Cambodia, chronologically backwards

Anyone else want tarantulas for dinner? I didn't either. But it seems you can't NOT eat fried tarantulas when they're at your table. I decided to deem spiders, an insect, "vegetarian." The legs were not so bad. The body. Sick. It just tasted like it was dirt or mold or something. The texture was all wrong to me! But please try them for yourself! Don't take my word for it.

Mmmm. Aren't you hungry?

Phnom Penh. Very French feeling... but the poorness of the country transcends all. It's hard to shake off.

The Shop. We bought the melti-est in your mouth chocolates here. Some for Mark, some for us.

FCC, Phnom Penh. That's Foreign Correspondent's Club. Off that balcony is where our host, Mark, decided to stay in Cambodia way back in 1994. With that view of the rivers, I can't say I wasn't tempted also.

View outside the FCC of the National Museum in the distance and a building yet to be restored in the foreground.

Mark and Carrie at Comme le Maison. Wins "Best Croissants in Asia" award.
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Phnom Penh Post office. Circa 1894.

The pig with the biggest balls I've ever seen running next to our tuk-tuk on the way from Kep to Kampot. If only it was in focus, you could have the same visual pleasure that we experienced. Very sorry. Very.

Mr. Tuk-tuk from our seat. Carrie and I rode about 45 minutes. Maybe the most enjoyable transportation experience I've had in SE Asia, as we rode through the Cambodian countryside in the open air, bouncing along in the tuk-tuk with no shocks.

Cambodia countryside.

Beach on Rabbit Island, where we spent the day doing nothing but laying on the beach.

Sweet little cows out for a walk and a bite to eat.

My beautiful sister on the boat ride to Rabbit Island.

Our boats to Rabbit Island from Kep.

Cambodia Photos

Carrie and me on our slatted swing bench in Kep, Cambodia.

Dinner in Angkor Wat. Yum.

I don't think I ever loaded my car to maximum capacity. I thought I did. I didn't. This car we passed on the dirt road on our way to Siam Reap. Carrie was sleeping next to me.

Angkor Wat at 5:30AM... when everyone else was waiting outside for their sunrise photos, we were the only ones inside except for a monk and a little boy. It was like the temple of doom...

Sunrise at Angkor Wat.

Market in Siam Reap... love the ladies sitting on the tables. That was the first time I've seen that.

S-21 Toul Sleng Genocide Museum--a harrowing museum, unlike any I've experienced.
It's where 20,000 Cambodians passed through between 1975-1979 with only seven survivors. Part of the Khmer Rouge cleansing of educated Cambodians and foreigners in attempt to create a worker-peasant Cambodia, this museum was left largely intact as an exhibit of the worst side of human nature. As we walked through, there were wooden doors banging in the wind, blood stains on the floor, and beds and torture instruments on display. It had been a school, converted to a prison.





View from one of the cells in the prison.

Hotel le Royale, where refugees hid out for a while before moving to the French Embassy.

View from Mark's balcony.

Mystery baked goods. Posers.

Happy Endings.