Surgery in Cambodia!!!

Yes, I did indeed get surgery in Cambodia, but it was very minor surgery so there really isn't any cause for alarm; the only cause for alarm was that after he was finished I say a grasshopper on the wheel of the operation bed I had been lying on.

My toenail had been kind of destroyed on the booze cruise in Sihanoukville, and it had gotten infected somewhere along the way even though I thought I was taking good care of it. I was going to try and fix it myself, but then one of my veins in my toes started turning white and I had a vague recollection this is a sign that the infection is going into your bloodstream, resulting in gangrene, which was not high on my to-do list so I figured I had better find a doctor.

I went to the hospital, which was very new, clean, and expensive, and the doctor took one look and said he had to remove it, so he shot me up with Novocain and that was that.  The only hitch to the procedure was that they didn't give me enough Novocain so I could feel the nail being cut out.   I now have a much deeper sympathy for torture victims who have their nails pulled out, it its not fun, and I can't think of too many things that could be worse.

Toenail post-surgery, yum yum

I got back to the hotel and couldn't walk which presented a slight problem since our room was on the 4th floor with no elevator.  I ended up sitting on my butt and moving backwards up the stairs, step by step, all four flights of them. The workers in the lobby thought it was quite something.

Anyway, that is basically my surgery story, so moving on...

Because of the nail I ended up staying in Siem Reap with the rest of the family for a really long time, about 6 days, and had to cut Laos out of my trip which was really disappointing to me, because I had high expectations for tubing in Vang Vieng.

Siem Reap was a pretty decent place to get stuck however, and I managed to entertain myself, mostly by making close friends with the lady who ran the internet and paying her long visits everyday. Some highlights:

Angkor What? Bar = mostly this place was awesome because of the name... I am a nerd, I love puns.

Khemer Kitchen = Best Cambodian food EVER. I am slightly obsessed with Cambodian food, which is mostly curries and stews you can pour over rice. I bought all of the spices necessary and I am planning on mastering the art when I get home.

Awesome day at the river where we played with two little boys for at least 5 hours =

Dave and Josie and I were just chilling on the river since we had been too cheap to pay the $5 to go to the pool, when we saw two little boys on the other bank. Dave started wondering if people actually swam in the river, which looked a bit suspect, so as a joke he motioned them to come over, thinking that they never would. we were wrong, they both immediately stripped off their shirts, dove in, and swam across. They ended up hanging out with us for most of the day. We bought them ice cream, which they didn't like, apples, which they also didn't like and then finally some fried noodles, which were a hit. They both spoke no English, and so we played charades all day to talk. Dave pulled out some card tricks, and soon we had a huge crowd. It was pretty fun times.

After swimming across the river

Revolted by the ice cream

The noodles are a hit

The card tricks are also a hit, not just with the kids but with the tuk tuk drivers too

I wanted to adopt this one

Basically I love Cambodia. A lot. Much better than Thailand. Go there. Now!  (pic below is just a random picture of the river in Siem Reap that I thought was pretty.

Angkor What?

We finally dragged ourselves reluctantly away from the easy beaches in Sihanouk Ville and booked a bus to Siem Reap (9 hours).

The bus stopped in Phnom Penh for a few hours which was wonderful since I thought I was not going to get to see it at all on account of using up all my time in Sihanoukville. We stopped right next to the central market which I think is one of the main attraction, and if it is not, it should be.

The market in Kashgar, Western China, was supposed to be the "best in the world"but this one completely blew it to shreds. It was inside a huge old yellow colonial looking building which was octagonal and so the market started inside and spilled out beyond the building in a giant circular see of umbrellas. The building itself was very unique and made a very interesting an out of the ordinary staging for a market. I bought two Khemer scarves for 1 dollar.. I'm contemplating buying more since they are so cool - good stocking suffers.

Another wonderful feature of Cambodia is the bread. Because of the French colonialism, they can make baguettes that are on par with anything I tasted in France. These are served with all meals and many of the street vendors will whip up a delicious cheese-cucumber-and-sauerkraut-ish-substance baguette for a dollar. Oh, other random reflection, Cambodia looks like Nicaragua, kind of the same jungle-ness.

Got to Siem Reap, found a place to stay after a bit of searching. The town is cool, but its clear the main attraction is really Angkor Wat and the town just plays backup.

Kyle and Verber have to share a tiny bed. This is their interpretation of how kyle sleeps at night and how horrible its going to be.

Angkor Wat / Temples of Angkor

Tuk Tuk fun
More Tuk Tuk fun

We started our Angkor day at 8 am, and headed straight for Angkor Wat. Usually this would be done on the the third day, but since I was only going to be here for one we did it in the first day so that I could see it. Its actually really hard to express how cool it was, but it was kind of like being on the set of Jungle Book, Tomb Raider and Indiana Jones all at once, and then realizing it wasn't a movie set but was all real. Angkor Wat is really just one in a sea of temples, but as it is the one on all of the postcards it is what people think of as Angkor. In reality there are more than 60 temples scattered around the city of Siem Reap, some big, some small, some cool, some not - Angkor Wat is just the most famous. It was built as a tomb for Vishnu, and has some of the most well preserved wall carvings inside, the most famous depicting the Churning of the Sea of Milk - a legendary event when Vishnu and the Naga churned the sea to produce the elixir of imortality.
Entrance to Angkor Wat
The boys getting excited to be there
Typical tourist picture - I think every person who visits takes this exact same picture

Inside Angkor Wat
Inside Angkor Wat

After Angkor Wat we went to Angkor Thom, the old walled city of Angkor, which has a hand full of other temples inside. In Angkor tradition, stone was fit only for the gods, so all of the houses of ordinary people were constructed of wood and have long since disintegrated in the tropical rain. Kings were considered god-kings, so the structures they lived in and gave speeches from still remain as well as the temples for the gods.

Gate into Angkor Thom

My favorite temple was Bayon which we visited first in Angkor Thom. It was very uncrowded and many times I was the only person in the section of the temple that I was in. You are allowed to walk around uninhibited in the ruins which is really cool, but this is sure to change soon - there are rumors that the entire area will close to the public within the next ten years.
Inside Bayon

After this we visited a few other temples in Thom, a notable one being Baphuon, which was taken apart and documented painstakingly by French scientists after WWII for reconstruction, but unfortunately their documents were lost in the chaos of the Khemer Rouge revolution, and now an ambitions project is underway to restore the temple to its original glory without the documents, which is a daunting task.


Jill trying to climb up the hard way

Leaving Angkor Thom, we went to one of the other most famous temples in the area Ta Prohm, or the temple where Tomb Raider was filmed. This is probably the second most photographed temple after Angkor Wat on account of the huge trees growing their roots out and over the temple walls.




The Family

After this long day of tramping through dusty hot jungle we went to a magnificent restaurant called dead fish, which had four or five different levels scattered through the warehouse which you reached by ladder, kind of like a tree house. Your food and drink was brought up on a pulley system, and the tables were made of old tires with a slab of glass on top. They also had crocodiles you could feed and free wireless Internet. It was awesome. Afterward our tuk tuk driver Dara took up to a Cambodian club for a few drinks, which was interesting because it was the polar opposite of a US club experience - all of the men were getting crazy on the dance floor while the girls just sat and watched or awkwardly moved back and forth. It was very strange.

Sign over the crocodile pit


The red bull have amphetamines in it. no seriously I'm not kidding. They are deadly. Dexpanthonol 5 mg. I drank three one day and couldn't sleep all night