I think we were over the whole Southeast Asia scene after Thailand….or maybe I was. The smells infuriated my nostrils, I had trouble eating the local cuisine and the people, well everything was up for barter and usually not in your favor. But Cambodia, Cambodia at first was terrifying.

After realizing our bags had been pilfered through on one of the busses it was too late. I had a feeling in the pit of my tummy that the girl behind us was up to no good and I was correct. I told Daniel to be a little more aware, but we dozed off and got got. Luckily for us as Daniel pointed out she had to be the nicest thief ever. She didn’t take all our money and left us with 20$. Even though I was furious I just had to laugh at how Daniel thinks. After all this we managed to make it to the train station to catch a third class train to the border of Cambodia. It was going to arrive around 7 PM and we heard rumor that the train normally arrives later than 7 which would leave us very little wiggle room to reach the border to Cambodia as it closes at 8 PM.
The train was hot, and crowded and the sweat from you legs, back and arms cause you to stick to the seats. Every five minutes there was someone running through the cart selling some food and drinks. The nailbeds of most people on the train were dark and dirty, we soon learned why. The breeze didn’t come until the sun began to set and with it came the bugs but you had to sacrifice one over the other, we went with keeping the window opened. Daniel’s white shirt had turned black. My face had accumulated dirt on it. Both of our pants looked like they hadn’t been washed in 6 months. The closer to the border we got the dirtier we got. Dirt just seeped into the train. It became hard to breath at one point because there was so much smog.

It’s dark outside, you can hear the wings of bugs as they fly past your ear. There are a total of five people including the two of us left on the train. We all get up to exit. Confused, as there are no signs for Cambodia. We go to the front of the train station. There are a few tuk tuk drivers sitting outside, bargaining now will do no good if we can’t find another tuk tuk as the gates to Cambodia are soon to close. We paid $3 to get to the border. At the border we paid $30 a piece to get our visas. But you have to be very careful, they try to swindle you for more and will give you the wrong visa if you don’t pay attention.

It was late by the time we stepped foot in Cambodia. You could still see that Poipet was an ugly place. There was gambling everywhere, garbage everywhere and the drug cartel ran Poipet. The only form of transportation was a “taxi”and again run by the mafia. The buses stop running after 7 and there were only Cambodians who had their cars that were able to take you to where you needed to go. The “taxi’s” didn’t have a meter or any signage indicating they were proper taxis, only drivers standing beside their cars asking where you needed to go. After spending an hour trying to negotiate the fare price unsuccessfully and a rude comment made from a Cambodian we decided to take camp in Poipet until morning when we knew we could catch a shuttle for a set price. We found a place for $9 a night for a room. It had signs everywhere that stated no guns, prostitutes, drugs or grenades. In the room it had signs saying that if there was blood on any of the towels, rugs, or bed sheets that they would charge additional money for that. However I doubt they could enforce it. I began to question the decision to come to Cambodia, at first glance it was really ugly. We were tired, and filthy from the train. So we showered and slept to prepare for tomorrow.
The shuttle was very straight forward, and the people there also managed to swindle money from some travelers.

We finally arrived in Siem Reap. A wonderful little place. The country is poor, so naturally the price for things are very cheap and a lot cheaper than Thailand.
Daniel and I had fallen into routine spicy cheese and egg omelet with a heaping of vegetable fried rice for $1 in the morning followed by fresh fruit smoothie for $1 from a local stand on pub street. Pub street was chalked with western looking restaurants and tourists. It’s where everyone went at night. At night pub street was booming with music. Two clubs across the street from each other booming different music as if they were in competition to find out who can blast theirs louder. Not always the most enjoyable but after awhile you begin to not notice. Everywhere you go in Cambodia poverty is obvious, but especially in the touristy areas. We encounter girls as young as 13 with children in their arms asking you to buy them milk for their children. We later inquired why the children are so docile, they don’t cry yet alone barely move. They drug the babies so they don’t cry and are easier to handle while the supposed moms are out walking around asking for money. We also met a little bundle of joy naked Linda who was independent and self motivated. Every night she would stay out trying to sell bracelets she made in order to put herself through school. She didn’t want any handouts even though we offered she said she would rather earn her money than have anything given to her. Siem Reap was a beautiful surprise. While in Siem reap we visited the Angkor Wat temples- they were beautiful but after the fourth one you’re ready to call it a day. It’s amazing what tourism can do to an economy just 2 years ago the tickets were only 5$ and now they are 20 bucks a pop. We came up with this crazy idea to create our own country and build ancient temples, we could make a fortune. While in Siem Reap we met up with a good friend who had been traveling for over 8 months, it was good to see a familiar face, although it made me a little homesick. I love you ma I miss you tear tear o yea I miss you other knuckleheads too.

We decided it was time to leave Siem Reap and head to Sihanoukville. We didn’t spend long in Sihanoukville as it was just a stop over until the island koh rong. But Sihanoukville was terribly boring, and it appeared that all people did was smoke pot- not something Daniel nor I are interested in doing. Although drugs in Cambodia are illegal it appears everyone does it. It’s rumored that the cartel pay off the police so that people can do drugs without being bothered.

Koh Rong, an island where water buffalo run wild and vipers rampant. We were warned of snakes, rats and sand flies and the soothing relief coconut oil can provide to bites and the prevention thereof from the flies the first day we arrived. Koh Rong was filled with tourists who littered the beaches but on rare occasions you could find a clean stretch. Our room was cheap and provided us with a bug net to keep the mosquitoes away. At night it got very hot and the power would go out at 2 AM and come back on in the morning. It also would go off at 10 AM for 2 hours. The entire island ran on a generator. Daniel and I would go for swims while it was still dark as it was too hot to sleep. At night you could see fluorescent yellows and greens as you splash in the water. It was magical. The disturbance of the phytoplankton caused an emission of light. This became our routine for the time we spent on Koh Rong. We spent the majority of our days relaxing, but one day we decided to take a boat out and visit the other surrounding islands which captivated us. The islands were primitive and it forces you to live in a time unimaginable to me, when my parents grew up. It was refreshing no wifi no phone connection, and barely any electricity. It forces you outside of your comfort zone you aren’t able to hide behind a phone or computer screen you have to interact with people face to face. Luckily Daniel and I are both talkers so this wasn’t a problem.

Daniel and I decided that our time on Koh Rong was coming to an end and headed to Vietnam.

First, we’d like to apologize for not having posted anything in a few days. Our days have been full and our mortal bodies tired, and we haven’t had access to wifi for a few days. Below you will find a very long blog about that past few days, but first, a shoutout to Tamsin Woolley back in the states : HAPPY 25TH BIRTHDAY TAMSIN!!! From Italy

From Florence

From our friend Ayoib in Venice

Our straps digging deep into our skin, rubbing back and forth, our breath hurried, little beads of sweat start rolling down our face. The sun is beaming down on us as we run to catch our bus 246 to the metro from camp Roma. As we enter the bus from the back we’re greeted by a young minister sitting down smiling, you can see a glimmer of laughter in his eyes, but we made it. In our rush we passed another backpacker- only to meet him again at the metro. I guess we didn’t need to run to catch the bus because the next one came right after. He was slender with fair features typical for a German. He told us of a hostel he recently stayed at in Florence right off Michelangelo (our next destination). He mentioned that it was cheap and in a beautiful location, so we made it our next stay to spend the night.

We arrive at the termini or main train station only to be confused by more jibber jabber, we haven’t picked up as much Italian as we’d like. We get lost in a sea of people waiting for their ticket number to come up on the screen so that they can purchase their tickets. It took an hour wait for us to finally decide to skip the line to purchase our train ticket for Florence. I was somewhat disappointed in our purchase of the eurail pass because the train was not free although discounted, it cost 10 euros each. I’ m beginning to wonder if there really is an advantage to buying the eurail pass.

When you see Roma, it is not what you envision Italy to be, it’s crowded, there’s a lot of history but not much character, lots of tourist, there’s no magic in the city, no passion. But Florence, Florence is exactly what we thought Italy would be, lots of character, and romance, the people had a little more laugh to them. The buildings looked vintage with lots of browns and beiges, the streets are narrow, and all the cars are small, ranging from the size of a smart car to a Toyota yaris. Street parking seems to be very difficult as there are very few spaces available due to the many cars parked on the side of the road. There’s so little space that they have cars parked on the bridge, going the length of the entire bridge.

We catch bus 12 from the train station to our camp Michelangelo where we are greeted by an amazing view of Florence from the top of the countryside. We immediately cross the street captivated by the view and forget to look both ways and almost became a bug on a windshield. We took a few pictures and we both instantaneously said this is the Italy we imagined in our dreams. After we sat quiet for a few more moments taking in the breathtaking scenery we started our walk to our campsite. With a little trepidation when we arrived at the campsite we decided to go with the more cost effective option, only by a few euros, and pitch our own tent. If it was up to me I think I would have spent the extra money and stayed in a tent they provided. For a simple tent it seemed to be a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle. The tent only came with 3 parts: the tent, the poles that support the tent, and the stakes to anchor it to the ground. It took us an exhausting hour to figuring out how to make our tent stand. The camp grounds were filled with rocks, which did not make for a very comfortable sleep as the stones kept poking through the underbelly of the tent. And the bugs, especially the Mosquitos, in Italy are relentless. After we finished pitching our tent at 18:20 we decided to venture out and see all that Florence had to offer. We hopped on the first bus we saw and decided to get off on a random stop. We ended up getting off close to the the center of the city and decided to see the Boboli garden and Piazza Pitti. After getting lost a few times and then stopping to decide which restaurant to dine in we arrived at the gardens, only to our disappointment that it closed just minutes before we arrived. We tried to sneak in the back way, but the security caught us at the last possible moment before we were inside. We were only able to catch a glimpse of a piece of art that we snapped a quick photo of before being shooed out. We then sat outside the garden on a sloping hill that was picturesque of Italy. We laid talking for about an hour before our stomachs started to join in on the conversation . On our way in we noticed a place that was relatively cheap and could fit our penny saver budget, samosas and gyros for dinner.

As we lay in our tent to rest our heads for the night we are surrounded by a barrage of noise, if it wasn’t the music coming from the club Flo right next door or the cars driving on the road ten feet away from us, it was the metal clinking of some construction going on near by. Our rest not the most peaceful, but we woke the next morning with the knowing ache that we were leaving this beautiful city for Venice.

Tid bit for the day: When I have good ideas, they’re bad ideas, but then somehow my “bad” ideas become her good ideas an hour later.

Day 1 in Rome after what seemed to be a much longer journey than it was, we sit here in one of 99 tents resting before we continue the tour of this wonderful city but first- a nap…..zzzzzzzzz