The Mekong, Koh Pdao, & Siem Reap

Today is our last day in Siem Reap. It's very weird. I feel like we've been on a completely different planet for the past week, rather than a different province about 6 hours from our current home. This has been one of the longest, most tiring, yet best times I have experienced so far in this trip. Cambodia is very draining to those who aren't accustomed to the lifestyle, but it's so worth it. I haven't yet been able to put my finger on what's so attractive about it. Hopefully these last 3 weeks will present me with some kind of answer.

The first 3 days were spent at Koh Pdao, an island village in the middle of the Mekong, in Kratie province. Out of the 3 villages my friends and I have stayed in during our study abroad in Southeast Asia (the other 2 were in Thailand), Koh Pdao was the most comfortable. It was extremely different, too, in the sense that they didn't drink- at least while we were there- and all they did was workworkwork. Cambodians have got to be the hardest working people I have ever met in my life. It makes me feel extremely lazy. We helped move fence posts 2 mornings in a row, that were basically 70 pound tree trunks that were about 4 or 5 feet tall. We all had trouble finishing more than 4 or 5 total, but they just worked all day doing it! And they're so happy while they work, too. They were joking around with us, we ate mangos, and even taught them the hokey pokey hahaha. We also had to ride bikes if we wanted to go anywhere along the strip of their village. Each ride was at least a couple of miles long, but it was so hard to do since none of us are really used to biking on REALLY bumpy roads, and (I hate to sound whiney about this) the bikes were too small....But it was fun nonetheless! The first trek we had was probably about 6 miles total (that's just a guesstimate, it felt like 20 miles hahah) and we felt so drained after, but in the coming days we had shorter bike rides and they got so much easier to handle (and not because they were short). I don't know. I'm rambling now.

Siem Reap was cool, although we only spent a couple of days here. The first day we just took it easy since everyone was wearing thin- people were getting sick as a result of being in the village, which is to be expected, not to mention we were all covered in an excessive amount of mosquito bites. Yesterday, we took the day to explore Angkor Wat, which was beautiful. We saw the "mudroom" of it, the main temple, the "snake temple" (where Tomb Raider was filmed), and the "face temple". Each of them was so unique and amazing. It's hard to imagine they were once the hub of ancient Angkor era life and that they've lasted this long. Many people consider it the "8th Wonder of the World" and after being, it's completely understandable why.

My computer is about to die, however, so I must depart. When I get home later, I'll try to post some pictures from our adventure.

Cheerio,

Mallory