Siem Reap

Lolol i have tried to post thus blog 5 times- soon it will happen. Enjoy.

Wow I really wasn’t expecting siem reap, Cambodia to include so much sparkly and cute. I found a store today that sells jars of wishes that light up when you shake them and have little scrolls that you can use to make a paper star! And I found a second hand store that was full of all these elaborate hand made dresses. I’m sadly a lil bigger than your average Cambodian so even my favs were a bit small. But that did not stop the so cute lil gay Cambodian boy from running out from the shower in a towel to check the seams and let me know he could alter it just right. I felt at home in their shop full of sewing machines and sequins.

Cambodians are really friendly on the whole, with big smiles and a jokster attitude. Thrir culture gas a lot of flavor. The young ones are super fashionable-even their billboards are hot with Asian girls with white hair and pink eyes doing cute things. The boys all have gravity defying haircuts shooting out from the front short around the crown and sticking out from the bottom. Somewhere between futuristic and emo. They dress fairly European or Japanese-guys in stripey tight fitting dress shirts, slacks, and pointy shoes in bright colors. And everyone is really friendly!! It always amazes me how one nice interaction can totally turn my day around or skew my interpretation of a place. It also reminds me to be nice and friendly- because perhaps I too may turn their day around or be their only impression of what an “American” or “New Yorker” or “Texan” is. At the end of the day I’d like to just think that I’m setting a good example every day, no matter where I am in the world, of being a good “human being” and that this nicety will become globally contagious.

I’m glad I am from
NYC though otherwise siem reap could be a little overwhelming- at least the downtown part. So many clubs, vehicles, markets, it’s a busy busy busy place. Driving around feels like you are in a videogame- two actual lanes on the road, like 4-6 lanes of traffic driving in all directions, motorbikes, tuk-tuks pulled by motorbikes, small people riding huge bicycles with 3 kids piled on them, big people riding tiny bicycles, 5 at a time on mopeds, trucks, cars, buses, double decker buses, push carts- it’s like frogger or actually it reminds me of those lil miniature ice skating ponds-the kind you put in fake model Christmas village set-ups that have magnets underneath them moving the skaters in perfect intricate interweaving patterns seamlessly between one another. It feels like being a hockey puck-being darted around- on one of those. Lol. It is fascinating.

Today I spent making my way through Angkor Thom and tracing the long and wild history of the Khmer empire.

Tomorrow I get up super early to meet my guide at 5 am to see the sunrise over Angkor wat-then after some temple exploring my guide offered to take me up the mountain to see the Angkor carvings deep in the riverbed. I may or may not go pending the weather. It’s an hour and a half by motorbike. We will see.

Okay I have a super early day tomorrow so- over and out!

Xo