A World Wonder: Angkor Wat.

Ankor Wat is as fascinating as everyone says.  These ruins they are intertwined with components of both Hinduism and Buddhism.  A little background, the Khmer King was first Buddhist.  After war and defeat by India, the territory and its people became Hindu. All the Buddha statues were destroyed during this time.  Buddhism made come back later under a new King and the presence of Buddha emerged once again.

TRAVEL TIP:  If you go, I would suggest going just as low season begins.  The days can be exceptionally long during high season so be prepared to stand in line and melt under the sun.

TRAVEL TIP: Go early in the morning 5, 6, or 7 am until 10 or 11 am, right as heat of the day begins.  Take a break, hopefully at a hotel with a pool, and then head back to the ruins around 2 or 3.

Cambodia Landmine Museum - Aki Ra

Landmine Museum.  Don’t Miss it. Truly an inspiration.

A wonderful friend of ours was so adamant about not missing this museum – I am glad she was. This place is of off the beaten track and allot of travels miss it.  Request it on your tour if you go.

I encourage you to read more about Aki Ra, Top 10 CNN Hero.

More tips for the socially conscious consumer: Cambodia

Beyond. Making money & changing lives!

This place offers tourism that benefits the community.  If you’re going to take a tour, which you probably will, why not opt to use them and make a little difference while you do.  Beyond employs locals & anywhere from 5% to 25% of their profits (depending on the tour) goes back into the community.

The same owner of Beyond owns a high end hotel Sojourn built in the village of Tac.  He uses the location to lure customers who want to feel like they are in the “real Cambodia” but there is a catch.  Almost all of the hotel activities are focused on the surrounding village.  Visitors can take a village walk, teach English at a school for a few hours, help in the rice fields, or pitch in building a water filter.

Their nonprofit arm is called HUSK! They provide trash bins for the village and pay for trash pickup for the community.

Our village walk with Beyond.

This was one of the highlights of our trip.  We got to see firsthand just how powerful a network of nonprofits working together can be.  In Tac, a small village there were a number of things happening:

Water filters. These filters are just $45 a piece but they are providing the community with safe drinking water. This means healthier kids that are able to attend school.

Compost Toilets.  Cleaner and safer for the community, ADDED bonus fertilizer to help the crops grow.

Stonger housing.  Each year during the rainy season it floods and many of the houses that have been built cannot sustain the damage caused by the water. New houses are being built for the poorest families that include a tin roof, cemented wooden pillars to hold up the house on stilts, and windows for circulation.

HUSK waste barrels. These barrels get the trash of the street. Cleaner streets, less rat, less disease = a more productive society.

The entire community receives education on how to use each of these. Our guide was a local from the community and told us how impressed he has been with the change.  He painted the picture of what the village used to look like and I can only imagine what is must have been like.

Little by little things are changing.

Cooking and Caring in Siem Reap

Le Tigre de Papier. 

One of the things at the top of our list was to learn to cook local cuisine so that when we returned home we could experience out travels through our palette. 

We chose Le Tigre de Papier as the location to take our cooking lesson.  This establishment donates a portion of the money to train a local to become a chef at one of the local restaurants.

On the menu: 

Fresh Shrimp Spring Rolls

Papaya Salad

Amak Chicken

Cambodian Spiced Chicken

Banana & Coconut Custard

Fresh from the market:

Where we started:

And just look how good it ended up. So yummy!

Great Causes, good food, and a few things for the adventurous eater!

There are a number of great establishments, doing great things, and serving great food – so why not spend your money wisely.  Below are a list places that any socially conscious traveler should know about and opt to visit.  You won’t be disappointed.

Cambodian BBQ – it’s not just about chicken baby.  We opted to take the sampler platter that included  alligator and python!  The snake was a bit dry but the gater isn’t half bad.

WATER BUGS Anyone?

During our village tour we were welcomed by some of the most hospitable people.  While I was so thankful for their lunch invitation, we both opted to bypass eating.  Their lunchtime meals often consist of well BUGS – grasshoppers, crickets, water bugs and more!  Protein is protein.

Romdeng (Phnom Phen) is a restaurant that offers former street children and orphans a place to belong.  Seeing over 100 customers per day, they not only provide fine dining training for everything: waiter, chef, restaurant management;  they provide these kids with a family and a support system.  Each kid receives financial and housing support if needed.  This  provides the ability to continue to go to school and get the skills they need to be productive in the community.

NOW SERVING: TARANTULAST @ Romdeng!

Yes, that is right, I said tarantulas. My husband has a bit of an adventurous palatte and this place hit the spot.  He ordered Tarantulas for an appetizer & stir fried beef with RED ANTS!. He loved the tarantulas and decided he could forego the red ants in the future.

Friends (Phnom Phen) is a sister restaurant to Romdeng. The cuisine is a mix of Cambodian French style tapas. Check it out if your there!

And if your in the mood try a few crickets from your local market.

Not to Miss: The Killing Fields

Reflections from a foreigner:

After the Holocaust the international community said:  “Never again, never again”. Perhaps that has fallen on death ears as I keep counting how many times the “never again” has actually been the again. It is a story that is all too familiar.

The Killing Fields are proof of what humans are capable of - genocide. 

The Killing Fields were commissioned under Pol Pot and were the sites used for Khmer exterminations (men, women, and children) under his regime.

As you approach the Killing Fields there is a tall memorial dedicated to the victims, full of their bones that remind us that we must never forget.  We MUST NEVER FORGET.

A walk by the killing tree where so many babies were murdered will forever be etched in my mind.  An estimated 2 to 3 million out of a total population that was 7 million died over the course of 5 years.  Everyone in the country was and still is affected.

My trip to the Killing Fields coincided with my reading of Samantha Powers book A Problem from Hell.  Prior to my visit I had wondered why so many countries around the world stood by despite the atrocities that were being committed inside Cambodia.  I wondered why today so many countries and so many people still refuse to believe when such atrocities are being committed.

A few things she had written provided me a bit of insight:

1.) The human mind doesn’t comprehend this level of darkness.  It seems unfathomable even when it those people whom are the targets.  But eventually, most of us have an “ah ha” moment.  It hits you.  But it often hits us when it is too late.

2.) Politics. There is always politics. Without going to indepth (you can read a history book or pick up her book) politics always plays a role.  In short, from the US perspective we had just come out of the Vietnam War and we couldn’t afford to get ourselves into the same situation.  Bad sentiments hung in the air as some on Capitol Hill boasted that Cambodian’s had helped to harbor the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War so why would we go back for round 2?

In addition, the US was worried about rocking the recent positive developments in our relationship with China.  When Vietnam did decide to invade with the backing of Russia we looked at it as communism extending is rule over yet another territory.

The story is obviously much more complex than my one little paragraph but at what point do politics take a backseat and the need for actions against genocide take the front seat?  My mind was racing when we returned to the hotel.  I turned on the television to find the current events of Libya, Syria, & the realities of what was happening in the Middle East.

Getting to know Cambodia

Our journey into Cambodia began with a six hour bus ride from Ho Chi Minh to Phnom Phen.  As a person who suffers from motion sickness I was dreading this trip (especially after my 20 plus times of being sick on a bus ride through southern Peru).  However, the trip was pleasant and I managed not to

puke (Yes, I win!).

In Phnom Phen we opted to stay a little off the beaten path so we chose stay in a hotel a little further into the city, about 5 min walk from the main drag on the river.  I am glad we did because it allowed us to see more of Phnom Phen.

Our observations:

There is a big and obvious gap between the wealthy and the poor in this city. This city is flooded with high end luxury SUV’s driven by the local elite and abundant amount of expiates in the town.

Big expatriate community.  There is a mix of people working for a variety of NGO’s and UN programs along with foreign businessmen and women.

TRAVEL TIP:

SEX TOURISM is no stranger to this town! SOUTHEAST ASIA HAS SOME OF THE HIGHEST FIGURES WHEN IT COMES TO SEX TOURISM. MANY OF THESE GIRLS ARE BETWEEN THE AGES OF 12-17.

WITHIN ITS WALLS SOME OF THE BIGGEST OFFENDERS OF THE SEX TRADE LIE. BE SMART. BE OBERSERVANT. IF YOU SEE SOMETHING SAY SOMETHING.

CHILD SAFE is a NGO working to help curb the abundance of sex tourism in Phnom Phen. YOUR JOB: notify them or any establishment that has the Chile Safe logo.  (A good indicator is if you see a bar full of young girls just sitting around and older men by themselves sitting or getting dropped off, going in, and heading upstairs)

Cambodia: Building for the Future

Cambodia: A country of hope and promises for a better tomorrow.

Extreme poverty is no stranger to Cambodia but as you travel along the roads you see signs of development and you sense an energy about the people that things are changing - the economy is improving little by little.

A few facts:

The average Cambodian citizen makes around 650 USD per year (UNICEF).  In Vietnam the average citizen makes around 1010 USD per year YET, Cambodian is noticeably much more expensive.

Why? They import the majority of their goods and are reliant on external sources for oil and other natural resources. (We were informed from a few people that there are plans to begin offshore drilling. However at the time of writing this no plans had been revealed to build a refinery).

The country is just getting back on its feet after utter destruction by the Khmer Rouge: 2-3 Million people died.  Agriculture fields were destroyed by over use.  Infrastructure was destroyed – roads are being rebuilt roads, bridges, railways, etc.

Indicators that Cambodia is slowly changing.

Today education in Cambodia is free both primary and secondary.  More schools are being built.  Most parents want their children to be educated.  Many people who have received education want more than the life they have known. They are starting businesses, attending university, and are slowly speaking up demanding change in their country.

Cambodia: Politics & The People

So who is in power?

Many of the elite are previous leaders from the Khmer Rouge including their

present Prime Minister Hun Sen. Since Cambodia’s first “democratic” election in 1994 a number of former Khmer Rouge leaders have remained in power. (This is too complicated to get into on a short blog but if you are interested do read more about this situation and the complexities of Cambodian life ).

A little more about the PM: he is currently pushing for the ICC to leave the country and stop its pursuit of justice for the slaughter of millions of Khmer people during the Khmer Rouge reign.

The skinny from the locals on why he is pushing the ICC out is due to the ongoing investigation about his personal involvement.  Under universal jurisdiction, despite the fact that he is a leader of the country, he is still subject to trail in the International Criminal Court.

Perspective from the People:  When we asked people if they are angry about Khmer leaders ruling the county we were given a few interesting responses.

A quote from some people we met along the way:


“Many of the Khmer elders hold back their anger and agree with him [PM], the reality is there is much to eat now. You can eat anything you want. Before people starving not enough food and much killing. If peace comes at this price then we would rather this than what was before”


“Although many older people prefer this to peace, the younger generation is changing. They are more educated. They see the world differently. Perhaps there will come a time when they will demand change because they want a better life”

Reflections of Cambodia

Initially we had planned to travel through a number of locations in Cambodia, hitting up small village on 1 to 2 day intervals; however, after much thought we decided we would focus Phnom Phen and Siam Reap.

By narrowing the scope, it allowed for us to really get to know these two cities and their surrounding villages.  If you have more time, a month plus, then take your time and discover more.  It’s a magical place!   

Reflections of Cambodia:

Cambodia is green and lush and HOT (I mean really HOT)!

The people are warm and hospitable.  They possess and unbelievable audacity to forgive and look to the future.  I walk in admiration of their spirit.

There is an abundant amount of pharmacies and clinics throughout the country (more than we saw in Vietnam).  But still more healthcare is needed.

Cambodia is complicated.  It continues to be rank high on the Corruption Perceptions Index (162 out of 180).  It’s a quasi democratic state, better explained by many people we met along the way as a democracy on the surface and a dictatorship underneath. 

 If you pay attention while you drive along the road you really start to get a sense of this as you signs only for Cambodian People’s Party.  Apparently there is an opposing party to the ruling one but the main opponent has had to flee the country for his safety.  Most people keep their political opinions to themselves.