Yet another wild adventure:Mondulkiri Province

Yep. Perfect time for
karaoke.

This past week we, here in Asia, celebrated Chinese New Year.(Happy New Year!) That meant that I got a whole week off of work. Score. For the holiday, my boss arranged for me to take a tour to Mondulkiri Province-the mountains. I was really excited to go and see trees and forests and waterfalls, and basically be away from skyscrapers(ok, for Cambodian standards) and smog.

We started out on Tuesday morning at about a quarter to six, I'd been up since three. So, you could imagine that I snuggled down into my nice air-conditioned seat, with my neck pillow blown up and my eye mask in place to catch a good 7 hours of z's. Yeah, well... my fellow busmates decided differently. There's no time like the present to sing Khmer karaoke, right? Wrong. And, what makes it worse, I barely got a drop of sleep, because they just kept the goodtimes(karoake) going.

It was a beatiful ride through the country side. What started out as expansive rice fields, soon turned into miles and miles of rubber trees. And while I'm on the subject, since when does rubber grow on trees? Did. Not. Know. This. At. All. Anyways, after 7, maybe 8, long hours, we reached our hotel! We were allotted about a half an hour to get settled in and freshened up, and then we headed to Monorom Falls.

I knew this place was going to be interesting when we pulled up and there were elephant rides taking place...little did I know what true splendor awaited below.
To reach the falls, we had to climb down this treacherous hill, but I can tell you that it was so worth it. When you got to the bottom and looked up, you saw this beautiful tree that looked as if it were growing right out of the cliff, and beside it, you saw a gorgeous waterfall, pouring over the edge. (Yes, I jumped off the cliff. http://tammyrose.blogspot.com/ read about it there:])

After we visited the falls, we had dinner at a cafe in the woods.(legit.) For entertainment, the indigenous minority people did a traditional dance around a campfire.

Day 2 in the great mountains, we visited the most popular of the falls in the area, Bousra. Now this, was a spectacle. I'd never been to a real waterfall before, so when we finally got to the sight(after an hour of driving up and down a winding mountain road) and all you could hear was water, I was awestruck. These falls were probably 50 to 60 ft. high and at the bottom were small rapids and a shallow place where people could wade or swim.
Also, on day 2, we visited a coffee plantation... Again, since when does coffee grow on trees?! Did.Not.Know.This.At.All. Next they're going to tell me that money grows on trees.(No, just on rice plants.) I didn't do much exploring but I mean, would you when you could sip delicious iced coffe in a beautiful garden? Yeah, thats what I thought.
That night, we had dinner at this really neat restaurant where you sit on the floor of a raised hut on a grass mat and they put a variety of serving dishes in the middle  and then everyone takes what he wants. Basically like a private mini-buffet:D

Day 3, we woke up bright and early before we had to drive on our bus for 8 hours, and my compadre, Zachary, and I went on a morning run with the only other two people on our tour that spoke English.
After a quick shower and pack, we were on the fast track to reaching home. Two hours in, we stopped for a quick lunch and got right back onto the road...well, the other bus did. Our bus decided that it was time to get rid of a tire. Alas, the front, left tire blew up and flew all over the road. Delay # 1. Our drivers had to put on the spare in the beating,afternoon sun, so I really did feel bad for them, until I heard that they'd been tightening the old tire, instead of loosening it. Let's just say, my heart danced when an hour and a half later, the new tire was in place, and we were back on the road.
It was smooth sailing, or so we thought.
We were about 18 kilometers from the city when traffic literally stopped. Our bus was directed onto a back road to evade the apparent blockage only to be turned right back around because we were too big to fit. So we were back on the same road, in the same place that we sat at for 20 minutes, before! After ANOTHER hour, we finally got through the traffic, and get this, the traffic was caused by a street fair being held for a funeral of a god. What?!... Only in Asia.
Almost 12 hours later, we reached home sweet home. 

The first set of falls we visited.

I guess this is the lighthouse?... Located right off the Mekong river.

Monorom Falls

Where we ate dinner!

Bousra Falls

Our bonfire at dinner

Magical rubber trees(lol)

The tour group.

Clouds for miles...

It only took an hour and a half to change the tire in the scorching, beating sun...No big deal...all part of the adventure, right?

While the tour guide change what was left of our tire, we got to admire the expansive rice fields. Aren't they beautimous?

It was a great time, and all these adeventures are only serving to make me want more!! Write soon.<3

Siem Reap: the experience of a lifetime

Cambodia is known for many things, the Khmer Rouge, the Killing Fields, Pol Pot, but most of all, Angkor Wat. The icon of Cambodia is this wat that is more than 2,000 years old. Well, this weekend I got the opportunity to visit Angkor and all of the surrounding temples, and what a life changing experience it was.
For New Years, I was whisked away on a 10 passenger tour van to see all that Siem Reap province has to offer. I really wasn't sure what to expect, and the fact that our tour guide only spoke Khmer(native language of Cambodia), didn't really help me to better understand everything that I did see. That being said, I think my general lack of knowledge actually contributed to the greatness of this experience. I went in completely open-minded and unexpecting and I came away amazed.

On the first day of our three day tour, we visited Cambodian Cultural Village. We walked through a wax museum that portrayed the history of Cambodia from the very beginning. We also saw a play about a Khmer girl's choice of fiance that was completely hilarious. The village was a beautiful, picturesque tourist attraction and I was able to experience some really neat things there.



      The second day, we rose bright and early to go view Angkor Wat. Our first stop in what I would describe as a state park in the states was Ta Prohm temple. Its this amazing temple that has broken down over the years. The main factor contributing to the ruins are the huge trees that have overgrown the temple and are now draping the walls with their roots. All I can say, is WOW. That was hands down one of the top 10 coolest places I've ever been to or seen in my life[or maybe in the world!]. From there we visited two other temples in the woods surrounding Angkor Wat: Angkor Thom(Bayon) temple, which was huge in mass and made of these beautiful,stone steeples with smiling faces carved into them and Baphuon temple, which is a pyramid shaped temple and on the west side, is the "Reclining Bhuddha" constructed out of huge sandstones.
After a quick lunch/hotel break, we headed to the main event, Angkor Wat.

Driving up to the wat, you actually don't see the iconic steeples that are usually shown in pictures. Surrounding the wat is a moat that is 5 kilometers wide and 20 kilometers long. The moat was built to support the center structure where the wat sits and also, to bring the huge stones to the site when it was being constructed, more than 2,000 years ago. Another intersting fact, Angkor Wat is the largest religious structure in the world.
After you cross over the bridge that runs through the moat, you must walk through the structure that is positioned outside of the actual wat. Once through there, you're able to view the entire structure of the wat set back on a lawn with smaller structures and a land bridge that goes straight up to the main structure. On this "lawn" you see monkeys, you can take a ride on a decorated white horse, you can even buy t-shirts at the vendors situated on the south side of the lawn.
We weren't able to climb all the way to the top, due to construction, but just being there and getting to see the beauty and splendor of one of the Seven Wonders of the World was simply mindblowing.

The last day of our trip, we visited the Tonle Sap Lake, the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia. It was a cloudy, chilly day, seemingly perfect for sailing. We got onto our little covered motorboat and from my perch I got to view the "village on the water." People's houses were literally floating on the banks of the lake, some of them were even boats! The prosperity of this area is obviously due to the huge fish population of the lake.
Funny story, while we were on the lake, families would pull up next to us in their precariously constructed boats, trying to sell us live snakes. Three year old baby boys would have these medium sized snakes draped over their shoulders like they were a stuffed toy. It was defnitely one of the saddest, but most fascinating things I've ever seen. These people are doing anything they can to survive in the world...even their young children. These children don't really ever have  a childhood.

All I can say, is that my eyes were opened up this weekend and I have a greater hunger to travel the rest of the world to see the rest of the "Seven Wonders."

Until Next Time, lia seu!n haeay!(goodbye!)