My Learning Jungle!: November 2015

My sister is in Cambodia! After missing her by two days last December (I left the 19 she came home the 21) we haven't seen one another in over a year and a half!!

Krystal and Kim arrived on Friday November 20th and I was able to slip out of work and get them on my lunch break. I quickly dropped them at my apartment and returned to work with minor instructions on how to find me later. Sure enough they found their way by Tuk Tuk and the kids were ecstatic, turned hesitant at the sight of their pasty skin, turned joyous again once they got used to it. They kids were working in the journals to introduce themselves to krystal and Kim. They quickly had to show off their work to them and get their seal of approval. After work we walked home in which case Kim and krystal proceeded to swim along in their sweat. Needing time to adjust we ate dinner at a legit restaurant and called it a night. To ease them into the chaotic life of Phnom Penh we hit central market and... Ya no that's all we did. Later that evening I introduced them to the other girls I work with at one of our favourite places to go, showbox, as you get free beer from 6:30-7. Although still fighting jet lag they made it past 10pm and were up at 6am to make our bus trip to siem reap!

Having been to Siem Reap before and having had a positive experience I booked us into the Mad Monkey Hostel. However once shown to our room it was anything but positive and so goes the first of many incidents. First our bed was wet so we asked for the sheets to be changed (although we couldn't find the source of the leak). Then no sheets were clean so we went to the market to wait. At the market it began raining so we braved the quickly flooding streets (sorry Kim and krystal who soaked their shoes running through the streets) to take cover at one of my favourite restaurants only to be mauled by cockroaches who were also trying to flee the flooded streets!! The restaurant then had to close because of the growing colony of infested creatures. So we headed back to see if our room was ready. Somehow our room had now become a pool of water on the floor and the sheets still had not been changed. After many trips to the front desk and them clearly hating despising us we had to move to a new hotel. Despite the trouble the manager was lovely and worked his magic to get us into nicer rooms, problem was we now could not all be together so we got two rooms. The next morning we headed to the temples for the 4am sunrise! It's by far something you need to experience when ever you get the chance! The last time I did the temples we could have been passed my a turtle as we took forever to get through the temples managing only to see 4. This time I knew the trick was in and out before the crowds followed so we got to do 9 temples and basically have the places to ourselves! It was an awesome day and tomorrow we head to sihanoukville. Having had the interesting wet bed experience in Siem Reap we were pleasantly surprised with a nice hotel with three single beds and a pool right outside the door. We lavished the pool and took to our beds... Only to discover bed bugs!!! Now Cambodia has given me many obstacles over this past year but this by far takes the cake! After changing rooms we were so repelled that we packed up and left....only there was an even bigger issue, no other hotels had any vacancies because it was water festival!!! We spent 5 hours wandering helplessly. Our guardian angels, four guys working at a fancy hotel, let us rest in their prestige lobby while they searched the Internet for us to find us a place to sleep. Just when we were about to give up and accept being homeless, another angel came and said he'd found a place to stay and just down the road was a place we could have. We literally jumped for joy. The place had two single beds no bigger than a shoebox but it was something! So we slept for all of five hours before having to catch our boat to Koh Rong Saloem Island.

Island life took on a new positivity. It was calm and beautiful, but as it turned out NOT bug free. Either we brought the bed bugs with us or they already had them but krystal got eaten alive! This time we stuck it out so not to be homeless again and tried to focus on the little time we had left. We ate lots, swam even more, and snorkelled the days away. To wrap it all up with a nice little bow, we had the craziest boat on the way back to the mainland. Imagine splash mountain for three hours straight while in a bouncy castle... Then multiply by 100!!

Once home we took all the precautions necessary to rid ourselves of any bed bugs and we aggressively boiled everything we had on us!! Took two pots, one kettle, and three hours but we were finally clean and hopefully bug free!

To end their visit through Cambodia I finally got to do something I've been eager to do!! Cambodian traditional pictures!!! Krystal and Kim were good sports about it and agreed to partake in my obsession with this idea. So we set off to find a local studio that gives you the whole shebang! Hair! Makeup! Dresses! Awkward Poses! The works! I of course was in my glory while krystal and Kim proceeded to resemble line backers in Cambodian kilts! I will be keeping these on my mantle for all to see when they come to visit!

Well krystal and Kim definitely got to experience Cambodia at its prime, with the triumphs and tribulations it so happens to offer. But along with all that Cambodia throws at you its been my home for this past year and I'm so happy I got to share that with my sister!