First days in Cambodia

In the short time we've been in Cambodia I've fallen in love with the food. Plenty of rice, noodles and fresh vegetables...my perfect diet!  I used to think South and Central America had my favorite foods - beans, rice, plantains, ceviche. But, oh no, Cambodia has toppled them from their first place position...  Before we came, I had heard that being a pescaveggie here would be difficult, but I haven't found that to be true. I have also not had to order fish yet, purely vegetarian so far!

Today, we spent the day exploring parts of the Angkor Wat complex. We saw at least half a dozen temples of such detail, it makes you wonder how they tackled the intricate carvings and architecture in ancient times. We were in a tuk tuk all day traveling between the temples (one was 25k outside siem reap), and the open air helped to give us some relief from the oppressive heat and humidity. It's like the humidity of Florida combined with the extra strong and hot sun we get in Colorado.  However, if you're willing to brave this heat in the afternoon, the temples are deserted. This is the low season anyway, but they are almost ghost towns during the middle of the day.  And rightly so, did I mention it was hot?

We've found the Cambodian people warm, welcoming and sincere. They always have a greeting and a smile. It makes what we saw during our visit to the land mine museum that much harder to see and digest. People with missing limbs are not uncommon here, children and adults, from stepping on a landmine that was planted decades ago.  It takes only 11 lbs to trigger some mines. The enemy designed the smaller mines to injure but not kill, as it is more expensive to repair a person than to bury them.  Sad but true. 

Some pictures of our day:

Tom exploring. 

Driving through the countryside between temples. Even chacos are hot here, we needed a bare foot break!

Bridge to temple. The green and brown tones were striking in real life, the camera didn't quite capture the contrast. 

People still worship in some of the temples. 

Tree reclaiming the ruins

Enjoying a beer on the way back to our hotel.