Adventures in Cambodia: The Phare Circus, Pub Street, and Night Market

Aside from seeing the temples, my favorite part of trip to Cambodia was hanging out and shopping in the night market!  We went down there twice (once during the day and the other time during the night), and I could have gone at least 3 more times!  The market is filled with every souvenir imaginable, and for the most incredible prices!  We bought clothes, wooden carvings, magnets, and snakes in a jar :)  Our kids were in complete shopping heaven.  And, then there was the food and the massages!  We found a massage place in the market that was amazing.  Massages: $3 for 30 minutes or $5 for an hour!  We all got foot massages ($1 for 20 minutes), including Clara.  And she LOVED every second of it!  She is so funny; since going there, she keeps talking about wanting to go get massages.  Such a little princess!

We also did plenty of shopping and eating around Pub Street in downtown Siem Reap.  It's a really fun area with tons of restaurants, shops, massage places, and doctor fish tanks!  Peter and I had gotten a fish pedicure in Bali, but we decided to do it again in Cambodia, and the place we went to had much bigger fish!  And it was so much crazier!!!  I was dying laughing, or squealing/screaming actually.  It was crazy!  And, sadly, all of my photos from the fish pedicure are missing, so I only have this screenshot from my instagram!

The other really amazing thing we did was going to see the Phare Circus.  It was an acrobatic circus show, not unlike Cirque du Soleil, but without all the crazy stage production.  The performers were incredible!  And the whole story behind the circus was even more amazing.  Phare not only is a circus, but they also have a school that serves underprivileged Cambodian youth.  The circus is actually an appendage of the school, and the performers are employed graduates and students.  The show was nothing short of amazing!  Well worth the money.  I'd highly recommend going!

Cambodia was, hands down, one of the most beautiful and astounding places I have ever visited!  I don't think there's anywhere else in the world just like it!  We had such an incredible time--I am truly grateful for the opportunities that we've had to travel since living here.  I had never imagined that I'd visit Cambodia and some of these other Southeastern Asian countries, but I feel fuller now that I have!

Adventures in Cambodia: Tonle Sap Floating Village and Angkor Balloon

Our last day in Cambodia was probably my least favorite day . . . Still really cool and we saw some amazing things, but I wouldn't have been heartbroken had we not done these two things.  

First up, we went out to Tonle Sap Lake to see the floating fishing village.  The reviews for going to see Tonle Sap Lake were pretty mixed, with a lot of negative reviews, and overall I think I'd probably agree with them.  Going out on the boat felt very touristy, and the people running the operation were the only rude people that we'd come across the entire time we'd been in Cambodia.  Then, out on the lake, there wasn't much to see, and the locals didn't seem to love the intrusion of the tourists, which is understandable.  We were taken to a large floating dock that had some alligators in a cage in the water (they called it an alligator farm), some fish, and a large boa that Peter held for a few pictures (and a few dollars).  And . . . that was pretty much it!  We enjoyed the boat ride, but it was not an activity that I'd recommend friends to do when visiting Cambodia.

After the lake and eating lunch, we went to go up for a ride in the Angkor Balloon.  The Angkor Balloon is like hot air balloon, but it is tethered to the ground, so you just go straight up and then back down.  We'd driven by the property a several times throughout our trip, and since we had time our last day, we decided to give it a go.  We knew that it would be short (and quite expensive), but we wanted to see the amazing views of Angkor Wat.  It was indeed beautiful, but again, I wouldn't have been too upset had we skipped the balloon ride . . . That being said, I think Peter really enjoyed it--or at least being able to get some great photos of Angkor Wat and the Cambodian countryside, and our kids loved it as well.

Adventures in Cambodia: Angkor Wat Half Marathon

As I previously mentioned, our trip to Cambodia was put into motion as a result of our friends, Peter, and I signing up to run the Angkor Wat Half Marathon.  Never having been a strong runner, this was a huge challenge for me--before this race, I had never run more than 3.5 miles before!  I began training the end of the summer and ran very consistently up through the beginning of December until we left for Cambodia.  And, after months and hundreds of miles, I have to say . . . I still do not love running!  Ha!!!  But, it was a great goal, and really helped me to stay fit over the last several months.  I felt myself getting stronger, both mentally and physically with each training run (especially the long ones), which was worth all the effort in itself.  

The race was awesome.  It was in one of the most beautiful and incredible settings in the world . . . but it was HOT.  The race was supposed to start at 6:00am, but we didn't end up actually taking off until about 6:40!  With every passing minute, I just kept getting more and more stressed about having to run that much longer in the heat of the day!  Almost all of my training runs to prepare for the race had been at 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning in Japan throughout the fall, meaning that I was used to running in temperatures in the 40s or 50s and in a much, much dryer climate.  Combine that with then spending the two days before the race walking, hiking, and sightseeing in 90+ degree heat and very high humidity, and I pretty much set myself up for a rude awakening on race day!  And that's pretty much what happened!  I was hot and hurting!!!  But, I eventually made it to the finish line, and even though my time wasn't as good as it had been in my training, I did it!  I ran a half marathon, something that I never thought in a million years I'd be able to do!

Peter was awesome.  He felt great and was entirely supportive and in great spirits.  He took tons of pictures throughout the race; I especially love the ones of the local kids that came and lined up along the race route to watch.

Adventures in Cambodia: More Temples, Hiking, and the Land Mine Museum

More sightseeing in Cambodia!  Day 2 brought 2 more temples!  The first was Prea Rup:

Next, we visited Banteay Sray:

After the temples, we grabbed lunch, and then, as if we hadn't been walking enough over the past 2 days, and hadn't sweat out every ounce of our body water, we decided to go on a 2.5 hour hike!  What were we thinking, especially the day before our race???  We weren't thinking apparently!  

We thought it would all be worth it once we got to the waterfall at the top.  Except that it ended up being this:  

SERIOUSLY!  We were all dying.  But, then, we started walking back DOWN alongside the river and we found this:

Much better!  Then everyone cooled off :)

From the hike, we then headed over to the Land Mine Museum.   It was really sobering to read about Cambodia's history and the US (among many other countries) involvement in such horrific events.  I hope that visits to places like this help my family understand the importance of being responsible world citizens and loving human beings.  

And back to our tuk tuk.  I think one of my favorite parts of this trip was just having a chance to ride on the tuk tuk through the fields and villages.  Cambodia is so beautiful and it was fascinating to see the country this way!  The photos are a bit blurry, since we were moving, but I don't want to forget this amazing place!