3 Days in Siem Reap

4am Monday morning, 11 tired faces piled onto a bus ready to drive 7hrs to Seim Reap!

Bong Thom, Jarra, Loy, Saory, Navy, James, Josh, Sokhorn, Sotcheat, Samedy, and me!

I must have been really sleepy because the bus trip didn’t drag at all, everyone found a place to lie down, and some of us even slept on the floor of the bus on a few pillows! We would all get random burst of over tired energy, and then sleep again until we got to our destination.

Flooded Seim Reap!!
Possibly one of the funnest places I’ve visited, although the boys have noticed, every food, day, place, meal and restaurant here is my favorite.

When we got there the water was covering the streets about a foot deep, sometimes knee deep over most of Seim reep. But businesses, traffic, tuk tuks and moto's kept going like normal. Most shops had sandbags out the front and were built up higher than the road.

One of my favorite memories was when Sokhorn, James and I waded down the street, we saw a huge crowd of maybe 100 people hanging out near a flooded roundabout. They were going crazy splashing people going past, we joined in on the fun!  Someone would walk past and everyone would chase them down the street, splashing and laughing at them. At one stage they yelled out ‘barang’ (white person) and I got chased and covered in water!! I sat down on the edge of the road and a little boy came and sat himself on my lap to chat away to me in his vague English!

On the way back I saw a little boy floating in a small tin tub, pulled along by his brother… cute. Jame and I joined in when we saw them using a road bridge as a platform to jump off; jame floated all the way down to the next bridge in the river and then tried to climb up but a policeman told him he wasn’t allowed to even though he was being dragged under by the strong current in the water, he had to swim under the bridge and come up the other side!! 

The temples were incredible, your imagination is blown away by what was and could have been. Our guide ‘Buntin’ knew so much about the architecture and religious background, he cracked lame jokes that made us laugh (mostly crude) and joined in the fun, eating and hanging out with us. Bong Thom (Steve) added a little Bible background to every story and belief Buntin had. It made Solomon’s temple and the book of kings come alive a little more. Jarra and I wondered if Buddha was in fact Solomon. 

We visited this amazing waterfall in the mountains that we went swimming in, there were rocks everywhere, water crashing and spraying your face. The current was super strong; we somehow explored behind the waterfall, on these slippery mossy rocks, and got rescued various times from the rapids. 

I’m running out of time but in those three days I saw glow flies, thought Jarah was going to die, bartered until I didn’t care anymore, payed to go to a filthy toilet, saw endless amazing carvings and temples with trees growing out of them, made friends, learnt about yoni and linga architecture, ate and drank, danced and sang, learnt and shared.

Today I’m leaving kampuchea, I feel like I’m leaving my home! A big hug to all my friends I’ve only known for one month. I will miss you and never forget your beautiful way of life or the lessons you have taught me.

Much love and prayers

Sarah, Jame, Jarra and Josh.