Hello all,
I've just returned from a vacation in Siem Riep, a province about 6 hours north of Phnom Penh. Siem Riep happens to be the location of the ancient temples of the Angkorian Empire, the Khmer society that ruled all of SE Asia about 1000 years ago. The 4 of us SALTers headed out last Wednesday planning on seeing the temples, relaxing, and enjoying being tourists. I had a great time and pictures are coming soon I promise (on facebook or on here). Here are some highlights
- Laying by a pool at a super fancy hotel that we didn't stay at because its way out of our budget. The pool is on a rooftop, in a garden. Instead of umbrellas there were grape trellises covered in fabric. It was just gorgeous!
- Going dancing every night. Such a typical tourist thing but so fun. This included my first time dancing on a platform. Not something I expected out of my time in Cambodia! (oh and I got to salsa some with Michael, made me miss Whitworth!)
- While dancing on one of those nights being proposed to be a Khmer man. It went something like this:
Oh you speak beautiful Khmer, do you want to stay in Cambodia forever.
Um I'm not sure yet.
Well if you do, you could marry me.
Oh, uh, no thanks.
All of this happened in Khmer. Getting hit on in another language is kind of a trip because you can't completely understand what the guy is saying, so you just nod along and laugh a lot- which equals flirting back- the exact opposite of you intentions. Seriously though, he was totally nice and not creepy at all. And I won the bet we had going between us girls on who would be proposed to first.
- Bonding with the other 3 SALTers even more than we already have. It was so fun to vacate our Phnom Penh life, even though that life is exactly stressful or that busy. Just a chance to forget about cultural differences for a few days.
- Sleeping in an air conditioned room- I can't remember the last time I was cold while I slept.
- Spending 1 whole day lying around reading, a day in which I changed back into my PJs twice
- And of course, seeing the temples. We saw the 5 most popular. There are something like 200 in the province, but only 30 something are accessible because of jungle and land mines. My favorite as Ta Prohm, the jungle temple. (also the place tomb raider was filmed) We are able to go inside the temples as well which I wasn't expecting. Probably the thing that really made the day memorable though was our guide. We requested a guide who the hotel recommended. Then, within 10 minutes of starting the tour this guy just begins a long day of dirty jokes and innuendos about dating us girls. Seriously probably the most sex deprived person I've ever met. It was partly hilarious, partly unbelievable, and partly uncomfortable. I'm guessing he just assumed all American women are loose and like that kind of talk. The highlight was probably "The snake in the trousers is more dangerous than the snake in the wood because the snake in the woods gets scared but the snake in the trousers never gets scared or tired." (Throughout this sentence he was gesturing at Michael's pants) This pretty much has all of us laughing so hard and so uncomfortably that we were practically crying. And this is only one of the gems he left us with. Definitely not the tour we were expecting, but totally memorable nevertheless.
Overall, a lovely vacation. I'll actually be back in Siem Riep in 2 weeks for a conference, but that trip will look a lot different. Less dancing, more living at a Jesuit retreat center and listening to lectures.
Missing everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment