Asia 2010 – Siem Reap

It was another early morning when we hauled ourselves out of bed for a 4am departure. Dad drove us all to the airport, where we got checked in, had a McDonald’s breakfast, and Coffee Bean chai lattes. The flight wasn’t long, but gave us some good time to process what we’d seen so far.
Malaysia is a good entry point to Asia because its quite modern, and multi-cultural. Cambodia is… less modern. The plane pulled up outside the airport, not at a gate — it looked more like a parking lot. There were no marked paths, and there was no security — there was only one other plane there — and we were left to sort of wander our way towards customs. The entry process into the country is hilariously over-done — your Passport is seen by a line of at least 10 people, none of whom speak anything but their own language, all of whom presumably provide some sort of rubber stamp on your Visa.
When we finally got through, we stepped out into a pretty rural, wonderfully simple, fairly tropical world. Our taxi driver was friendly, and we were whisked quickly to our lovely little hotel off a dirt road.
Since then, we explored and climbed 3 different ancient ruins, including the famous Angkor Wat, held a Bible study and prayed to the living God while perched atop the crumbling remains of a temple to false gods while the sun set in the distance, took a nerve-wracking Tuk Tuk ride into the middle of nowhere where we climbed onto a little boat and visited a floating village, shopped the night market, and enjoyed a couple different unique eating experiences — which included eating some crocodile!
I thought I’d do a better job of blogging this, and be Skyping home more often, but there’s just too much to see and do, and so little time to do it in. It’s just 6am here — I’ve been up since 5, although the girls seem to need more sleep than me — and we’re shortly boarding a bus for Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Our travel party is in good health and good spirits, and we can hardly wait to see what else God has in store for us there…

2 thoughts on “Asia 2010 – Siem Reap

  1. Sounds fantastic. We never got to the floating village, but some day I would like to. Don’t know about the alligator though. You can get all kinds of bugs at roadside stalls on the way to Phnom Penh: cockroaches, beetles and of course grasshoppers. I never had the courage (or the stomach) but feel free.

  2. Totally understand the airport description. Here we get off the plane on the tarmac and walk into customs which is still partially in open air. Sounds like you’re having a fabulous time.

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