Cambodia - Need to gain weight?

We took so many pictures and had such a great time, that we could go on and on about our trip and how great the Cambodian people are. But time marches on, and China is still crazy, so we'll just share the rest of our photos with you. I know it's like watching our family slide show, but at least you can leave whenever you want!

And now, in no particular orders, the rest of our trip photos:

Here we have a cat laid out for a nap in front of our hotel room in Battambang. Even the cats are happy and relaxed here!







Tiffany cannot stay away from any animals. Here she befriends one of the elephants.











I prefer the more static version, as it's less likely to bite....






Dawn approaches at Angkor Wat. It's difficult to explain, but it is a magical and spiritual experience to watch the sun rise amidst those ancient, towering spires, surrounded by the lush, silent jungle.

Later in the day, tourists clambered up to the top of another temple to witness a beautiful sunset.







This mysterious old temple surrounded by water reflected its image so clearly it looked like it had a twin resting below the water.










The temples were mostly built around 1200, and subsequently lost in the jungles of Cambodia to man, resulting in their remarkable preservation.

The best way to see the temples in Siem Riep, which includes the famous Angkor Wat, is by tuk-tuk, which is a cute little car pulled by motorbike. So we rented one for the day with a very nice driver who spoke excellent English. Here is Tiffany in our tuk-tuk talking with some kids.

The steps to climb the temples were unbelievably steep, and it was closer to rock climbing than step climbing. The narrow, worn away steps left a lot to be desired.....especially for American-sized feet!













Here is our (barely) seaworthy vessel on which we spent 6 1/2 hours put-putting down the river to get from Siem Reap to Battambang. I saw someone reading Heart of Darkness -- I'm glad it was daytime because otherwise that would have scared me...






The river cruise went through a wildlife preservation area and the route was full of families living right on the water.




















Here are our photos from Battambang. There was a boat race down the main river in town that weekend, and it seemed like the whole town turned out to root them on, with families lining the riverbanks on picnic blankets to cheer, and of course semi- to fully naked kids running wild everywhere, jumping off the main bridge and crowding around Tiffany to have their picture taken.

















We had a gorgeous hotel room in Battambang in an old, restored colonial house with only six rooms.









Tiffany surprised me with a cooking class in Battambang. We went to the market with the owner of the restaurant and he showed us around, pointing out various ingredients and revealing tricks of the trade, like how chicken sellers will inject their chickens with water to make them look more plump! All the ingredients were incredibly fresh; he told us that all the meat for sale was killed that morning. This was not a class for the faint of heart or animal lovers. Cambodians are way too poor to enjoy the luxury of debating animal rights. Anyway, we purchased all the ingredients and headed back to the restaurant where we pounded spices and herbs into a curry paste in a mortar. Wow, what a workout! And this is what they do every day. I got tired after five minutes and tried to convince Tiffany to finish mine (unsuccessfully). Then we each got to cook up three different dishes in woks. After all that cooking, we settled in for a well deserved meal. It was amazing. Most of the dishes only required a few minutes in the wok, so the ingredients came out still fresh and tasty! Hands down, the food in Cambodia far exceeded our expectations and led to a 5 pound weight gain for me. I guess that was my Cambodia souvenir, a full and happy belly!














Here are some leftover shots from Phnom Penh, the bustling capital city.




Survival of the fittest - tiny kids hold on for dear life or risk flying off the back of bicycles. And with only one stoplight in Phnom Penh, we amazingly didn't see any accidents our whole time there. There was truly a method to their madness!



We stopped by the Foreign Correspondents Club in Phnom Penh a few times, to enjoy their balcony view of the river, tasty drinks, and amazing Cambodia photos collected over the years by journalists.










Tiffany claims to have befriended this water buffalo. He looks kind of pissed to me...













All in all, the trip was fantastic, and as exhausted as we are from the 4:30 AM wake-up calls to catch boats and sunrises, we're looking forward to planning our next Asian adventure!