Sihanoukville, Cambodia and my final days in SE Asia...

I can't believe it's already December 9th! I guess it's true that time flies when you're having fun. I'm spending my last couple days in a city called Sihanoukville in the southern most part of Cambodia. It's definitely a place to end the trip of a lifetime. Sihanoukville is a small town with beaches and backpackers from around the world. Let me rewind a few days...we left Siem Reap for the capital city of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. Like I said in my previous post, Cambodia and especially it's capital city are still making there way out of the Khmer Rogue genocide. Much of the buildings are newer because the previous ones had been destroyed. I went to one if the killing fields that were used during the genocide. Pretty incredible that Cambodia is bouncing back from something so tragic. When we arrived in Phnom Penh a lot of the guesthouses were filled up but we finally found one thanks to our tuk tuk driver. It was a new place only about a week old. The owner invited Alec and I to play soccer that night at a park with some guys. Of course we played. A bit out of shape from traveling we both scored a couple goals. After a few days in the capital city we jumped on our bus to Sihanoukville. We've just been beach bumming it here the past couple days. They have a 24 hour cinema here owned by a California man from San Francisco. The cinema is different than from back home. He has about 6 small rooms where you can lay on the floor and pick from his list of thousands of movies. Pretty cool guy. I'm going to the cinema at mid night to have a beer and watch the 49ers game that starts here at 4 am. My time in SE Asia is coming to an end. I can't say enough about the countries I've visited and seen over the past 3 months. This has definitely opened my eyes to so many different cultures and lifestyles. I don't want to stop traveling just yet. I'm hoping to save up money back home and explore Central America in the next few months. The amount of stuff I've learned here is priceless. I want to see and learn more. I don't feel like I'm done yet. The world is too big. We are flying back home from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It was a lot cheaper than flying out if Bangkok. Another day in Vietnam will be nice to end the trip. One more day in a big city. Gotta go soak up some more sun before its gone. I forget to tell you, I got a pedicure on the beach yesterday haha. I'll put a picture up of it. Until next time...love

The 4,000 islands and Cambodia...

Traveling through Laos was much different than Thailand and Vietnam. Laos has a slower pace. The biggest city only has 200,000 people and most of the country is covered in dense jungle. We finished our time in Laos by visiting a place called the 4,000 islands. It's at the very southern part of Laos on the border of Cambodia. We stayed on a small island called Don Det. It was small, maybe 2 square miles. We rode bikes around the island during the day and went to a raggae bar at night. After a few days on Don Det it was time to cross the border into Cambodia. We took a bus into central Cambodia to a city called Siem Reap. Fantastic city. One of my favorites so far! The night market is filled with people and there is a famous pub street next to it. The first couple days we walked around and checked out the night life and grabbed some food. You can pay in dollars or the Cambodian currency called Riel. I got change back last night in both dollars and Riel. Today was a big day! We woke up at 5:30 to ride bikes down to Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat is a Buddhist temple from the 13th century. It's big. The biggest religious building in the world. I'll put pics up. Oh ya before I forget to tell you...we were riding our bikes around Angkor Wat and saw monkeys playing in the trees. We got off our bikes and walked towards them. It was the craziest thing. A couple of the young ones came right up to us. We biked around 15 miles today on old bikes we rented for $1. My butt hurts from the seat haha. But on a serious note Angkor Wat was the most remarkable thing I've seen in SE Asia. If you have a second you should google it. I slacked this last week on writing to you guys. But I'll keep it updated in my travels through Cambodia. I love this country. It's filled with so much pride and heart. If you don't know Cambodia has recently come out of a huge genicide called Khmer Rogue. It ended about 15 years ago. It destroyed the country. Led by a man Pol Pot who killed 1.7 million people. Google it. Very interesting country too visit. I'm not sure if we're leaving today or tomorrow. It's 9:30 am here and I'm going to grab some breakfast. An omelette sounds so good right now. I'm super excited its going to be Christmas time when I come home. My favorite time of the year! Love you guys and thanks to everyone who reads my blog and has followed me along my trip. Until next time...love