Hello from Kampuchea (Cambodia)!

I'm on the second last day of my 8 day trip here, and it's been a great experience. Cambodia isn't nearly as popular as it's neighbouring countries Vietnam and Thailand, but perhaps that's a good thing. Nevertheless, there are still a lot of tourists, and even more so during the Chinese New Year.

In short, our days were broken into the following: 2 days in Phnom Penh, 3 days in Siem Reap (where the famous temples of Angkor are), 2 days in Sihanoukville, and 1 day in Phnom Penh.

Khmer food is pretty good, and sort of a mix between the foods around Indochina. The best thing is probably being able to have really good meals at only $2.50 US/person. But not every restaurant is that cheap... especially those that realize they can get more from tourists. We've gone for 3 massages, which range from $4US - $6US/hr... not bad. I think we've mentally scheduled another massage for tomorrow as well.

Angkor's temples (Angkor Wat, Bayon, Ta Phrom, etc.) were excellent. We spent 2 full days visiting those - we had a 3-day pass. There're plenty of things to take pictures of. Between 3 digital cameras, we'll probably be just shy of 3000 photos altogether. Pretty crazy.

Khmers (the Cambodian people) are generally quite nice. There are a lot of peddlers, motobike taxis (motodups), tuk tuks (a carriage pulled by a motobike), and kids selling all sorts of things. Of course, I think we've done a good job in negotiations, and we're probably paying much less for everything we spend money on than many foreigners -- most of whom probably don't care how much they spent. Damn foreigners. :P We picked up Lonely Planet Vietnam ($5 US), Thailand ($5), and Laos ($2.5) for future trips as well... copies, yes, but very good copies. I also bought a few other Cambodian books for $4 US... books that would normally sell for $30, $40 if they were "real". Party on for bargaining.

So, that's my quick update. Will write more when I return to Taiwan.