. Our first day we wandered around for a few hours but Don was having some serious stomach issues and was very weak and tired so we headed back to rest and hang out for most of the afternoon.

Another day we rented a Tuk Tuk and driver to go see the Killing Fields, which was amazing and heavy and dark all at the same time. The same day, we also visited some of the bigger temples and palaces in downtown Phnom Penh.

I experienced the wonderful deliciousness of a pumpkin latte shake for the first time in Phnom Penh as well as what I like to call “the drink purse.” It’s pretty much like a plastic strap that goes around the cup and has straps that you carry it with. If I could have, I would have grabbed about 100 of them to give to all my family and friends because honestly, the drink purse is one of the best inventions since sliced bread.

It was my grand idea to take an overnight bus from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap…good news is that the bus had these strange mostly reclining sleeping beds so that we could sleep or least sleep a little bit more than we would have been able to if they were just seats. We arrived in Siem Reap without any problems. Except that time in the middle of the night when suddenly the bus pulled over and was stopped for at least an hour…I asked the driver where he had been when he came back to the bus. Turns out he needed to eat his dinner at 3am. Needless to say, public transportation in Southeast Asia is consistently exciting! Never a dull moment.

Siem Reap was fabulous, much smaller than Phnom Penh. It wasn’t nearly as dirty and had much more culture than Phnom Penh. Lots of cool coffee shops and stores lining the streets. Our primary reason for being in Siem Reap was to go to Angkor Wat and some of the other temples in the archaeological park but we ended up really enjoying the area. We spent several evenings just walking around and eating and drinking our way through Siem Reap.

Christmas in Siem Reap could have been any day of year besides the few restaurants who were advertising a Christmas Dinner special but we didn't go for that. We decided to stick with a favorite...vegetarian! I skyped with my parents and grandparents who were together in Washington state and we also skyped with Don's dad, sisters, and brother-in-law very quickly while we were on a bus.

Angkor Wat was phenomenal and absolutely exhausting. We rented the hotel's Tuk Tuk and driver for the day and spent about nine hours visiting Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, and some of the other ruins. It was far more magnificent than we could have ever imagined. The place is so big, we were barely able to see half of it.

The beautiful and haunting memorial at the Killing Fields in Phnom Penh

One of the beautiful palaces in Phnom Penh

Traffic is a crazy, complicated thing in southeast Asia

My handsome guy

So many bicycles in Siem Reap, not sure how you get one out from the back? Maybe it's a take one, leave on kind of deal

Some of the ruins in Angkor Archaeological Park

Inside Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat was more magnificent than we could have imagined

Monkeys at Angkor Wat

The view from our tuk-tuk driving around the park

This was one of the most beautiful ruins in the park

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Ubud, Bali

After staying three days in Seminyak, we headed into the mountains to a town called Ubud, that we had heard from many different people was full of culture, art, and great food. And they were right! Ubud was one of the coolest places we had seen up until that point in our three months of traveling. The place we were staying had free transfer on the backs of motorbikes to the town center everyday before 6pm so we took advantage of that. The first afternoon there, we had them take us to the Sacred Monkey Forest, where there were hundreds of monkeys amidst the temples and ruins. There were a few baby monkeys that were clinging to their mommys...eeeeek! So adorable! I'll post pictures at the bottom of this post.

Let me take a minute to address the issue of motorbikes in Bali. As the main means of transport on extremely narrow roads, many motorbikes take it upon themselves to weave in and out of "traffic" nearly causing many accidents but not often actually causing an accident, or at least any that we saw. The cars also take it upon themselves to pass the motorbikes, which can be very scary, especially when there's another car coming from the other direction and it looks like they may crash...but they don't. It's like a zoo out there to say the least. Stop signs are suggestions, road lines and lanes...wait, what's a lane? Get the picture, it was crazy.

We were excited to find out that there were many vegetarian options in Bali at restaurants. Since we had heard horror stories about the safety standards of food and more specifically meat, we decided to stick mainly with a vegetarian diet and maybe occasionally try a little meat.

We spent a lot of our time in Ubud shopping at some of cool shops that lines every street and exploring many of the temples and palaces in the area. One afternoon, we did a ridge walk along the tops of a group of hills just outside the main town center. Another day, we rented a scooter and drove to some of the temples and ruins that were a little farther away. At one of the temples that we went to that was built into a hillside, it started to downpour. It's the rainy season in Bali this time of year so we expected it to rain at least once a day but usually not for very long. But this time it rained for hours. And we just hung out under this roof thing, until eventually we realized it probably wasn't going to stop. So I rigged a rain jacket out of the waterproof backpack cover I had and tucked it over my head and under the motorbike helmet I was wearing to keep my backpack carrying our phone and camera dry. It also kept me fairly dry as well.

Our last day in Ubud before we flew to Cambodia, I took a Balinese cooking class that was highly recommended to me and Don did a cycling tour to a few sights in the area. The cooking class was phenomenal!!! I am in love with Balinese food now...so delicious! And now I can cook it too! The class was definitely one of the highlights of Bali for me; the teacher was wonderful and made the learning experience very fun and interesting.