Hello, friends (Jim Nantz voice). I am very sorry for the longest drought in mattinindonesia.blogspot.com history. The last few months have been hectic. We have a lot of catching up to do. Over the Christmas holiday I visited Cambodia (this post), my parents came to Indonesia to visit, I got to do some outdoor activities with Toni and her sister, Miko, Toni and I went to Belitung Island for Chinese New Year, and Toni and I went to Lombok and the Gili Islands for our Spring Break.
I am finally able to catch up on the blogs because I am bedridden currently. I am not sick. I just have an enormous bruise on my back due to a nasty fall during a pick-up soccer game. It was not ideal timing as the injury occured about 14 hours before flying to Singapore for visa issues that the school cannot resolve. It was a painful weekend in Singapore, but it included good food so that was nice. The pain reached its peak in Changi Airport (Singapore's; world's best) as I was waiting for my flight home on Sunday night. It got to the point where I knew as soon as I landed in Jakarta I needed to go to the hospital. They have given me some medication but there is still definite pain whenever I move. It is slowly getting better though and I hope to be back at work tomorrow (it is Tuesday here in JKT).
These posts will not be nearly as detailed as the ones before and I apologize for that. I will try to include the good pictures and give you the general idea of what happened during the trips.
First off, Cambodia. I traveled to Cambodia the first week of our 4-week Christmas Break. I traveled alone to Phnom Penh first and then met up with Nava (Canadian teacher at my campus) and her boyfriend, Patrick (Canadian teacher at the Semarang campus) in Siem Reap.
My flight pattern to Phnom Penh was to fly to Singapore and then Phnom Penh. It was just cheaper that way.
My first day in Phnom Penh I did a little exploring and spent some time at a pub on the road hugging the river. On this trip I read through "The Maze Runner." I enjoyed it, but was bitterly disappointed at the ending of the third book. I thought that was pretty horribly done. But that's another conversation.
The food in Cambodia was incredible. They are famous for their fish curry and it was awesome.
The night market in Phnom Penh was pretty cool. There were a lot of individual stalls set up and everything was really cheap. Slightly cheaper than in Jakarta.
In Cambodia, everything is in USD. They have a local currency with a ratio of 4,000:1 to USD but you only get that as change under $1.
My second day in Phnom Penh was easily the saddest day of the trip. I went to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (graphic pictures will follow) and the killing fields where Cambodians were taken after being tortured at the prison.
Pol Pot ran a brutal dictatorship where he was always very paranoid that someone was going to try and stab him in the back. This led to him killing anyone with an educational background. Lawyers, teachers, doctors, etc. were all killed for no reason at all. They would take them to this camp and charge them with being a spy for the USA or for working with the KGB. They would torture them repeatedly until they admitted that they had done the crimes that they did not actually commit. Once they admitted to their crimes, they were taken to the killing fields and murdered.
The following images are of the stupa that was built in honor of those that passed away at the killing fields. Each layer has different body parts from the deceased. On the skulls, there are different circular stickers to indicate the abuse from different weapons/tools that the victims had.
The pictures posted from the museum give you an idea of what went on there. Some of the images are graphic, but trust me, these are far from the worst images there.
Going on this one-day tour in Phnom Penh is necessary but it ruins your day.
The next day I headed up to Siem Reap where I would meet up with Nava and Patrick.
Siem Reap is home to Angkor Wat and some more really cool temples.
Angkor Wat:
Ta Prohm (where Tomb Raider was filmed - I've never seen it):
Ta Keo had really cool faces carved into stones:
One of the stalls at the Siem Reap night market was where you could buy small snakes and bugs to eat. Patrick liked the snakes. I, uncharacteristically, passed.
The next day we went to a floating village where all the houses and transportation is done on the water. It was low season, as you can tell by the pole, when we were there in December.
Jenga at lunch. Long video, but worth it.
Online there were good reviews about going ATVing in the Cambodian countryside at night. It was a blast - maybe the coolest part of the trip.
Cambodia was awesome and I really enjoyed it. I was, however, excited to get home because my parents would be arriving 36 hours later...
Next blog will feature my parents' time in Indonesia.
Sorry again for the long hiatus. Contract negotiations - you know how it goes.
If you ever need anything, please don't hesitate to shoot me an e-mail at mattsphillips@cox.net
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