Veggies, Fruit, Coffee, and Friendship!

Really?  Who could ask for anything more?!  

Truchen had me over for a VERY healthy dinner and a movie tonight... but we scratched the movie when we realized we had lots to talk about!  There's never a dull moment between the two of us, and 4 and a half hours went by in what seemed like a second, probably 1/2 due to the copious amounts of coffee that we inhaled!!  I was up until 3:30am, wired, like a 10 year old girl on her birthday!! 

I'm sooo lucky to have met Truchen here in Korea and am really glad we live so close and are able to have coffee dates together so often!  I love this girl! :) 

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Aaron update # 4

I've talked to Aaron a couple times since my last post... but decided to wait and compile all the info into one post.

So, they arrived in Battambang yesterday afternoon, after a 7 hour, packed boat ride.  They sat on the deck of the boat and said they were smooshed the whole time!  The boat was supposed to hold about 30, but the boat would stop at every city along the way and pick up more people!  Aaron said there were at least 60 on board by the end of the trip!  Gotta love Cambodian transportation!

When they got into Battambang, they headed over to a restaurant where Aaron said there were over 200 menu items... the biggest menu he'd ever seen!!  Sweet irony that the 2 of them both ended up ordering the same exact thing... Pineapple Chicken!  He said Battambang is way less touristy than Siem Reap, and they're not being hounded by the local kids begging for them to buy postcards or other touristy items.  They're both enjoying the laid-back-ness of the city!

Today they woke up early, took a tuk tuk to see the fruit bats, which are a local delicacy in the region!  Yes, Battambang locals eat bat, along with fried taranchula! mmm

Then they headed over to Wat Banan temple, which is perched on a 400m high hill and reached only by climbing up 359 stairs!  It's actually even older than the temples surrounding Angkor Wat and was originally built between 1050-1066.  It's still used as a Buddhist shrine.

After exploring Wat Banan, they headed over to the killing caves on Phnom Sampeau mountain. The cave is the site where lots of people were killed by the Khmer Rouge. The bones and skulls were collected and exhibited in a cage as a monument.  

There is a place, in the mountain, where they could see where children were thrown into the deep cave, their bone splinters still visible to this day. 

On a lighter note, they took the famous bamboo train, "the norry" for about 40 minutes through town!  Despite the long civil war in Cambodia, the 1930s railway tracks around Battambang are surprisingly still pretty usable. There is a REAL train which goes between Phenom Penh and Battambang once a week, but during the rest of the week, the locals use these bamboo platform trains to carry goods, people, motorbikes and sometimes a cow or 2 to the next small town, moving 35-40km per hour!  Leave it to these creative and innovative people to use what they have to create something useful for themselves!

The bamboo train is a 4x2 meter platform, powered by a small generator motor on a fan belt! Aaron said that when another bamboo train appeared on their same track, coming towards them, the driver would cut the power and the "train" would slow down very quickly.  Everyone got off and the driver lifted the structure and removed the axles from the track and re-assembled it on the other side of the oncoming train.   The rule of thumb is... the one with the most passengers gets the right of way!  Fair enough! 

This afternoon they are taking a 6 hour bus ride to Phenom Penn!  Not too sure what they'll be doing there, but they both seemed to be really excited about it!

I'm off to a girl night at Truchen's place!  :)

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It's gettin' hot in here!

Since I came back from the Philippines, it's been unbearably hot and humid in my apartment, so I gave in and decided to start using my ghetto air conditioner!

Why is it "ghetto?" you ask! 

Well, for one, it doesn't kick enough cold air into my 221 sq ft apartment to cool it off, so I have to pair it with a standing fan!  Secondly, it drips water down the wall, which is making the white wallpaper turn brown...  It can ONLY be turned on by a remote control (which luckily I am good about always putting in the exact same place on my nightstand.)

... and instead of having the actual generating part of the air conditioner outside of my building, or on the rooftop, it's hanging on the wall in my sunroom... complete with a tube that carries the dripping water into this gigantic water bottle, which I then have to lift and empty out my window everyday or it will overflow!

I'd like to meet the person who thought this would be a good idea!

Aaron Update # 3

I stayed up nice and late tonight, waiting to hear from Aaron!  I'll be honest... I thought I was little Ms. Independent, and figured I'd manage just fine while he was away, but I really miss having him around!

He sent me 5 pictures to share with you guys, but they're downloading as text files... so he's gonna try re-sending them tomorrow morning.

He said the temples were amazing, and they were the first ones to enter Angkor Wat this morning to watch the sunrise!!  He said the first 1/2 hour was just the 3 of them, and they were able to walk around, explore, and take pictures without tourists ruining their views!  But then, when the crowds came, they REALLY came!  

Today, they went to Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Bayon and two other small temples. 

After the temple adventure, the 3 of them all went back to the hotel for a long afternoon nap, since none of them had had much sleep since leaving for the trip!  Aaron and Sam went over to the city center in Siem Reap for some cheap dinner at a street stall, where they ate fried noodles and veggies for $1.50 and 2 angkor beers for .50 cents each!  Great for people traveling on a budget!   

Aaron said the town of Siem Reap is pretty touristy, so they are going to catch a boat from Siem Reap to Batambang tomorrow morning at 6:00am.  The boat travels along this river, through "the floating city," and takes about 6 hours!   Hope they brought their Dramamine pills!

 More pictures to come... stay tuned!

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Aaron Update # 2

I got to talk with Aaron last night on skype, which was great!  Here's a little update for ya:

He and Sam met each other in the airport in Bangkok. I think it had been about 4 years since they saw each other last (I think).  Anyway, they took a 4 hour (air conditioned) bus ride from Bangkok to the border of Cambodia at 7:00am, and spent most of the ride catching up on life.  Then they transferred to a shuttle bus in Cambodia, which took them to a nearby town where they caught a 2 hour taxi to Siem Reap, YES, 2 HOURS in a taxi!  Luckily, they met a cool Italian guy named Marco, who shared the taxi with them, and a 1/3 of the bill!  The 3 of them are staying in a guesthouse in Siem Reap called Two Dragons (And yes Mom, they have a website, so you can read all about it!  You know you're going to!)

The 3 of them had traditional Cambodian food for dinner together in Siem Reap and got to bed nice and early, since they're planning to get over to Angkor Wat tomorrow morning to see both the sunrise (5:00am) and sunset from the temples (weather pending)!  It was stormy when we talked on skype.  So cross your fingers for good weather!

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